I have been a huge supporter of Ancestry and Family Tree Maker software. When Genealogy software became available for home computers, Family Tree Maker is what I purchased in the early 1990's and have used it ever since. I've always been happy with it, till a few days ago.
What was great about Family Tree Maker was the ease of use, the charts and ease of sharing. In the last several years, people have been able to connect to Ancestry directly for hints. The little green leaves! What an amazing tool. They find the hints, and you can compare right in your program and then upload what you want and delete what you don't want.
People have the option of uploading GED.com file to Ancestry to share with others. People can also just enter their information directly to their website. I personally do not "enter" my new findings there, I like to have my information on my computer and upload when I am ready. I like to keep all my information in the software program because I use it for other avenues of research as well. I have more control and can do more with it. I like the ease of being able to upload the information to my website which isn't affiliated with Ancestry.
So, with the news that Ancestry will no longer make Family Tree Maker software as of the end of this month, and after January 2017 will no longer support the software, this puts a lot of genealogist is a bad position. What do we do? They want to essentially force us to go to online entering only with them OR we have to go and find other software because eventually, if say I get a new computer with Windows 10 or later, my older software with FTM will not work. I have to do something now. I have to question now, why keep up my subscription with Ancestry? I pay a lot of money every year to be able to have the ease of connecting my program with their online data base. I know thousand's of people feel the same way. Ancestry has to change their minds, or lose a lot of money, or ask another software company to be compatible with their online data base so they don't lose that revenue. What a huge mistake. I can understand if they are having issues with FTM, and don't want the headache, but why not hire someone to fix the problems instead of just toss it aside. We committed our selves, our hobby and some people this being their livelihood, to this software. For people who are not genealogist, I would compare it to saying Google has decided to not have email service or calendars available anymore at the end of the month! Yes, it is that bad!
So now what? There are several software available. I found a great article at the following link.
http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
It breaks down the different items that we look for in software. Though Legacy is voted the best, it doesn't give web hints, and after using FTM and the hints, I still want that! I think I am going to go with Family Historian but I am going to test it out first. Roots Magic and Ancestrial Quest look like great options as well. Problem with Roots Magic is you can't sync to web. Ancestrial Quest seems like a great option as well, so I will be testing that one as well.
Ancestry - again, very disappointed in the let down and I will be canceling my subscription as of early next year when it is up. I think with all the people jumping ship, this will put a damper into the business, and maybe you'll hire someone to fix FTM problems, but guess what, by then it will be too late because genealogists are going to jump ship now to save their own work! While genealogists are jumping ship, notice that the other software are already offering deals to bring you to their side!
#badmoveancestry #familytreemakerletdown
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