Well that didn't work out quite like I wanted so I'll try again :-[ I sent a list of questions to Tana Pedersen who writes many of the books about FTM. I submitted a number of questions to her and she kindly replied. Her answers are below. I hope this answers some of the questions and concerns which have been recently asked on the list. Question: Ancestry.com allows any one to create and maintain an online tree at Ancestry.com. The only requirement is you must provide user information so you can be contacted if desired. Answer: Yes. Question: Is this a Member ID and where does one go to initiate or create the tree? Answer: If you go to the homepage (www.ancestry.com) when you're not logged in, you'll see a box where you are prompted to start a tree. If you click the Family Trees tab at the top of an A.com page the drop-down also has a "Start a new tree" option. Question: The owner of this free online tree has access to his/her tree. They can also invite others to view and/or change the tree without having a paid subscriber account. Answer: Yes. Question: Anyone not just member or subscriber can search for individuals in the online trees. Answer: Yes. Anyone can search the public member trees. What anyone can see is the name of the tree, the individual you're searching for including birth and death dates and places and whether the tree contains sources. If you try to access the tree you're prompted to subscribe or log in. Question: If you find an match and want to view information in the tree, you must be a paid subscriber. Answer: Yes. Question: The subscriber can view the online tree only if it is a "Public" tree. Answer: Yes. Question: Any tree flagged as "Private" the subscriber must contact the owner of the tree. Answer: Yes. Mostly. If you've marked your tree as private people in your tree will still be included in search results (as explained above). However, there is a "hide my tree" option that prevents your tree from even being included in searches so it truly is private. Question: Only Owners and Editors can make changes to the online tree. Answer: Yes, however "contributors" can also add stories and photos. Question: Only Owners can download their online tree. I believe this is a change because some time ago, I recall being able to download GEDCOM files for some trees. Answer: Yes. I think the GEDCOM option you're thinking of was on a previous incarnation of Ancestry trees (there have been many). Currently an owner can download into FTM or download a GEDCOM outside of FTM. Question: Only Owners and Editors can view information on Living Individuals in the tree. Answer: Yes by default editors can see living individuals. However, you choose to let guests and contributors see living individuals. Question: Only Owners can see or view Private facts/Notes in online trees. Answer: The online trees at Ancestry do not have the ability to mark a fact as private. Facts that are marked private in FTM do not get uploaded to the online tree. The online tree only supports personal notes. These notes are only viewable by the tree owner and editors. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello, I am still using FTM version 16, although I have purchased all the newer ones since then. (I just like 16 better and hate to give it up.) In version 16 there is a section on the source page called citation text. I often used that box to make a very brief note of exactly what the source said. For example, in one source I might find someone's age and where they were born; another might give the exact date but no place of birth. I got the idea of recording this in the citation text from someone on this list years ago, and according to the information in "HELP," this seems to be what this box was for. At any rate, I found it to be extremely useful. I understand that versions after 2008 are going to list each of these as a separate source or something like that. What I'd like to know is how much of a problem this is going to be for me when I eventually have to go to a newer version. I have put my file into all the new ones when they came in and experimented with them, but I can't really tell how it is affecting my data or the program. All the info seems to still be there, just as it is in version 16. But there must be some negative impact that I'm not aware of. Does it use a lot more storage space or something like that? If so, how big a problem is that likely to be? And is there more to it than that? I'd appreciate any help/suggestions with this, as I will have to get a new computer soon so maybe I should actually begin to use 2012 when it arrives. Thank you, LouDean

I'm sorry but it seems no one has answered your question and I'm replying a little late. You should not have any problem moving your source-citation data from FTM 16 into any of the later versions of FTM. Your comments will be preserved just as you have them in FTM 16. Just so you know what is going on here is how the source-citations are handled. FTM 16 and earlier always linked a source-citation to a single fact. This was true even when the source-citation might be exactly the same for 1 or 2 or even 4 facts. For example let's say that you found a Census record for a family of 8 people. You enter the census record as a source-citation for each individual to document their Name, Date of Birth and Residence/Census fact. You enter the information into the source-citation for the first person and then use FTM 16's feature to copy/paste the source-citation to all of the individuals and their three facts. You make no changes to the other source-citations. This would enter 24 identical source-citations into your data base. There are disadvantages such as wasted space in your data base because you have 24 copies all containing the exact same information. Another disadvantage is if you discover your misspelled something such as the city name or the Roll number, to correct that bit of information you must visit all 24 copies and make the same correction to each copy. Beginning with FTM 2008, this process was changed slightly. You can enter the source-citation information in a single source-citation and then link that single-source citation to all 24 facts described above. This reduces the amount of space required in your data base because you have the information only once and it makes it much easier to make the correction because you make the correction to the single source-citation and it is displayed properly for all 24 facts. Think of it as like the central heating system in most homes today. You have a single heater and thermostat. Any change to the thermostat applies the change to all rooms connected to the heater. The KEY to this is the source-citation information must be the same for all individuals and facts including the Source Title, the Citation Detail (Citation Page), the Citation Text, the Reference Note (Footnote). Obviously there may be times when you don't want the source-citation to be exactly the same for all of the individuals or facts. In your case you add and explanation in the Citation Text field. This can be accommodated by Copy and Paste as Duplicate. This tells FTM to make a second copy of the source-citation and link it to the new individual or fact. This is essentially what will happen to your FTM 16 source-citations. For those source-citations which have distinct Comment Text entries, a separate source-citation will be created for each thus preserving your current systems. Just to summarize what must be identical for source-citations to be entered once and linked to multiple individuals and facts. All of the following fields must be identical. 1. Source title 2. Citation detail 3. Citation Text 4. Reference Note - a reference note (like the FTM 16 Footnote) can have information manually entered into the field. 5. Source-citation Note 6. Source-citation Media items I hope this answers your concerns. BJ On 10/7/2011 10:36 AM, LouDean wrote: > Hello, > I am still using FTM version 16, although I have purchased all the newer > ones since then. (I just like 16 better and hate to give it up.) In > version 16 there is a section on the source page called citation text. I > often used that box to make a very brief note of exactly what the source > said. For example, in one source I might find someone's age and where they > were born; another might give the exact date but no place of birth. I got > the idea of recording this in the citation text from someone on this list > years ago, and according to the information in "HELP," this seems to be what > this box was for. At any rate, I found it to be extremely useful. > > I understand that versions after 2008 are going to list each of these as a > separate source or something like that. What I'd like to know is how much > of a problem this is going to be for me when I eventually have to go to a > newer version. I have put my file into all the new ones when they came in > and experimented with them, but I can't really tell how it is affecting my > data or the program. All the info seems to still be there, just as it is in > version 16. But there must be some negative impact that I'm not aware of. > Does it use a lot more storage space or something like that? If so, how big > a problem is that likely to be? And is there more to it than that? > > I'd appreciate any help/suggestions with this, as I will have to get a new > computer soon so maybe I should actually begin to use 2012 when it arrives. > > Thank you, > LouDean > > ********************************** > List information page > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Software/FTM-TECH.html > > Online Support for Family Tree Maker > Version 16 and earlier > http://pastftm.custhelp.com/ > > Version 2008 - 2011 > http://ftm.custhelp.com/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email toFTM-TECH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG -www.avg.com > Version: 10.0.1410 / Virus Database: 1520/3943 - Release Date: 10/07/11 > >