#Why is family tree maker discontinued how to#
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#Why is family tree maker discontinued software#
#Why is family tree maker discontinued series#

My intent here is help you produce a GEDCOM 5.5.1 compliant file so you don’t have to rely on the mercy of other apps.Īlso Known As: Versions 2014 and 3 for Mac and older improperly use the ALIA tag in the GEDCOM file. Some genealogy apps “know” that FTM has these problems and will fix them for you.

#Why is family tree maker discontinued how to#

Below are the fields that FTM incorrectly exports to GEDCOM and how to fix them in FTM, if possible. Also, if you haven’t already done so, you might want to download any media from that you want to attach to your tree, such as images of historical records.įTM’s worst offenses are that it improperly exports some fields. But before you do anything, make a back-up of your tree, and make a new back-up (with a different file name) after each major step so that you can revert to an earlier version if needed.

#Why is family tree maker discontinued series#

Part 2 of this series will explain how to fix problems directly in a GEDCOM file. You can fix some of the problems or work around them in FTM before you export your tree to GEDCOM. So GEDCOM is a standard for formatting genealogical data so that other apps and websites can read them, but as I mentioned, FTM and most other apps don’t completely adhere to the standard. The Complete Genealogy Products website has a good quick reference sheet for GEDCOM.

Technology blogger Tamura Jones has many articles about GEDCOM A Gentle Introduction to GEDCOM and GEDCOM Tags are good references. The GEDCOM standard documents can be difficult to read, but they are here for your reference (note that “GEDCOM is no longer maintained!”). Version 5.5.1 was proposed in 1999, and while several updates have been proposed, including version 6 and GEDCOM X, they have not progressed beyond the proposal stage. While technically is still a draft standard, 5.5.1 includes fields for website uses 5.5.1. The current official standard is GEDCOM 5.5, but the standard used by many, if not most, apps and websites is 5.5.1, as Tamura Jones has pointed out many times. It was developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). It’s a specification for exchanging genealogical data using a plain text file ending with the. This article applies generally to both the Windows and Mac editions of Family Tree Maker, all versions since 2008, although your mileage may vary.īefore I continue, here’s an overview of GEDCOM, which stands for Genealogical Data Communication. Please note that this article is not about correcting factual errors in your tree. That’s the goal of this article: to help you identify areas where your FTM tree is non-GEDCOM compliant and start cleaning them up. In that case, or if you need to send your tree to someone who uses a different app or you want to upload it to a website, you would still do well to clean up your data first.

#Why is family tree maker discontinued software#

Of course, now that FTM has been bought by Software MacKiev, there’s no need to replace it at all, unless you’re unhappy with it. Why is this important? Because if you blithely export your tree to a GEDCOM file without scrubbing your data first, you will lose some data, and your carefully crafted Evidence Explained citations will get mangled. Few genealogy apps do, even the ones that claim to. I say, “Not so fast.” Critically, FTM does not comply fully with the GEDCOM standard. Most of them make it sound as if it’s as simple as exporting your FTM tree to a GEDCOM file and importing the GEDCOM into their application.

After announced that they were abandoning (aka “retiring”) their venerable Family Tree Maker (FTM) desktop application in Dec 2015, many users and genealogy bloggers asked, “What do I replace FTM with?” Several genealogy desktop app retailers offered discounts and help guides on how to transfer a family tree from FTM to their software.