FTM 16

[J. Hugh Sullivan]

I received a notice that FTM 16 was available and it looks somewhat
interesting for the price. Usually I would abandon genealogy if FTM
was the only program.

I don't think they have a demo program or a free, but crippled, for 30
days trial. Is that correct? That's a no-no in my opinion.

I presume the icon to enter Ancestry.com requires membership in
Ancestry. I have been a member for years and surely it's not a
freebie.

FTM is so commercial I question whether they can unilaterally "mine"
your information if you use the program.

I don't remember the names but I know a couple of FTM users I respect
post here - what are the things FTM does better than other programs
and where are the "potholes"?

Hugh

[Lesley Robertson]

"J. Hugh Sullivan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

FTM is so commercial I question whether they can unilaterally "mine"
your information if you use the program.

I've been using FTM since about ver 4, and I've had parts of my tree on
their user's web paged since about ver 7, and as far as I know, they haven't
"mined" it. With an afrikaaner mother and a scottish father, I have some
pretty unusual name combinations, so I think it would show up.

I don't remember the names but I know a couple of FTM users I respect
post here - what are the things FTM does better than other programs
and where are the "potholes"?

I think I still use it because I'm used to it (I'm only on ver 13, I only
upgrade when they introduce something I fancy having). I've tried many of
the others' demos over the years, and always come back to FTM. Some of it's
laziness, but I do like their all in one tree. It'll even generate trees for
everyone in the database, whether related or not. As I have most of the
trees for my 1-place study in there, it's very useful for spotting isolated
individuals in among the various unrelated families.
Lesley Robertson

[Hugh Watkins]

J. Hugh Sullivan wrote:

I received a notice that FTM 16 was available and it looks somewhat
interesting for the price. Usually I would abandon genealogy if FTM
was the only program.

I don't think they have a demo program or a free, but crippled, for 30
days trial. Is that correct? That's a no-no in my opinion.

I presume the icon to enter Ancestry.com requires membership in
Ancestry. I have been a member for years and surely it's not a
freebie.

FTM is so commercial I question whether they can unilaterally "mine"
your information if you use the program.

I don't remember the names but I know a couple of FTM users I respect
post here - what are the things FTM does better than other programs
and where are the "potholes"?

easy to enter lots of data

beginners like the web search facility

easy publishing of web pages with not more than 2000 names
my first
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/us ... index.html

easy exporting of gedcom
then I use http://wc.rootsweb.com/
just now
http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=lapham took 2 minutes
good help files
and on line and by email
and on notice boards

GUI good for old eyes
(better than Reunion for example)

mistakes are easy to correct

reports and trees are popular too

myfamily inc supports a lot of freebie web communitis and projects
rootsweb freebmd freereg freecen

so if they make money from my research I am glad
when I am dead they will continue to cherish it
my heirs will have my rights of course

===
disadvantages

too successful
too profitable
too easy to make wrong connections and publish them

not an access or other database

not a web editable system like tribal pages

newbies use the photo album system and make very fat FTM files
newbies merge data en masse - and get a mess of duplicates

I only ever merge two individuals at a time


===

get the single cd for about 15 dollars with FTM 2006 and update on
line to FTM 16

I have the add-ons but I never use them


I regard the program important enough to install OEM WinXp sp 2 on
Parallels on Mac OS 10.4.7 on a dual core intel processor on my
macbook pro
primarily in order to use FTM 2006
(the update to 16 came automatically)


Hugh W

--

new phone = new daily blog
http://upsrev622.blogspot.com/

family history
http://hughw36.blogspot.com

[J. Hugh Sullivan]

On Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:45:25 +0200, "Lesley Robertson"
<[email protected]> wrote:

"J. Hugh Sullivan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

FTM is so commercial I question whether they can unilaterally "mine"
your information if you use the program.

I've been using FTM since about ver 4, and I've had parts of my tree on
their user's web paged since about ver 7, and as far as I know, they haven't
"mined" it. With an afrikaaner mother and a scottish father, I have some
pretty unusual name combinations, so I think it would show up.

I don't remember the names but I know a couple of FTM users I respect
post here - what are the things FTM does better than other programs
and where are the "potholes"?

I think I still use it because I'm used to it (I'm only on ver 13, I only
upgrade when they introduce something I fancy having). I've tried many of
the others' demos over the years, and always come back to FTM. Some of it's
laziness, but I do like their all in one tree. It'll even generate trees for
everyone in the database, whether related or not. As I have most of the
trees for my 1-place study in there, it's very useful for spotting isolated
individuals in among the various unrelated families.
Lesley Robertson

Thanks, Lesley. Familiarity is certainly persuasive.

It would be very easy for me to wind up with 3 or 4 programs to use
for specific benefits.

They have a 30 day money back but I don't like to return.

Hugh

[J. Hugh Sullivan]

On Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:14:49 +0100, Hugh Watkins
<[email protected]> wrote:

J. Hugh Sullivan wrote:

I received a notice that FTM 16 was available and it looks somewhat
interesting for the price. Usually I would abandon genealogy if FTM
was the only program.

I don't think they have a demo program or a free, but crippled, for 30
days trial. Is that correct? That's a no-no in my opinion.

I presume the icon to enter Ancestry.com requires membership in
Ancestry. I have been a member for years and surely it's not a
freebie.

FTM is so commercial I question whether they can unilaterally "mine"
your information if you use the program.

I don't remember the names but I know a couple of FTM users I respect
post here - what are the things FTM does better than other programs
and where are the "potholes"?

easy to enter lots of data

beginners like the web search facility

easy publishing of web pages with not more than 2000 names
my first
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/us ... index.html

easy exporting of gedcom
then I use http://wc.rootsweb.com/
just now
http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=lapham took 2 minutes
good help files
and on line and by email
and on notice boards

GUI good for old eyes
(better than Reunion for example)

mistakes are easy to correct

reports and trees are popular too

myfamily inc supports a lot of freebie web communitis and projects
rootsweb freebmd freereg freecen

so if they make money from my research I am glad
when I am dead they will continue to cherish it
my heirs will have my rights of course

===
disadvantages

too successful
too profitable
too easy to make wrong connections and publish them

not an access or other database

not a web editable system like tribal pages

newbies use the photo album system and make very fat FTM files
newbies merge data en masse - and get a mess of duplicates

I only ever merge two individuals at a time


===

get the single cd for about 15 dollars with FTM 2006 and update on
line to FTM 16

I have the add-ons but I never use them


I regard the program important enough to install OEM WinXp sp 2 on
Parallels on Mac OS 10.4.7 on a dual core intel processor on my
macbook pro
primarily in order to use FTM 2006
(the update to 16 came automatically)


Hugh W

--

new phone = new daily blog
http://upsrev622.blogspot.com/

family history
http://hughw36.blogspot.com

WOW!

How compatible is the FTM gedcom with Legacy, RootsMagic and TMG?
Legacy and RM are not completely compatible - RM does not source names
the way Legacy does.

Hugh

[Doug McDonald]

J. Hugh Sullivan wrote:

How compatible is the FTM gedcom with Legacy, RootsMagic and TMG?

Legacy ----> FTM works fairly well, except that FTM usually
gets names all wrong. This is basically because FTM's name
system is terminally simpleminded. I've never tired teh
other way.

The killer feature of FTM is that good graphical trees are
built in, and it works easily as a database.

GenBox has even better graphical trees, but its data entry
system is so terminally strange that I gave up using it
entirely; it simply screws up imports from Legacy, for
example, for cases where a person has children by multiple
women, some of whom are simply "un-filled-in".

Doug McDonald

[singhals]

J. Hugh Sullivan wrote:

I received a notice that FTM 16 was available and it looks somewhat
interesting for the price. Usually I would abandon genealogy if FTM
was the only program.

I don't think they have a demo program or a free, but crippled, for 30
days trial. Is that correct? That's a no-no in my opinion.

I presume the icon to enter Ancestry.com requires membership in
Ancestry. I have been a member for years and surely it's not a
freebie.

FTM is so commercial I question whether they can unilaterally "mine"
your information if you use the program.

I don't remember the names but I know a couple of FTM users I respect
post here - what are the things FTM does better than other programs
and where are the "potholes"?

Hugh

Between me, 'n' thee, and the gatepost, I don't _think_ you'd like it.
It has some personality quirks that don't match your style (g). It
does have some unique charts, so if you want that chart, you're in
clover; otherwise R E Lee was a steamboat, you know?

Cheryl

[J. Hugh Sullivan]

On Tue, 12 Sep 2006 20:32:45 -0400, singhals <[email protected]>
wrote:

J. Hugh Sullivan wrote:

I received a notice that FTM 16 was available and it looks somewhat
interesting for the price. Usually I would abandon genealogy if FTM
was the only program.

I don't think they have a demo program or a free, but crippled, for 30
days trial. Is that correct? That's a no-no in my opinion.

I presume the icon to enter Ancestry.com requires membership in
Ancestry. I have been a member for years and surely it's not a
freebie.

FTM is so commercial I question whether they can unilaterally "mine"
your information if you use the program.

I don't remember the names but I know a couple of FTM users I respect
post here - what are the things FTM does better than other programs
and where are the "potholes"?

Hugh

Between me, 'n' thee, and the gatepost, I don't _think_ you'd like it.
It has some personality quirks that don't match your style (g). It
does have some unique charts, so if you want that chart, you're in
clover; otherwise R E Lee was a steamboat, you know?

Cheryl

I 'spect yur rite.

I looked at a ratings site a cupla hours ago and FTM was ranked with
Legacy as the top programs. I never saw it ranked so high before - not
since Paul Burchfield anyhoo.

The hint to buy the program now at a fire sale for $15 and upgrade to
v16 online sounds good - I'd do that just to try the program. I need
some frustration - haven't had any lately.

Merci, Cherie - oops, that's Cheryl,

Hugh

[Paul Blair]

J. Hugh Sullivan wrote:

On Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:45:25 +0200, "Lesley Robertson"
[email protected]> wrote:

"J. Hugh Sullivan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
FTM is so commercial I question whether they can unilaterally "mine"
your information if you use the program.
I've been using FTM since about ver 4, and I've had parts of my tree on
their user's web paged since about ver 7, and as far as I know, they haven't
"mined" it. With an afrikaaner mother and a scottish father, I have some
pretty unusual name combinations, so I think it would show up.
I don't remember the names but I know a couple of FTM users I respect
post here - what are the things FTM does better than other programs
and where are the "potholes"?
I think I still use it because I'm used to it (I'm only on ver 13, I only
upgrade when they introduce something I fancy having). I've tried many of
the others' demos over the years, and always come back to FTM. Some of it's
laziness, but I do like their all in one tree. It'll even generate trees for
everyone in the database, whether related or not. As I have most of the
trees for my 1-place study in there, it's very useful for spotting isolated
individuals in among the various unrelated families.
Lesley Robertson

Thanks, Lesley. Familiarity is certainly persuasive.

It would be very easy for me to wind up with 3 or 4 programs to use
for specific benefits.

They have a 30 day money back but I don't like to return.

Hugh

Kinda looks like a cupple minor changes, and some free storage space
(well, for 3 months anyway). This (presumably) is the pre-Vista cleanup,
so maybe it will run in 64-bit? Does anyone know?

Paul
Australia

[singhals]

J. Hugh Sullivan wrote:

On Tue, 12 Sep 2006 20:32:45 -0400, singhals <[email protected]
wrote:


J. Hugh Sullivan wrote:


I received a notice that FTM 16 was available and it looks somewhat
interesting for the price. Usually I would abandon genealogy if FTM
was the only program.

I don't think they have a demo program or a free, but crippled, for 30
days trial. Is that correct? That's a no-no in my opinion.

I presume the icon to enter Ancestry.com requires membership in
Ancestry. I have been a member for years and surely it's not a
freebie.

FTM is so commercial I question whether they can unilaterally "mine"
your information if you use the program.

I don't remember the names but I know a couple of FTM users I respect
post here - what are the things FTM does better than other programs
and where are the "potholes"?

Hugh

Between me, 'n' thee, and the gatepost, I don't _think_ you'd like it.
It has some personality quirks that don't match your style (g). It
does have some unique charts, so if you want that chart, you're in
clover; otherwise R E Lee was a steamboat, you know?

Cheryl


I 'spect yur rite.

I looked at a ratings site a cupla hours ago and FTM was ranked with
Legacy as the top programs. I never saw it ranked so high before - not
since Paul Burchfield anyhoo.

The hint to buy the program now at a fire sale for $15 and upgrade to
v16 online sounds good - I'd do that just to try the program. I need
some frustration - haven't had any lately.

Lemme loan you some of mine?

Merci, Cherie - oops, that's Cheryl,

du rien, mon vieux!

C

[Autumn]

What FTM does well is make updated software so they can ask you to pay for
it again about every year. I personally use The Master Genealogist. Are
there any other genealogy programs that are on version 16! My last purchased
version was 11 just to be able to exchange files with others working on my
family. I used it for years from the beginning, but got so tired of buying
the next "great new" "must have" version I quit using it.

Autumn

[Hugh Watkins]

Autumn wrote:

What FTM does well is make updated software so they can ask you to pay for
it again about every year. I personally use The Master Genealogist. Are
there any other genealogy programs that are on version 16! My last purchased
version was 11 just to be able to exchange files with others working on my
family. I used it for years from the beginning, but got so tired of buying
the next "great new" "must have" version I quit using it.

at under 30 dollars
who cares

updating my other stuff costs far far more

2006 to 16 is a freebie on line
modest impovements in handling of sources

Hugh W



--

Beta blogger
http://nanowrimo3.blogspot.com/ visiting my past
http://hughw36-2.blogspot.com/ re-entry
http://snaps4.blogspot.com/" photographs and walks

old blogger
http://hughw36.blogspot.com/ MAIN BLOG

[Robert Melson]

In article <[email protected]>,
Hugh Watkins <[email protected]> writes:

Autumn wrote:
What FTM does well is make updated software so they can ask you to pay for
it again about every year. I personally use The Master Genealogist. Are
there any other genealogy programs that are on version 16! My last purchased
version was 11 just to be able to exchange files with others working on my
family. I used it for years from the beginning, but got so tired of buying
the next "great new" "must have" version I quit using it.

at under 30 dollars
who cares

snip

And mine costs $0.00, all being public domain, open source
software. And so what?

Autumn's point is well taken, IMO. Most - not all - software companies
release patched upgrades during the life-spam of the current version of
whatever it is they're flogging, usually free of charge. When there's a
major revision and a new version is released, they charge for that. What
it appears FTM appears to do is gather bug reports, work'em out and sell
the result as a new, improved FTM and not a bug-fix upgrade. Since I
don't use it, I have no dog in this fight, but it does seem to me to be
a slightly questionable practice

My US$0.02 (inflation adjusted).

Soreheaded Ol' Bob

--
Robert G. Melson | Rio Grande MicroSolutions | El Paso, Texas
-----
"People unfit for freedom---who cannot do much with it---are
hungry for power." ---Eric Hoffer

[Robert Melson]

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Robert Melson) writes:

In article <[email protected]>,
Hugh Watkins <[email protected]> writes:
Autumn wrote:
What FTM does well is make updated software so they can ask you to pay for
it again about every year. I personally use The Master Genealogist. Are
there any other genealogy programs that are on version 16! My last purchased
version was 11 just to be able to exchange files with others working on my
family. I used it for years from the beginning, but got so tired of buying
the next "great new" "must have" version I quit using it.

at under 30 dollars
who cares

snip
And mine costs $0.00, all being public domain, open source
software. And so what?

Autumn's point is well taken, IMO. Most - not all - software companies
release patched upgrades during the life-spam of the current version of
.............................also the life-SPAN ... sheesh!

whatever it is they're flogging, usually free of charge. When there's a
major revision and a new version is released, they charge for that. What
it appears FTM appears to do is gather bug reports, work'em out and sell
the result as a new, improved FTM and not a bug-fix upgrade. Since I
don't use it, I have no dog in this fight, but it does seem to me to be
a slightly questionable practice

My US$0.02 (inflation adjusted).

Soreheaded Ol' Bob

--
Robert G. Melson | Rio Grande MicroSolutions | El Paso, Texas
-----
"People unfit for freedom---who cannot do much with it---are
hungry for power." ---Eric Hoffer

[singhals]

Robert Melson wrote:

Autumn's point is well taken, IMO. Most - not all - software companies
release patched upgrades during the life-spam of the current version of

............................also the life-SPAN ... sheesh!

(G) I kinda liked it uncorrected ...

Cheryl