Genealogy Chat

I tried to delete one simple mistake on the new Genes Tree Programme and ended up with the whole tree looking like a pack of demolished cards, as one deletion led to another mistake, so I had to delete the whole tree with great difficulty and start over again which took me about 4 precious hours to input 77 names, whereas before I had about 140. I have decided to leave it at that and have now updated my offline Generations Grande Suite 8 programme with great satisfaction and success. However our computer is showing its age and a new one is very much on the cards and I understand that Gen G Suite 8 is not a great success on the new computers as there is no updating facility so not sure what I will do when we change computers, go back to my paper files?? Janet

I've just sent this the GR support, Dear Genesreunited, As like many other GR members I am very unhappy with the removal of the Old Family Tree Program. I have read some of the replies you have given explaining the features of the 'My Ancestors' facility but to be frank that is useless. I would expect as most people enter their direct ancestors onto this site they know who their direct ancestors are, so what is the point of having a facility to show only that. With the Old tree program it was possible to see where distant relatives appeared within your family tree at a glance, this I would have thought was the who point of this site to find distant relatives and to see where they fit in. It has also been mentioned how hard it is to add and edit the new tree program. I find this also. Again, the old program was much easier to use when adding and editing names of relatives. Please can you reconsider your decision and put back the old tree program. In addition, it would be appreciated if you warned your members of anymore pending changes to this site before you do them. I am sure that if you keep messing you members around like you have done, the word will spread that Genesreunited has had its day and will not be worth being a member anymore. I await your comments on the matter. I will let you know if they reply!

OC what is housework????? I spend 4-5hrs a day looking for rellies - then have to work afternoons and evenings. My eldest lad suggested I get some help - mam he said your obessed!!! Mind somehow I manage to do the basics, All the best OC - love reading your contributions, Regards, Georgina

GR replied to my email with: 'Thanks for your email and for your helpful comments. When you select the 'Your Ancestors' page, this will display all of your ancestors for 6 generations up to and including the earliest relation entered on the male line of your family. If the name is in blue it means you can expand the tree further, so by clicking on that name you will see the earlier generations on the next page. You can click the Ancestors icon in each relation name box on the site to view any relation's ancestors.' Only trouble is I want to seee more than JUST MY direct ancestors. The Old tree used to enable the full overview where you could see siblings, cousins and other necessary detail. I do have FTM but like to keep a public tree on GR. Up until the removal of the Old Tree program, my system was very successful. Not any more. What is Ancestry's public tree program like? I might jump ship if I can find a way of working as I had done until the changes.

Oooh Georgina, you are right! I just clicked Immediate Family and it is showing up under the old format. May have a play with that later - I'm supposed to be doing housework. OC

Elisabeth cannot see anything at the moment, just get error message!!!! When I checked this morning only the male line,which was what prompted the email to GR as I have traced more down the female line. JoJo

OC I have just clicked the ''Immediate Family' under other useful tools and I still have old tree programme also have new one!!! Mind I have'nt added anything on recently, Anyone else have the old programme? Confused Georgina

I email GR this morning re the removal of the old tree programme as this was the one I used all the time and found it much better than the new one. Surprise surprise they have already responded!! I found this in itself amazing as they have never replied to my other two mails with different questions. Their response Thanks for your email. I can confirm that the old tree programme has been removed from the site. We have replaced it with a new tree builder with some new features which will make building your tree much easier. When you select the 'Your Ancestors' page, this will display all of your ancestors for 6 generations up to and including the earliest relation entered on the male line of your family. If the name is in blue it means you can expand the tree further, so by clicking on that name you will see the earlier generations on the next page. You can click the Ancestors icon in each relation name box on the site to view any relation's ancestors. With Best Wishes Rachel The Genes Support Team A lot of my tree is down the female line so not a lot of use. JoJo

Elisabeth......I'm sure the sun is in the right place somewhere in the world.....so just go ahead! Merry

You can export your GR tree as a gedcom and import it into another program, to save having to enter everything manually. That way you only need to fix any errors there may be on your GR tree.

Peter I do have several, unused FT programmes - I quail at the thought of entering everyone, all over again, but feel I must do it soon, otherwise it will be completely undo-able! OC

Invest in a decent program such as FTM. Last years version is only £10 if you are on a budget. You will wonder why you ever put up with updating GR manually.

As I dont have any other programme (my offline tree is on paper) then all my input to my GR tree is manual. There are rumblings on General, that the current crop of Hot Matches are showing duplicated entries, each person appearing twice. Couldnt GR, with all their money, go out and BUY a proper programme instead of tinkering with it in the back room and making it worse? OC

Seems like half my tree are unknowns-no wonder there are so many on gr. Luckily i know who they are! Jennie

I agree wholeheartedly with Tracey. The new programme is not intuitive and it is too easy to add a second spouse rather that amending the blank (mother). And trying to view it is like looking through a keyhole, you lose the overview and have to keep switching from one person to the next to look at spouses and siblings. 'Dreadful' is being too kind to it.

Just sent the following to GR Feedback. I am so fed-up!!! ------------------------------- Please consider restoring the Old Tree Program. The new tree program used to be a useful back-up but, as a main tree program is inadequate and it doesn't work properly. The Old Tree program was crucial to view several generations at a time and was the only way to get a proper overview of a section of a large tree. You have to be psychic to use the new version. The only advantage the new program has is that it can take you straight to a named individual. Surely it would have been simple to have added that feature to the old tree program? Also, it is impossible to reliably print out sections of a tree now. I understand that some people are managing to print trees but are finding all manner of discrepancies. I am seriously considering not renewing my subscription as the removal of the Old Tree Program was done IN SPITE OF plenty of customer feedback. I await your comments on the matter

Just sent the following to GR Feedback. I am so fed-up!!! ------------------------------- Please consider restoring the Old Tree Program. The new tree program used to be a useful back-up but, as a main tree program is inadequate and it doesn't work properly. The Old Tree program was crucial to view several generations at a time and was the only way to get a proper overview of a section of a large tree. You have to be psychic to use the new version. The only advantage the new program has is that it can take you straight to a named individual. Surely it would have been simple to have added that feature to the old tree program? Also, it is impossible to reliably print out sections of a tree now. I understand that some people are managing to print trees but are finding all manner of discrepancies. I am seriously considering not renewing my subscription as the removal of the Old Tree Program was done IN SPITE OF plenty of customer feedback. I await your comments on the matter

I just wondered, does PAF and FTM, etc.. have a function to validate your GEDCOM files before you export them? I validate my FH3 GEDCOM file before I export and correct any errors that are shown on the report. I don't appear to get any of the problems that are mentioned in this thread. Maybe I am just lucky or maybe GR isn't fully compatible with all the Family History programs available. John

The first time I uploaded a gedcom to GR I realised I had inadvertently used two different formats for entering dates on my home tree program. (One for dates up to the 9th of the month and different for 10th to the end of the month) This caused problems when the tree was uploaded to GR. So......the next time I did it, I spent an age finding out how to centrally change all the dates on my home program to the same date format. How clever I thought I was when I did it!! Unfortunately, it turned out even worse when I uploaded this second effort to GR and now about 2 - 5% of the people on my tree have no dates at all :o(( Merry

Check what you've put in your PAF program carefully. The GR software does occasionally add extra people (in my case it's duplicated existing people), but I've also found that mistakes I'd made with the PAF program didn't show up until I imported it here.