Family Tree Maker* (FTM) 2017 was officially released 16 July 2017. The 19 months since December 2015 when Ancestry.com announced the retirement of Family Tree Maker have been a bumpy road for the venerable genealogy application. All support for FTM and connectivity with Ancestry were to have ended by 1 Jan 2017. [Read more…] about Family Tree Maker 2017 Review
Editorial
Why All Genealogy Apps Should Support GEDCOM 5.5.1 (Updated 12 Dec 2021)
Readers who have been following this series will know that I believe genealogy apps should support GEDCOM 5.5.1. There are two versions of GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data Communication) reported in GEDCOM files by most genealogy software today: versions 5.5 and 5.5.1. The last “official” version dated 1996 from the Family History Department (today known as FamilySearch) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was [Read more…] about Why All Genealogy Apps Should Support GEDCOM 5.5.1 (Updated 12 Dec 2021)
The Perils of Following the GEDCOM Standard (Updated 28 Apr 2016)
After testing a few desktop genealogy applications for how well they handled GEDCOM files, it occurred to me that I should write an article about my testing philosophy and methodology, as well as some of the problems with complying with the GEDCOM standard. Take a moment to ponder that: this series was motivated by the problem of genealogy software like Family Tree Maker (FTM) not complying with the GEDCOM standard. But there may be unintended consequences, both for users and software publishers, of following the standard. [Read more…] about The Perils of Following the GEDCOM Standard (Updated 28 Apr 2016)
GenealogyTools Receives GeneaBlog Award for 2015
Tamura Jones, an expert on genealogy software, has awarded GenealogyTools.com his “Most Timely Practical Advice Series” award for our “Replacing Family Tree Maker” series. As the series author, I’m extremely pleased for our work to be recognized, [Read more…] about GenealogyTools Receives GeneaBlog Award for 2015
Why You Might Consider Combining Your Family Tree Maker Media Files into One Folder
While preparing my review of MacFamily Tree 7, I ran across an article on their website, “Switch from Family Tree Maker to MacFamilyTree and import your family tree.” The section headed “Attention: Media file import” caught my attention. I don’t agree with Synium’s statement, “Unfortunately the developers of Family Tree Maker made the very poor choice of not importing media files but just linking them. Just Family Tree Maker knows where these files are and there are just links to those media files.” I disagree on several counts: [Read more…] about Why You Might Consider Combining Your Family Tree Maker Media Files into One Folder