On FamilyTreemaker and the End of Genealogy

I’ll start with a comment that I posted to my personal Facebook wall in response to the Ancestry.com anncouncement regarding the FamilyTreeMaker software program:

Ok people. Let’s get real. It’s not like Ancestry.com destroyed an entire census or anything. It’s software. It will work after they stop selling it. You have not been abandoned and left alone in the wilderness to fend for yourself or starve. Personally I only “used” Family Tree Maker for a few years so I could provide general suggestions on how to use it. That was it. I got off the constant upgrade money pit decades ago. Mom didn’t raise a fool.

Download the images you need. Write up your conclusions in a word processing format. Get your head out of the clouds and put your feet back on the ground. Download your data, find other software and get back to your research. Problem solve….that’s how dead people are found.

Your ancestors who had no indoor plumbing, no electricity, no refrigeration, no modern medicine, fewer clothes, and less conveniences are thinking that they spawned a bunch of whiners.

I feel better now.

Software vendors make no guarantees that their software will be around forever. That “legal stuff” you clicked right past as you installed the software? That is the license agreement and the terms of use. It contained quite a bit of information that you probably thought didn’t apply to you because you weren’t going to ever touch the “source code” and had no intention of stealing the software to create you own. You only wanted to store information on your ancestors. Well those terms did apply to you. Nowhere did it say that the software would be around for generations and run on any computing platform ever designed. That’s not how software works.

Sometimes genealogists are like teenagers. When something “bad” happens, they think it’s the first time it ever happened and that the world will end. And a few bloggers and writers act like it will because that generates traffic to their website. The genealogical world will not end and most of us will go right on researching.

This is nothing new. Years ago I used WordStar. I loved WordStar. I still remember some of the formatting commands from WordStar. WordStar bit the dust years ago. Again, that’s how software works. It’s got a finite lifespan. I migrated data files in that format to more modern formats before it was too late. There is a long list of software that I have used that is no longer published or supported.

My preference is to have my genealogical data on my own computer using software and an interface that does not require me to have an internet connection. All I need is power and my computer. I use the cloud as an additional place to access and store my information and I use the internet as a place to publish files and information as “cousin bait.”

I do not use the cloud as the only place to store my data. I do not use the cloud as the place for “data processing.”

You must be proactive in doing what you can to protect and preserve your genealogical information.

The software companies are about selling software. Upgrades is how they continue the revenue chain.

The database companies are about getting subscribers to their service. Hooking you on the data is how they continue the revenue chain.

The cloud hosting companies are about getting subscribers to their service.

Their goals do not always mesh with those of the individual genealogist.

 

 

 

 

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16 thoughts on “On FamilyTreemaker and the End of Genealogy

  1. Theresa Dewhurst says:

    It would be interesting to know how many people use FTM as their primary program. Many in the genealogical community didn’t even use a computer until they realized how it could serve them in their genealogical record keeping. Family Tree Maker was the ideal program for them to start with.
    I do wonder how long any of our programs will continue to function, as computer systems keep changing, or software authors grow older and decide to retire. It seems short sighted on the part of Ancestry.com to continue to alienate customers.

    • Software vendors saw upgrades and “improvements” as a way to increase their bottom line and because of that did what they could to encourage customer loyalty and reliance on the software. For some by the time they realized there were other options, they felt they had invested too much time in FTM to go to something else. The revenue stream from FTM likely is not what it once was and Ancestry.com has decided to focus its energy elsewhere.

    • I have used FTM for about 14 or so years. I actually really like the earlier versions only and although I was sucked in to buy a few of those upgrades I didn’t like them so I reverted back to the old versions which weren’t linked to Ancestry. I like the program so I’ll continue to use it.

  2. Susan Wallace Masse says:

    I was heavily invested in The Master Genealogist, still the best program out there! However, when they announced they were no longer going to maintain the software, I switched in a heart beat. I keep back up copies, including hard copies, of everything. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Changes in hardware and software are inevitable. Keep up or else! If you can’t handle the fast pace of change, pencil and paper still get the job done. I love my software (all of it, not just genealogy databases) but I can also live without it.

    • That’s a good attitude. One has to realize that no software is everlasting and that one needs to keep one’s options open.

  3. Well said, Michael. Maybe now that FamilyTreemaker is being discontinued, people calling for paperless genealogy will start to reconsider their stance. I’ve never had FTM because I use the free versions of Roots Magic and Legacy. I have multiple backups for my genealogy research: paper, hard drive, the cloud and my blog. I never put my eggs all in one basket.

    • This probably won’t be enough to keep things from the move to paperless. What it will make some (but not all) do is realize that they need to have multiple ways to handle and manage their data. You are spot on about not putting all your genealogy eggs in one basket.

  4. Thank you for being a voice of reason…I had very similar thoughts upon reading just a handful of the comments on the FTM article posted by Kendall Hulet for Ancestry.com. I’ve used FTM for close to a decade – never upgraded, was considering getting the newest version as I switched from an XP machine (also out-dated!!) to a Win8 machine. I’ve never ‘synced’ my files with Ancestry’s online tree, but preferred to built that/those tree/s separately for many reasons. Doing that also helped me to re-verify information as I was adding thus correcting any errors along the way. In my desktop (FTM) tree, I will include “potentials” in appropriate places with appropriate notes, but I WILL NOT do that on Ancestry where it is open to public viewing. As my first FTM has lasted me close to a decade, I may still consider ‘upgrading’ to the latest version – whether it’s ‘supported’ beyond 2017 or not.

  5. As an Ancestry and FTM person, I had just left my subscription lapse to try some others, like MyHeritage for next year. This is encouraging me to reorganize, do over everything. Now I am pondering the many varieties out there so I don’t reinvent the wheel with multiple families on my computer’s software, online databases, backup systems, etc. It’s a huge domino effect as one begats something else. It’s time to try new things, the only questions are which things in which order?

  6. HI!
    YEP YOU ARE CORRECT. THERE ARE OTHER SOFTWARES OUT THERE…BUT TO THOSE OF USE WHO HAVE BEEN OUT WITH FTM SINCE THE BEGINNING, AND ARE TRYING TO FINISH A “BUCKET LIST,” THIS IS LIKELY TO MAKE THE BUCKET LIST LESS ACHIEVABLE.

    TO THOSE OF US WHO HAVE TRIED TO “HOOK” YOUNG CHILDREN ON TO GENEALOGY AND HAVE DONE EVERYTHING FROM HAVING THEM SPIT INTO A TEST TUBE TO CREATING THEIR OWN TREES (THEY ARE MINORS, AFTER ALL AND THEIR TREES ARE OFF LINE) THIS IS A BETRAYAL.

    THERE ARE OTHER SOFTWARES OUT THERE, BUT FTM MADE IT EASY, IT PROVIDED THE TOOLS TO TURN KIDS INTO GENEALOGISTS, LIKE NOTHING ELSE I KNOW OF. WHEN YOU TEACH THINGS TO YOUNG ONES YOU NEED TOOLS THAT MAKE THE ESSENCE OF THE SKILL RELATIVELY EASY. THOSE SHAKELY LEAFS ON THEIR OFF-LINE TREES ALSO TEACH ANALYTICAL SKILLS. EASY ACCESS TO RECORDS LETS THEM HAVE INSTANTANEOUS SUCCESS. SCRAPPING ALL THEIR WORK AND PUTTING IT SOMEWHERE WHERE REFERENCES AND EVERYTHING ELSE IS NOT EASILY AVAILABLE PUTS IN PLACE A BARRRIER THAT RUNS THE RISK OF DESTROYING ANY INTEREST THEY MAY BE DEVELOPING. YES, I REALIZE I HAVE AT LEAST A YEAR AND PROBABLY MORE BEFORE MY SOFTWARE IS NOT FUNCTIONAL, BUT DO I? I AM SORRY, BUT AS ONE WHO FELT ANCESTRY’S HISTORY PROVIDED SOME PROOF OF DEPENABILITY, I FEEL BETRAYED. I AM SORRY THIS SOUNDS LIKE WHINING, BUT THE PERSONAL DOMINO EFFECT IS SIGNIFICANT TO ME, AND PROBABLY TO MANY OTHERS.

  7. Joyce Ranieri says:

    I switched from Reunion to FTM several years ago because of its integration with Ancestry. I detest the new look on Ancestry — I’ve tried it several times and keep switching back. When doing research in court houses, libraries, etc. I prefer to have my research on my computer, especially since wifi signals are hard to find here in the boondocks! To me, Ancestry just put another nail its coffin. Looks like time to upgrade Reunion and start making the transfer back!

  8. I love ancestry.com. I know they are a huge money pit, but I just love it. HOWEVER, the publishing ability is terrible. So, I have FTM primarily for that purpose. It provides a way of making a big massive chart and letting me move everything juuuuust the way I want it, saving it to a PDF, and taking it to staples or wherever to have it printed out on the big huge 4’x5′ engineering printers for, like, six dollars. I am a very visual person, so seeing a big chart (with pictures!) is so much better than a fifteen page list of names and dates…..

  9. Glenda Sue Vize says:

    I have some of my information on Ancestry, but most of my information is on FTM. How do I sync/transfer my genealogy from FTM to Ancestry.com Thank you.

  10. This is the first time I am hearing about this issue. I use Ancestry.com and got Family Tree Maker a couple of years ago. I wasn’t picking up as quickly as I had hoped so only had one tree downloaded to it. Now, with this news i attempted to download my other trees but, I keep getting a script error that won’t let me out of it. So, has the ability to download your tree from Ancestry.com to the software no longer available? I am good at research and horrible at technology so you may see this question as naive. But, if there is some way I can accomplish this now, I would be grateful for the instructions. And I read where you could download it to your computer. Help please with this as I have no idea how to do that. Thanks, DD Ferguson

    • DD:

      I use RootsMagic and Ancestrry.com, and myhjeritage (www.myheritage.com) and RootsMagic is using a light bulb to indicate which of the ‘myheritage sites has information about the RM entries.

      You might want to try to use RM instead of Family Tree Maker since it is available for a trial version is free (at http://www.rootsmagic.com).

      All is not lost with the end of FTM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Best wishes,

      Pete
      Pete Anderson

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