Genealogy Chat

I expect a nice young american gentleman is working on it right now val. You could always ring them I guess - its a freephone number.

she has made me feel very lazy I dont do any of that, 3 cheers for Joan , but I still have a problem tried to register my FTM thought I already had but cannot remember my password so clicked on that and they said an email would be sent with my new password been waiting but nothing how long does it take anybody ?????

I just wanted to say - I WISH I COULD BE LIKE JOAN. !!! I don't really understand what she said but I know she has got it sorted. Dea xXxx

Wow, that IS organised Joan. I wish I could sort things like that.

thats so kind June I am going to go through this step by step and see how I get on thanks a lot

The FTM 'Tree icon' on the desktop is the original you downloaded. Once you have the program on your computor and up and running - here's how I have done mine for years. I make a folder called Genealogy in My Documents (or on a second drive 'D' if you have for which is safer because if your C drive goes down it does not affect your D drive.) In the Genealogy folder I make a new folder for each name I research and one for 'All branches' which is my main file. Inside each folder I make another new folder (s) for census', gedcoms I download from LDS, Word docs for notes etc. Family Tree makes 3 icons besides the Tree icon. One is a blue box which is the working file, one has a 'safe' on it which is a backup file and one is a box with the windows icon in it (no idea what for). When I have my FTM opened with all the branches on it I save it to the folder 'All branches' Any other files (ie downloaded gedcoms I am searching goes into the folder for the apprpriate name. FTM, when you hit 'File' and go to save it asks you to specify where you want it saved to - ie: C:/my documents/genealogy/all branches..or you can specify which folder to put it in. Note that if you download a gedcom from anywhere else - like LDS ,that being the last folder you used, will the first FTM opens. You have to go to My documents/genealogy and open the file you want to use. I download masses of gedcoms, especially from LDS, and all the census sheets and it makes finding them easy if you know where you saved them/ Having just one main file makes it easy to track all your hard work. Whe in doubt - click on the HELP files at the top of the page. That works for most things. Hope this isn't confusing. I will try to make out a step by step work sheet and you can message me for it.

Thank you Ron, I understood that too - went into programme files - lots of red ones, lots of blue ones - HUNDREDS of ones with little yellow + green clog wheels on !!! Went to look in a blue one but it wouldn't open unless I saved it so I got 'scaried' and came out !!!! Don't like it in there, but at least I know things are backing up - Heaven help me if anything ever goes wrong and I have to go in there again to recover them !! Dea x

Ron thank you thats a very good explanation even I can understand you are very helpful

As previously stated, FTM makes a back up every time the program is closed. By default FTM saves this back up to it's own folder. When you open FTM double click on the icon that says Family Tree Maker 2006, this will open the program on the file that was last in use the last time you used the program. Go to My Computer, C (Hard drive), Program Files, Family Tree Maker 2006. Your current file should be in there, if it's not drag into there from your desktop, there should be 2 versions of the file, one blue file called 'yourfilename' .FTW. and one red file called 'yourfilename' .FBC. Open the blue one by double clicking on it, make sure it's the right file and then close it again. The next time you open FTM using the Family Tree Maker 2006 icon it will open this file. You can then delete all other files on your desktop. Ron www.genealogyprinters(.)com

it seems to me lots of us are not to clever with this Family Tree thing , maybe some kind person could put a thread on the board with advice and suggestions, I for one would really appreciate it thanks for all replies

Horrendous. Do the internet option too - you can add photos and images to it.

Thanks Heather, Yes, I do back up onto discs, so I would only lose the more recent bits I had put on - It's just such a scarey thought isn't it that you could lose all that info when you have spent so much time and effort in finding it ?? Dea x

I think you are ok Dea, my ones in documents are ones I created in the past in order to send them to people or to export to GR. But, do get some cds and back up the tree. It really is SO easy to do. Go to file, export to - writable cd, click and it does it itself.(of course, you need to put a new cd in the little tray!) When its done it, the little tray will open and there you go, a cd back up copy - do remember to write on it what it is and the date - particularly if you have teenagers who have a thousand un named cds where they have downloaded music. Also do go to internet tab, create your home page, click on that and go through the instructions, (basically clicking next a few times) Make sure you click to hide living persons info - then send it to your own website provided by FTM- all done automatically by the FT program. You will then have 3 copies safe.

Heather - I haven't got any in 'my documents' but in the actual FTM, if I go to 'open file' and look for BKW - there are some in there. Is this right, as if they are all in the FTM programme and not outside it on my computer somewhere, - IF the FTM goes wrong, I wouldn't be able to get at them would I? Hope you understand what I mean? - Should they be somewhere else as well? Dea x

Dea, Ive only one icon on the desktop - but open 'documents' - I had about 20 on there!! Ive just, with trepidition, deleted most of them - I have dates on all my gedcom files ('name this file' stuff when I did them). So Ive deleted all those I felt really confident about doing, knowing I can restore them from the recycle bin. Ive now been back to my main FTM and everything is still there - sigh with relief - and when I closed down I saw it was backing up. Dont forget to always back up to a cd now and then and use their family home page facility and update that everytime you add or change - at least you will have it safe on one of those three places should the worse happen,.

I'm getting worried now - I only have one icon on my desktop, which says Family Tree Maker 2005 - Does that mean by FTM is not doing backups??? Dea x

Hi All, I am new to FTM too. I have two icons for my family tree file. One of them has what looks like a safe on it so I expect that is the backup file? Gillian

what I meant Margaret is the young grow up with PCs so it comes easy, it took me about a month to send my first Text on my phone . Yes where is Judy ???going to bed now goodnight all

that makes sense Gary thanks a lot so I can delete these then

i do not know if this is your problem, every time you open family tree maker it creates a back up file on shut down, so on your desktop you will have say 'my Tree' FTM Family File and 'My Tree' FTW back up file or BKW file, now where you can get a problem is if instead of clicking on the FTM family tree file icon you click on the back up one, before it opens it will ask you to save it with a new name, so you name it 'FAmily Tree 1' and it then opens with all your names, when you close it it will then create a back up on your desk top, and if you then open that one up with the back up file, it will ask for a new name and create another new back up, and on and on, so you end up with a desk top full of Family tree maker icons, but if yo open up the family file one it goes straight into your names with out asking to be saved and when you shut it it dose not create any extra back up files, i dont know if this is what you have done, but i have seen sombady doing this