Keeping Reunion and Ancestry.com files in sync

[DeniseL]

Re: Keeping Reunion and Ancestry.com files in sync

I will second that motion, Donna. I feel like I've "tried em all" and there are always features I miss. I do like the easy search-and-sync feature of FTM, but the clunky report export is less than good. IMHO, Reunion's text export is one of it's best features. I'd like to see Elizabeth Mills' style citation templates and have made some of my own, but they don't transfer to other software.

Perhaps one day we will have true Gedcom compatibility between programs.

[Mary Arthur]

Re: Keeping Reunion and Ancestry.com files in sync

Perhaps one day we will have true Gedcom compatibility between programs.

Gedcom is dead. There is no working group anymore, and the standards have not been updated in years.

[John Meara]

Re: Keeping Reunion and Ancestry.com files in sync

One program has stayed on my Mac and that is FTM 3. But, I don't use it as software. I use it as storage!

I admit to leaving my Reunion tree sit virtually idle now since I took on an Ancestry subscription 10 months ago. I'm a bit like Bob, or at least have intention to be like Bob

I exported my single Reunion tree in sections (about 5,000 people all up), creating 9 different trees in Ancestry: one main tree for me, one for my wife's line, my stepchildren's father's line, my stepmother's line, my kids' partner's line (the list goes on). When I added all the sources and media to the Ancestry trees, I realised the critical backup need and to hold these records myself - so I purchased FTM 3 for Mac, downloaded/synched all 9 trees and continue to work in Ancestry to build my database. I backup regularly but have yet to get back to rebuilding my Reunion file.

Back to my intention: It is to import the separate trees back into Reunion (and maintain them as up-to-date separate trees for the various family member's lines). FTM is okay, but I still have a preference for Reunion; however with the ongoing flood of data available to me via Ancestry, it'll be a some time yet before I get around to taking on maintenance of two data sets (one in Reunion in parallel with the set on Ancestry/FTM). The risk is that I may never find the time!

...and I've had issues with the export, import, merge and synch process, where I ended up with a corrupted FTM file and had to unlink it from my Ancestry tree and download/synch a new tree (not difficult, but frustrating). So in future, I may avoid this process of trying to shortcut data entry, as I cannot trust the software compatibility (via Gedcom) and their effectiveness at the risk of losing all my tree (even with all the backups!). That's my experience anyway.

[Bob White]

Re: Keeping Reunion and Ancestry.com files in sync

At the time that FTM3 came out and I saw its utility factor for document storage, I already had a tree on Ancestry. The method I chose was to first trash the existing tree on Ancestry; after all, I had no sane method to ascertain how far off synch its data was from my Reunion file.

Next, I created a brand new tree on Ancestry by uploading a fresh GEDCOM file. Now I knew that the files were the same or very close. From that day forward, I have worked the files side by side. (That is why all my work is done on my 27" iMac; I need the large screen.) Yes, it is slower work updating both files but it is the only sane way to do this. The pro is that I don't attach any thing other than newly found people photos to the Reunion file. All of the census sheets, birth records, etc., that I match to the Ancestry file are conveniently accessible locally in the copy of FTM3 on my iMac without me having to devise a filing system for them.

[John Meara]

Re: Keeping Reunion and Ancestry.com files in sync

I too have a 27" Mac, and a few months ago I finally purchased a second monitor: an Asus 27" sits against the mac giving me two big screens for multiple genealogy windows and workspace!

[Bob White]

Re: Keeping Reunion and Ancestry.com files in sync

Did you see the news today? This discussion will become as ancient as our ancestors.

Today Ancestry announced they will quit selling FTM, both Mac and PC, on Dec 31, 2015. They will provide support to current users to at least Jan 1, 2017. Wow! I didn't see that one coming!

[STEVE]

Re: Keeping Reunion and Ancestry.com files in sync

I can understand what you're trying to do. Yes, a lot of the public trees on Ancestry are pure garbage, and yes, a lot of them got that way from indiscriminate acceptance of the shaky leaf hints for records that don't really apply to the person. My wife ended up with her father attached to some wife who was a total stranger in someone's tree and couldn't get them to change it.
Don

Yeah, There's a Mormon lady who has "proof positive" that my father died in WWII—a year BEFORE I was born. My four younger brothers and sisters were somewhat discommoded by the news and my mother wants to know just exactly who that was in her bed!

STEVE

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Keeping Reunion and Ancestry.com files in sync

Yeah, There's a Mormon lady who has "proof positive" that my father died in WWII—a year BEFORE I was born. My four younger brothers and sisters were somewhat discommoded by the news and my mother wants to know just exactly who that was in her bed!

You know what they say... "The dead shall rise again!"

And apparently, again, and again, and again, and again.