Michelle,

Thank you for your proactive approach to issuing the free upgrade. While I am neither a professional genealogist, nor am I one who has had many issues with the FTM program, I know that many folks on here are both. Even so, it’s nice to know that someone is ready to listen to our concerns and issues.

As my research and data gathering are an even growing and changing organism, my primary issue is that I would like to be able to update my online content, rather than have to start a whole new tree. I would like to be able to upload updates to my tree as they occur, which is sometimes daily. As a project manager for software development, I recognize that many issues exist around creating changes to existing code. However, I have discovered that genealogy is an ever-changing element that needs the capacity to grow and it matures.

Thank you for your time in reading my comments and for your attention for assistance.

Cheers,

Ian

Michelle, first of all welcome to a thread that has seen little feedback from TGN, I hope you intend to change that.

You said “Although I would love to help with individual items — especially since I was once a school teacher and naturally love to help — I will ask that you contact Customer Service for technical support.”

I have one question, or maybe 2

When will TGN reinstate the Saturday Customer Service seeing as most people research over the weekend, and secondly why did they stop the Saturday coverage?

TonyC

What happened to Ben? What happened to Russel? We want to talk to one person we can held accountable for their promises!

You are not addressing issues.

Why haven’t you relesased FTM “2009″ as an upgrade to FTM 2008 yet? It worked for SP3, so it works for FTM 2009.

Is is true, as some commenters have reported, that we have to pay for the “FREE” upgrade? Yes or No?

Is it true, that we have to wait ANOTHER few week to receive it?

These are simply questions.
These are obvious questions.
You have not addressed them at all.

BTW Michelle,

I just saw that you deleted some critical post from another thread.
Comment that were not derogatory in any way, just impatient, fortright and critical, and called upon you to honor your promises.

Undersand this bit of advice, Michelle, If you are going to release crappy product, deal with the criticism.

Censoring opinions you don’t like is not going to play well with the community of loyal users. You have earned your first minus points with this user.

Thank you for the update. The fact that the update contained specific information on what to expect was great.

I want to echo Ian’s desire for the ability to update online trees. Family Tree Maker is a great tool and the best way to maintain a genealogy database, but ancestry.com is a great place to share the information. However, having to create a new tree each time there are updates severely limits the use of the wonderful features ancestry.com provides for soliciting input such as pictures, stories, etc from other family members. It’s no use to add those things if they have to be added again the next time an upload occurs.

Looking forward to the ever improving FTM software. Even though there are frustrations at times, the information and tools at our fingertips is incredible compared to just a short time ago.

Thanks.

Michelle –
Thank you very much for your explanation on the process, problems & progress regarding the free software.
A lot of the anger from current FTM 2008 owners probably could have been avoided if someone had taken the time a month ago to explain what was actually going on with the release. The first release date was posted and came and went without comment from TGN. Duff Wilson announced a second release date, Sept 3, in his interview with Myrtle and that date also came and went without comment from TGN. I understood that when Ben left and Russell took over there would be a change in the Blog, however, allowing the requests for basic information to go unanswered or giving vague answers to questions(like “a few weeks”), doesn’t help when people are feeling cheated and/or taken advantage of.
However much I like some of the new features like the maps in FTM 2008, the fact remains that it was released without a lot of charts & reports immediately available and it wasn’t made clear enough that FTM 2008 wasn’t going to have all the charts & reports that previous versions had. I hate to say this but I made an assumption (and yes, I know I shouldn’t have) – I assumed that the new version would be better than the old, but still contain all of the same charts, reports and features that I loved so much. That is what had happened several times before, so I bought FTM 2008 based on my love of previous versions. This however was like paying for a whole cake but getting only a slice – expensive and irritating!

As to features – the all-in-one tree is the one thing I’d like to see in a future version of FTM. I save hunderds of dollars printing it myself. If it isn’t ever coming back I’ll have to buy different software.

Michelle – thank you again for the explanation and good luck with getting FTM 2009 out without anymore problems!

I have asked this question before and have received no reply. I have been using FTM since Banner Blue and the most important feature has been the book-writing. Now, with 2008 this feature is gone. Will it be reinstated in 2009?

Hi Michelle,

Thank you very much for your blogs today, they have been very informative. If only, as others have said before me, there had been more answers forthcoming from TGN there may not have been so much frustration shown on the blogs by FTM 2008 users. I admit I was one thise frustrated customers. I like 2008, although there are niggles, like the lack of the ‘all in one tree’ but overall I like the user interface. I eagerly await the email from yourselves today so that I can get my free copy of 2009.

Please continue to update us, it is very much appreciated.

Regards,

Lisa

Hello Michelle, welcome!

Please could you address Carol’s question: will the All-In-One Tree be returning to FTM 2009, and if so, when?

And a new question from me: when should UK users expect a free upgrade email and delivery/download of FTM 2009? Will there be a specific UK version, like there was for 2008?

Thank you.

I have not received my email yet. I am a registered purchaser and user of FTM 2008 and was sent an email promising me another email with info on how to get 2009 free. Please let me know how I can do that. Thank you.

I have multipy entries in my family tree and need to clean it up. I can’t figure out how to do this other than walking through the list and taking each entry one by one. Is there a quicker way of doing this?
Thanks Kathy

Michell welcome aboard.
I have not had much problem with FTM2008 after patch 2, but I can understand the frustration of some persons that have got into a lot of trouble with FTM2008. People are complaing that they have to pay postage (even Microsoft offer you a free prodcut, but you have to pay the postage), but I think that is nothing if we get a decent prodcut, that I am shure of. If TGM would have been little bit more watchful about this blog and answered complains then customers would have
been much more satisfied. Your step into that is a good process forward. I am looking forward to get my eMail and free FTM2009, I did register it through Ancestry.uk.
Keep on good work Michelle.
Gretar

Thanks for update. Any news is better than no news.

Understand earlier posts, comments and promises, but really would like the two main features I used (and reason for my purchasing FTM in the first place back in version 4.4) re-introduced.

“Introduced in Version 4.0
Family Books — automatically assemble your choice of trees, reports, and other printouts into one continuous document with Table of Contents and Index.

….

Free Web Page — where you can post trees and reports to help your long-lost relatives locate you and collaborate on research.”

Thanks,
Larry
2008SP10 07:20

Michelle,
Are their any plans to enable the online backup feature in 2009 that was offered in v16? I had just renewed/paid for another years service a few weeks before 2008 was released. Being an ‘early adopter’ type I jumped on the 2008 bandwagon as soon as it was available and have not been able to use the backup service as a result. Even if it wasn’t integrated directly into the 2009 menu if it was available via a separate website it would still be worth it to safeguard my 25+ years of research.

Thanks,
Mark Miller

Michelle,

Firtsly good luck. Yes I registered, yes I was informed I had been picked for Beta testing version 2009. Yes, I returned the signed document by fax. No, I never heard anything from that point.
No, I have, (as yet), received my free update to version 2009, BUT, wether free or ‘postage cost’, how are we in the UK going to be dealt with please.

This is not a complaint about the past, what has gone is gone, it is a hope/question that faith can again be gained in FTM, and it’s company.

Enjoy life.
Never promise, but, will always try.
Regards,
Bob Sangster.
England.

I would really, really like to have an option online at ancestry.com where I can designate some trees as “not ready to share” while they are in process. I don’t mind sharing info, but it REALLY bothers me that people might be finding WRONG info — things I am in the process of verifying but am not sure about yet.

I have been a beta tester for a some time and that company did make the beta testers a privilidge, that is a very important customers/user. Beta testers are one of the most important user for a program and if you do not yous his importatnt iformations you are definetly going into some problem. Even if my info was not use at beta testing period I was informed (this was not a minor company if had a dominant value in it category) So it is bad what Bob tells. Not promising. Beta testers are so valuable. Still looking foreward.

Welcome Michelle.

Now on to the bad news… I have inserted the coupon code and clicked apply but the cart still shows the the full purchase price at $47.65. I also tried to use “update” in hopes that it would reflect the coupon. It did not. Unfortunately the customer service department is closed as it is now after 5:00 PM Pacific Time…

Charlene

Hi,Michelle
I have did not receive your email last week. Below is the conformation of my registration. Looking forward to the 2009 upgrade.
Daryl Rickards
Warrawee NSW
Australia

Dear Daryl Rickards,

Thank you for registering your copy of Family Tree Maker. As a registered user, you are eligible to:

Have Family Tree Maker automatically search Ancestry.co.uk for more information on the ancestors in your file through our Web Search feature.
Receive discounts on future versions of Family Tree Maker and other Ancestry.co.uk products.
Enjoy using Family Tree Maker, and best of luck in your research!

Best regards,
Your Family Tree Maker Team

Same thing happened to me Charlene. I guess I’ll have to wait ’til tomorrow??

Hi Michelle

I’m in New Zealand, and registered FTM 2008 on September 2 2007.

I haven’t received any emails regarding the upgrade to FTM 2009

I just got the 2009 upgrade e-mail. Clicked the link and nothing happened, just sits there. Once again you mist the most important rule of customer service and retention…do it right the first time

LOL… guess they released the email for the free update:

Ping 66.43.21.120
[store.ancestry.com]

Timed out
Timed out
Timed out
Timed out
Timed out
Timed out
Timed out
Timed out
Timed out
Timed out

Average time over 10 pings: 0 ms

Brian, it’s just that everyone who got the email is trying to access that page at the same time and it’s timing out, which isn’t Ancestry’s fault.

What is their fault though is that I’m also having the problem that it’s not discounting the price with the coupon code.

Here we go again. The free copy by e-mail for all of us that have been promised this won’t even download.
Come on, let’s get it right. When you put it in the cart everthing locks up and asked you to come back later because your are having cart problems. Way to go.

Another TGN fiasco!! Received e-mail to get released version of FTM2009 and the Ancestry web site/store is messed up. Was able to get it up then I placed my code into the slot and two hours later still waiting.

Why not allow us to download?

RON C

Does FTM-2008 allow me to print out the entire family tree that I have made? Seems like I have to print out separate section , one at a time.

Well look on the bright side, at least the forum site is up so we can complain about the shopping site being down.

While I have been a loyal user of FTM for almost as long as it has been out, I too have been disappointed in some of the upgrade options when I went to version 2008. But I can also see things as a computer manager for a large organization that some persons can’t. There are a lot of issue that pop up that might be unforseeable. While I appreciate the comments being made in a public forum, eveyone who as used the program for as long as I have must have realized some of these problems were going to happen. If you send an e-mail to 10 people and so on, by the time it gets to the 6th level you have over one million e-mails. Imagine the number of e-mails going out and the number of people trying to access the site all at once. I am just as anzious as everyone, but I think we all need to take a step back and be patient. Thanks for the updates Michelle and I hope we have your ear for current problems and future upgrade thoughts at the same level. Keep up the great work.

I wasn’t able to use my code for the free upgrade for FTM 2009.
What can I do now.

Michelle –

Thank you for keeping your word and getting the email out today.

I must say however my coupon code didn’t work tonight so I’ll try again tomorrow.

I’m a registered user of FTM 2008; however, have not received any emails regarding update. In fact I don’t recall ever getting an email acknowledging my registration (I’ve done it multiple times). I have received emails confirming registration of the webinar and other items fromm Ancestry.com.

I received my e-ma; with free upgrade code (I was a beta-tester). However uisng the links in the e-mail, gives me a message that due the overwhelming response to the fre upgrade TGN cannot service my order – try later.

If I go to the ancestry site and select Store – a message says it is unavaible vut you can still select software and order FTM2009 – but BEWARE — the code in the e-mail does not work — it still shows total price

I suspect the code only works on the link from the e-mail!!

At least some progress is being made but one would have thought they should have expected the high volume.

The upgrade should have had an option for a download version or CD -
most online sites have that feature!!

Sorry for the spelling mistakes in previous post – it is late here!!

There is a message on the site now.
Due to the high popularity of our FTM 2009 free upgrade offer, we are unable to fulfill your order at this time. Please check back later.

Thank you, The Generations Network, Inc.

It should probably be fine by tomorrow depending on the volume of traffic the site gets..

Hi Michelle,
It is 10:17 PM on 9-9 and I don’t have my email yet. Perhaps because I registered under my old email address, rburnett@hughes.net I did change that email address with Ancestry but assume that there could be a problem. The correct email did come up above.

Now, I think I have a problem that I haven’t seen with other posts. In the relationship view, people are listed as unrelated person even though they are the preferred, natural parent. I went in tonight and deleted an entire family relationship, not the people, just the relationships. I then reconnected and everything seemed ok. Later I go back and it has returned to the unrelated person. Sure hope that is fixed in 2009.

Ok, I just went in and registered the program again, this time with my new email. Hopefully that will get me the coveted email.
Thanks

I am a registered user of FTM 2008 and have not yet received the update e-mail. I believe I am registered through the UK although I am located in Canada.

Cheers,
Paul

Hi Michelle,
Thanks for your update, but although I have registered, as yet I have still not received any emails (it is now midnight in Ontario).
Hopefully you guys will find me soon! looking forward to getting 2009!
Thanks again

As of 2306 CDT, I have not received the email telling me where I can download the free upgrade.

Hi Michelle,

Just a quick clarification. I did use the link in the email during my attempt to use the coupon code.

I wish all of luck…

Charlene

It looks like the volume of requests may have crashed the servers. At least that is my guess. I have been getting this message for a couple of hours now.

Due to the high popularity of our FTM 2009 free upgrade offer, we are unable to fulfill your order at this time. Please check back later.

Thank you, The Generations Network, Inc.

Disappointing but will try again in the morning.

Hi Michelle,

Unfortunately I have not received your email and I have also checked the spam folder, I am in the UK, what happens now please?

“Terms and Conditions apply. See http://www.store.ancestry.com. Valid until October 9, 2008.”

According to the above sentence, from the email, we have one month to get our free upgrade.

Michelle,

I haven’t received my email. Should I have? I’m in Ireland would I have been included in the UK mailing?

I purchased and installed FTM2008 in late July. I am sure I would have registered as part of the installation process but I have no proof that I did. I was so thoroughly disgusted with the software that I removed it shortly after installation. I did receive the note in August advising FTM2008 users would be given a free 2009 upgrade but I have not received yesterday’s email with the coupon code.

I am in Maryland. That’s in the U.S.

Also, Michelle, I would like to thank you stepping up to the plate. I’m not sure what’s going on there at TGN but the silence had become deafening.

Thanks

Pat

Hi Michelle

Thanks for you informative update, looking forward to the new release. I am a customer that has not recived an email. Can you please advise whom I should contact.

thanks

Michael.

I live in the UK and bought a UK version of 2008 from a 2008 online UK retailer.

I have not received any e-mail offering the free upgrade.

When I phoned ancestry.co.uk “customer services” yesterday, they told me that all UK registered users should receive the e-mail by the end of next week!!!

Michelle – can you look into why there is so much miss-information?

Can you confirm whether I should have by now received the relevant e-mail?

Peter

Hi again Michelle,
It must be busy for you but what about we folk outside the US. If the clock is ticking down to the 9th October and given the problems the US folk are experiencing will we miss out on the free upgrade.
best regards
Daryl

OK – why is everyone here in such a rush to download this update. Just think about your experience with FTM2008…patience.

Still no luck this morning – 7:45 Eastern!

The link from the email still gives the overload message and the Ancestry Store, although now available doest not apply the upgrade code.

Still no e-mail

Ditto to an earlier comment.

What’s happen to Russell?

Are you now the FTM voice of TGN Michelle?

Hi Michelle,
You requested we contact you if we did not receive a email about FMT 2009 free upgrade. I have not as of yet. I also would like to know if it is possible to upgrade further from that point?
Thanks so much,
Sandy

How about a status update on what is going on!!

Maybe they are re-thinking a “downloadable version” instead!!

What about the code not working on checkout?

In any case give us a status update please!

Hours later and hours later again- I still cannot get into the store by following the link for my free upgrade. I have to agree that a coupon code that simply would have fixed the price and perhaps granted free shipping would have worked. Other online stores do things like this all the time.

Typical for what we’ve seen with FTM2008- It took 40 folks to still have problems with the free upgrade. Reminds me of those “How Many Aggies” jokes.

Why not concentrate on getting the release right in the first place? There are already things hanging for 2009 that are planned as upgrades? This has been one of my biggest FTM gripes. . . one version right after another leaves little time for true working with the issues at hand. Thankfully, this new version is suppose to come to me free. . . if I can ever get the link to work.

Suggestions/ Requests:
True intergration with the online family trees.
Recongnition of dial-up customers and the impact of this on using features.

I still have not received the email advising me about how to access the free upgrade. I received an email in August advising me that I would be receiving this information. Since then, the silence has been extremely deafening.

While FTM 2008 has some features I like, it also does not have the functionality I remember from FTM 2006. I am hoping that FTM 2009 restores that functionality.

No email here, 10:14AM CDT, USA

Still trying to get the upgrade, even trying to paste the site automatically redirects me to the page to try later, it is not even trying to get there anymore. Why not just automatically mail a copy to everyone that you offered it to. wouldn’t that be much easier? send out a form to email back with request and address to send software. just a suggestion. Hope all works out and thank you for the offer. looking forward to getting FTM2009.

Here’s my registration:

X-Originating-IP: [76.96.30.77]
X-Authority-Analysis: v=1.0 c=1 a=HfUzXJc2AAAA:8 a=WrT98moskGoout5-5NgA:9 a=lxSDx_snAEK40CrJCkACT3MBehoA:4 a=oJvj-ygz_HcA:10 a=9OHTkwyHC8cA:10
X-VirtualServer: comm, comm.myfamily.com, 10.8.10.3
X-Destination-ID:
X-MailingID: 00000::00000::00000::00000::::507967
X-Mailer: StrongMail Enterprise 3.2.0(3.00.196)
X-VirtualServerGroup: comm
X-SMHeaderMap: mid=”X-MailingID”
from: useradmin@familytreemaker.com
to: clarker2@comcast.net
date: 16 Jan 2008 13:39:02 -0700
subject: Welcome to past.familytreemaker.com
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 16 Jan 2008 20:39:02.0635 (UTC) FILETIME=[D452DBB0:01C8587F]

Dear Randolph Clark,

Thank you for registering your copy of Family Tree Maker. As a registered user, you are eligible to:

* Have Family Tree Maker automatically search Ancestry.com for more information on the ancestors in your file through our Web Search feature.
* Receive discounts on future versions of Family Tree Maker and other Ancestry.com products.

Even when y’all DO get the email, I doubt its going to work for you…almost 12:30 here est and I still cant get to the site to try to get it. I even tried just going to the store without the link and applying the coupon code and it doesnt work.

Thanks Michelle I got the email.
I’ve never seen so many angry people over getting somehing free. I never expected to get this and am happy to wait. Even though there has been problems ftm 2008 is still better than most out there especially combined with ancestry.com. Your ancestors will still be there tomorrow. Take a deep breath and for the time being research googlebooks.com.

Just one more thing, I’m not sure but I’d bet that some of you that don’t see a discount at checkout are not going through the email but going directly to ancestry.com and trying to use the coupon. I’m pretty sure you have to start at your email and click on “get the software”. Could be wrong but…

Still getting the unavailable message using the link from the email – unless of course you go to the store and try to buy at the full price, no problems there. So current users of FTM2008 are being given a lower priority – that just doesn’t seem right to me.

TonyC

Hi

I am not sure what to do! I still have not received an email, let alone try go to the website and order FTM 2009.

I was looking forward to all the upgrades that were to be part of FTM 2009 and the fact that it was given as a free upgrade made them that much better. I was very disappointed when I received the email about the free upgrade and the “Free Software” link got me nothing but an “I’m sorry”.
Very disappointed!

Sandra,

We are going through the email. Using the code from the email by just going to the store does not get you the discount.

It’s not that I’m in a rush. It’s not that I’m angry- it’s disappointment. It’s that I had hope that our FTM 2009 experience would be different from the last one with FTM 2008. But, ill-planning such as we are seeing today does not bode well for those hopes. I think that many others feel similarly.

How about making the beta testers the first group!!

Sometimes I think Ancestry goes out of their way to make things more difficult, expensive, & complicated. Why was all the time, resources and money spent on figured how to do it going around the store coupon window. Wouldnt it have been easier to just have a coupon that works through that window? You dont see other companies stating you have to go to this site instead to use this special coupon, and when the rare cases you do its cause its someone spoofing the site and trying to gain personal info from ya.

Hi Michelle

Will I, in New Zealand, get this new email?

I have not received any emails so far.

I bougth and registered FTM 2008 when it first came out. Although I had many problems and crashes and hated the program I still used it. I have not gotten an email either

Well I can certainly understand not initially having enough compute capacity to handle an intial surge. I don’t understand not having enough reserve capacity on demand to resolve the issue. I woul dhave also expect a note in EMAIL stating that the first site does not work! I am glad I found this blog by accident a few weeks ago and pity the folks who did not and are still clicking away on the site. They will be infuriated!

Eric

BTW I am not real happy to have missed Michelle’s note for the last 3 hours!

Family Tree Maker 2008 Registered on October 1 , 2007 , but no email todate. I am from the UK.

I am now thinking that Ancestry does not actually know who is a registered user of FTM 2008.

It must surely be easy to pick up all registered users and send an email to them.

I regularly receive emails from all sorts of sites where I’ve registered, where the trader is trying to sell upgraded versions.

Why not Ancestry for FTM 2009?

Hi Michelle,

I’ve had Family Tree Maker 2008 since October 2007, also beta tester of FTM 2009, but like so many people no email yet…I to am from the UK.

How long is my beta of 2009 going to keep working?

Thanks

Richard

Just received this email:

Dear valued customer,

Yesterday, we provided you with an email offer for a free Family Tree Maker upgrade. So many people have tried to upgrade to Family Tree Maker 2009 that it overwhelmed our online store site. We’re very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

In the next few days we’ll send you an email with a new link and coupon code, plus instructions for getting your free upgrade before October 15th. Please note that we can only process upgrades through this link and not our call center.

Thanks for your patience. We’ll send you that email soon.

Sincerely,

The Family Tree Maker team

Hi Michelle,

Thanks. I must reiterate the comments about the all-in-one tree. It’s the only thing I use and I cannot work without it. I need to know how high a priority it is, so I can decide whether I need to buy another program or not.

Hello Michelle,

Thank you for your prompt response where you recognise that the All-In-One Tree is a priority for many of us, and is currently on TGN’s priority list. I know that’s not a lot of information – but you’re the first to acknowledge its importance to many of us!

Now for the bad news: I live in the UK and have not received an upgrade email.

I registered FTM 2008 last year, and a number of times recently, just to make sure…to no avail. I have never had an email acknowledging my registration though, just a confirmation on screen.

Please help – if time is running out!

Many thanks.

P.S. Michelle:

This may not be relevant, but what has happened to the monthly Ancestry updates I used to get? I haven’t had one for six months or so…and then today I got one, with my name on, asking for vounteers for a Landmark Collection of immigration stories.

Is this linked to registration or emailing problems at TGN/Ancestry?

By the way, have you noticed how your regular communications have successfully changed the general tone of this board, despite the ongoing problems?

Well done – keep up the good work!!

As I have previously said.

Can Ancestry give an assurance that the “all-in-one tree” chart be added to the program before the end of the year?

This will help restore some faith in Ancestry for users of FTM.

Michelle,

I also registered FTM 2008 (more than once) but have not received an email.

In fact I haven’t received ANY promotional or other emails relative to FTM (other than from development folks like Ben) for more than a year, even though I have tried to set preferences everywhere I could to get them. Am out of ideas how to get on the “list.”

Thanks.

The book feature and all in one chart sound like they will happen in future updates.

One other feature that is important, is the ability to run FTM archive CD’s.Will this feature be added in future? I know that some/most of these programs are on ancestry but not all users of FTM continue to use the site. I realise the program can be run separate to FTM if you have an family archive viewer program. If there are no plans to add this feature in future, will there be support of the FTM Data CD’s via a free down load of family archive viewer? One that will keep up todate with a change to operating systems eg XP to Vista?.

I am in the United States and as of 7:53 p.m. CDT, I have not received any email with information about the free upgrade to Family Tree Maker 2009. I registered my software last year but have gotten nothing. What should I do?

I just realized that like John in message #89, I have not received any Ancestry.com emails for a very long time, even though I am an Ancestry member and have registered my copy of FTM 2008 (more than once as a matter of fact). What do I do to get the free upgrade?

Hi Michelle,

I am a registered FTM 2008 user and have not received any email messages regarding how I would go about receiving the upgrade. I recently registered again since I had not received any of the prior communications.

Thanks!
BIll

Michelle

There are so many users now saying that they have not received any emails. And you will be only seeing a small number of FTM users, those who are contributing to this blog.

You say that you are sending out another email. Who are you sending these to?

I am in New Zealand. Have you sent any emails to users in New Zealand?

Can you confirm that there is a problem with your registration system?

If this is so, then what is Ancestry doing to address the problem?

I registered last year, got an email to confirm that I had registered.

But have received no emails! And I don’t think I am likely to.

I know this sounds obvious, but scan your junk mail closely. Even though I get lots of solicitation email from Ancestry and family Tree maker my first email ended up in the junk mail.

This seems to be a repeat of the delivery fiasco from last year. I preordered a few weeks in advance and never got the initial delivery. It took several call and 1.5 months to finally get the software after the initial ship date. Then I could not even transfer my FTM 2006 files until after the second service pack. Start to useable was over 6 months. I am happier with 2008 after I have gotten used to it. I am looking to get the upgrade and then like Microsoft OS’s put it on the shelf for 6 months while the bugs get worked out and features are added.

Regards, Eric

Thanks Eric

Yes, I have been, and always do, check my spam in case legit emails land up there.

Hi, I have not got my email regarding upgrade to 2009.
Also, wonder if anyone can help – have sent requests to Ancestory – no reply.
I have asked for a syncronisation function so that I can sycronise the db on Ancestory.com and my local db in FTM. Often I am on the web and do research – this updates the db uploaded to the web. I want to be able to sycronise back to my FTM db. Is this possible or is that another way of doing this?

Hi Michelle,

I’ve been waiting all day and I still have not received my email to upgrade to 2009. Do I need to call customer service? I bought 2008 when it first came out and have had very little problem with it and I registered with no problem so I don’t understand why I have not received my email.

Thanks

Cathy

Hello,

I purchased FTM 2008 and have not received an e-mail regarding the FTM 2009 offer. (I registered the product recently, so that may be why.) I look forward to receiving the upgrade.

Thank you.

Very diappointing experience.

Thank you Michelle,
I look forward to the upgrade and that the ordering process is fixed to your satifaction.

Daryl in Oz

Kathy

It may be better if you posted your query to http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.software.famtreemaker/mb.ashx with some more detail including what version of FTM that you are using and what are the nature of the multiple entries etc.

The blog is not really the best place for answering tech queries.

Alternatively and even better list is the FTM-Tech list

http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/Software/FTM-TECH.html

John D

Not received the email yet.

Have not received an upgrade email.
Thank you

Would it be possible to give the faithful users of 2008 the option of getting the new program on CD???

I would be quite willing to pay a nominal amount to get the new version on CD. That way if my computer crashes, I could reinstall the new version.

With only having the option of getting 2009 as a download between now and 10/15, what happens after that???

Hi,

I have been a Family Tree Maker user from the 90’s and I have bought all versions when released and registered. I was also selected as a beta tester…can I please receive my email with the link for the FTM 2009 final release. Thank you.

How do I obtain the new Family Tree Maker 2009? I can not find a way to order the upgrade. Please advise.

Thank you Michelle

I purchased the AU version and live in New Zealand.

Have not received any emails, and look forward to your advice as to the coupon.

I am a little confused, should registered users in the UK have receieved the email yet?

I have not received an email, but there is always a danger of it getting gobbled up by a spam filter.

Dan

I understand that the upgrade (it is not really an upgrade it is the full FTM 2009) will be provided on a CD not a download

John D

Michelle,

I purchased FTM 2008, directly from Ancestry Store in July 2007. I have also been using FTM for many years and upgraded each time.

I did register online when I installed FTM 2008 in July/August 2007.

I never received the first email you mentioned. Should I register again in case my original registration did not go through for some reason? I just tried this and got an error that stated the connection could not be made at this time. (9/11 ~3pm Pacific Time.

Thanks ,

Jerry

We want the download.

Dont care about CD.

Don’t want to wait longer.

Thanks again Michelle. Just for clarification, when you say that you will work with those that haven’t received the email, can you provide rough timelines as to when we can expect something and/or in what format?

Kind regards,
Bill

Michelle,

I am one of those who have not received an email. I was, in fact, one of the 2008 beta testers. I have been most excited to see the improvements that have come with the patches to 2008 and am looking forward to 2009. I appreciate your kind offer of a free copy of 2009 and look forward to it as well.

Jay Thompson

Michelle

Reference your post 111.

Our overwhelming response to the 2009 upgrade has not been about our interest in the new product but because we are pissed off with 2008.

Registered and still no email?

I purchased 2008 in April or May, and initially was frustrated, as it was not as easy to instal as other upgrades, and I could not get it to register.

I have in the last few days got it registered. Another few (wasted) hours working on FTM 2008 has convinced me to go back to my trusty Version 11 until I am sure my data has not been lost. While I have located the notes data that I had thought had disappeared, the marriage data has partially disappeared, in that there is merely a common event date, rather than a “marriage”, a date and a place and it does not appear to be capable of being inserted in a chart. With about 600 individuals, and 3 or 400 marriages, I cannot take the risk of having to manually re-enter so much data.

The loss of the all-in-one chart is also crazy and had I known that, I would not have purchased 2008. WHOSE idea was that?! Own up!

Fortunately the new data I entered into 2008 was minimal as I spent the time trying to find things and I still have the V 11 disc and data in V 11 format, backed up.

The upgrade to 2008 was my 4th FTM upgrade since my original purchase of V 3 or 4, and I wait with baited breath down here in AU, to see if the free CD upgrade arrives.

I must say that I had thought the issues I had were probably mine alone, but I have been astounded to see in the last few days, that they are not.

2008 is plainly a triumph of form over function; the form is a vast improvement,and while I have not had crashes, even with extensive FTM and computing experience experience, I cannot be confident it is worth the risk of using it until it is fixed. Intuitive it aint!

And bring back all in one trees!

I am an Australian and a registered user of FTM2008 purchased directly from Ancestry Store in USA.Order date 17.07.07 Order number 20288396
I have not yet received my email about getting FTM2009 free. Please advise the action I should take.
Thank you
Kev

Michelle,

No email here yet.
I registered the Australian version with Australian postal and email addresses.

Thanks

Hi
I am also an Australia user of FTM 2008 and am definately register but have not received any emails regarding 2009 update.
I purchased the product when it first came out from a group that I am a member called VICGUM they are a genealogical computer users group in Victoria, Australia.
I absolutely love the new format and particularly love the web clipping feature (saves major time)and yes there are features that I miss but I have confidence that these will be addressed in future as best as they can be.
thank you
a very happy 2008 user who is looking forward to using 2009.
Donna Marie

Michelle,

I live in the United States have registered and still have not received the email.

Alan

To the Australian users #121, 122, 123 etc

I have been keeping GUM members in AU updated

If you have any queries (GUM member or not) email to info@vicgum.asn.au

John D

David

Have you updated your FTM 2008 to the SP3 patch?

John D

I am terribly disappointed in Deluxe Family Tree Maker 2008. On the box it advertises 3 months premium access to Ancestry.com, never mentioning anywhere that access is denied to all UK records.
It’s no good at all to me as I have traced all my relatives back to the UK, but am unable to go any further. I always heard bad things about Ancestry.com but was willing to give them a shot for $40. I’m really ticked off
and feel that I’ve been cheated.

It is now the morning of the 12th and I have not received the email about upgrading to 2009.
I registered version 2008 when purchased and back in early August, when the first information came out about 2009, I verified again that my copy was registered.

Thank you

Joel R. Swanson
jomars@atlantic.net

Why doesn’t TNG listen to its “valued customers” and provide a downloadable copy of FTM2009?

It would be so much easier and cheaper!

Do you not have the experts to do this?

Listen to your customers!!

I have not received my e-mail link.

Having recently purchased FTM 2008, I was pleased to find out about the 2009 upgrade offer. Please note that after checking my junk email folder and others, there is not an email to be found. In fact, after agreeing ot have newsletter, tips, etc, sent to my email, I have yet to receive an email from Ancestry.com. I even double checked my email address in my account and made sure it was correct. It was. Please see if an email could be forwarded so that I may take advantage of the offer others are getting.

I to have not received an upgrade email. I am registered and have registered evey version of Family Tree Maker for many years. Aside from a few import problems and missing data FTM 2008 I find to work quite well. I also subscribe to Ancestry.com and the green leaf matches are sometimes way off target and repetitive but given time I’m sure that will be resolved. Looking forward to the new 2009 version.

Got my email on the new link, clicked on it, was done in about two minutes and even free shipping for “NON EXPEDITED” shipping. Painless transaction.

I was able to get mine too from the new system. Did find it funny though that I first got the message stating that due to high demand it was temperarly down. Then it stated their was 1 of 1 in the que. Shortly after that the store link poped up and i clicked. Very quickly after order was placed I received the confirmation email of the order. Thanks

I recieved the email about 15 minutes ago and have already been able to order. Seems to be working better even if at a slower pace.

I have not received an e-mail either. Thanks, Kevin

I just got the new e-mail for the free copy of 2009. I clicked on GET THE SOFTWARE, got a page showing a few in line waiting, waited until the GO TO STORE came on, and then tried the four step procedure. First off I could not type in my zip code, then I could not change the code number from FTM001F56F to the new code number. When I clicked on Item No 4 all the page would do would blink about every ten seconds. What gives?

Please correct Comment 137 to read “could NOT enter my zip code.

I just got the new e-mail. I clicked on “Get the Software” and went to “Go To Store” after my 12 minute wait time.

I copied and pasted my new coupon code, then clicked on “Apply” but the price stayed the same.

What else can I do to get the coupon code to change the price to $0.00?

I didn’t even have to enter the coupon code when I got mine. It auto populated. I did enter my zip with no problem also. I selected the non expedited shipping, the shipping changed to $0.00 and hit complete. I wonder if the system is now getting bogged down.

No update email here as yet!!

las note should have read “No new updated email as yet”

After waiting 30 minutes, I still had over 800 people in front of me. Then all of a sudden I had 0 minutes and 0 people in front of me.

I am still waiting.

System must be slowing down.

While waiting in line to enter the store I received the following error message:

Sys.webforms PageRequestManagerServerErrorException

An unknown error occurred etc.

#12031

Family Tree Maker 2009,
Sorry but I have not got my Email yet.
I got a US copy FTM 2008 from the
Ancestry.com retail store.
my order No 20886962.
John Vaughan
Ancestry.com User, ellesmere801

Re:139

After I unsuccessfully tried to get my coupon code to change the price of FTM2009 in my cart, I decided to try again.

I waited a while, and started the process at the beginning by clicking on the link in the email. I waited my turn in line again to get into the store. I now had two FTM 2009 in my cart. As soon as I deleted one of them, the other FTM 2009 in my cart changed to $0.00. The order went though ok.

I wish I could say what I did differently to make the coupon code work the second time. Perhaps when I first tried, the system was overloaded.

I am looking foward to receiving my copy. Thanks.

Still no sign of any email for me in Ontario!

I have a regesterd 2008 FTM and have not received a email for a free upgrade, can you help me ???
Walt

As of 7:08 PM there are 2,091 people in line at the FTM store and the estimated waiting time is 88 minutes! This is an improvement?

As of 7:15 PM, the Ancestry store’s server has apparently crashed again. Can’t presently access the site.

I just tried your latest effort to give us the free upgrade that we have waited so long for. Yea, long wait … 88 minutes. 1500 people in line ahead of me. Then suddenlyl, I’m in! Only to discover there are 11 or so copies of the software in my shopping cart and the total bill is over $400. Nope, I didn’t put all those copies in my shopping cart. OK, I try to remove the ones I don’t want. Impossible. Error messages abound. Failure here. Failure there. You guys know who we are. We registered. Just mail them to us.

Hi I just purchased 2008 yesterday and upgraded my 2006 version without knowing about this. Did I miss the boat on getting 2009 for free? Just my luck that I missed this by a few days. Is there still a way to squeeze me in?

Michelle,
Count me as one of the unhappy ones. I still do not have the email. In fact, I never received an email which told me you were going to send an email. I just happened to check the forum the other night.
I called tech support and was told to “put a big note on my computer to contact you on October 1, 2008 if I had not yet received my email”

I was also informed that it wouldn’t matter if I got my email because the store was so overloaded. Frankly, I am getting angry.

Also, your tech support is only up during regular working hours. If you have a problem (and who hasn’t), you have to take time away from work to get support. Why not some evening and weekend hours for those of us who remain working stiffs?

Sarah, patch 3 was indeed a big improvement, but I am still trying to correct errors in my database.

The happy few who managed to get something ordered are fortunate indeed. For the rest of us, the Ancestry store has become the cyber equivalent of Best Buy or Circuit City the day after Thanksgiving: long lines snaking around the store and spilling out onto the sidewalk.

My primary thought at this point is that Friday is not a good day to try to activate something like this. 2200+ people were in line the last time I tried; imagine what is it going to be like over the weekend!

Karen,

In some ways you are lucky, some of use have not yet received the email with the updated link and “coupon” code … I am still waiting to be invited to stand on the long line snaking around the store …

The time is now 8:04 PM EST. After having the FTM srore’s server crash on me just a few minutes ago, I decided to retry. Again, the line was long as was the waiting time, but before I could finish reading the screen, a message flashed up telling me to go to the store.

My cart was already loaded and priced and as soon as I pasted the coupon code in the space provided the total charge changed to zero! The only problem was that I was asked for my Ancestry username and password before checking out. I was in and out of the store within two minutes.

Why can’t the ancestry people respond to emails? It is like they don’t really exist! And they wonder why people are upset!

Give us a downloadable product!

Someone mentioned about the weekend — how much more of a queue there might be at the ancestry store!!

I seriously doubt anyone will get emails over the weekend! I think they have closed up for the weekend! It is certainly not a 24/7 operation!

Give us a downloadable product!

Michelle,

I have been waiting patiently for the email providing registered users the coupon code for FTM 2009 but have not receive it as of yet. Is it possible that there still is a glich in the system.

I did recieve an email on 8/8/2008 stating that register users would recieve a free copy of FTM but I have not received anything since then. How would I get my free upgrade.

Thank you,

Chris

I have tried several times to order the free upgrade. I do get a message that says there is a long wait and then “go to shopping cart” pops up. The screen that comes up has an order for two copies. I remove one, put in the code and the prices all go to 0. Then when I to go to checkout, I am asked to log into ancestry and put in my credit card information. After that the screen pops up with the original price – shipping costs and taxes. I am asked to confirm my order which I don’t do. Please fix this.

I’ve been a Family Tree Maker user since 2006. 2006 is a great product. I purchased the 2008 version in March 2008 and found it to be mediocre at best although I find its’ web search feature to be better than even the search feature on Ancestry.com – I get more matches to my search queries.

I am another one of those individuals who never received an email about upgrading to 2009 even as recently as 8:00pm. What’s up with this?

Will the 2009 version solve issues with exporting to PDF? I would like to share a rough draft of a descendant chart with relatives as a single-page PDF to hopefully provoke some sharing of information and photos. My chart size is currently 8.5 x 154. When I try to export to PDF, the resulting file consists of 15 pages of 8.5 x 11 pages. This is impossible to follow. I’ve tried adjusting the page size to larger than 8.5 x 164, and adjusting PDF settings and still get the same results.

I realize that this blog is probably not the right place for an Export to PDF problem but when I asked the question to technical support the response was to send the chart to my printer and it would make the necessary adjustments. “Send the chart to my printer and it would make the necessary adjustments”? I am trying to export to PDF. Did I miss something?

Amyway, as a registered user of 2008 I am hoping that 2009 will resolve this and other issues and I am hoping to see an email for an upgrade before the time limit runs out.

Thank you.

G’day from sunny Australia!

Have just received a second email with a second coupon, but it is evident from posts to this blog and my own attempts at getting onto the Store site, that there are way too many attempts being made to allow the page to actually load in Australia!!!!!

I would suggest that the software be available to download to us registered users, once we provide suitable “keys” to unlock the download.

Ancestry already has our FTM 2008 registration details, and the requirement to logon to the Ancestry site will double-check the downloader’s credentials!!!

Any software developer knows that a distribution method is better than a purchase method – look at software like Adobe and utilities like Java… download and use the software in a basic format, then purchase if you are really serious.

Come on, you guys at Ancestry – wake up and give the world a go!

Let actual purchasers use your Shop and provide the upgrades on a download site….

Michelle – I hope you can help here

> Likewise, if you are in the UK,
> Australia and New Zealand and
> didn’t receive your email last
> week, please let us know. (Sept 9)

I’m in Sydney and haven’t received *any* email about FTM 2009 yet… who do it “let know” and how do I make contact?

Also, I’m **** extremely **** disappointed by the message (in another thread here) that Vista x64 is not supported for FTM2009. Vista x64 has been on the market for almost a year and three quarters now, there are tens of millions of PCs running it and the uptake rate is now far outpacing Vista x86!

If they don’t have the capacity to handle a few hundred 5-minute transactions, they certainly don’t have enough bandwith to handle more than a handful of simultaneous full product downloads.

The download option would mean we’d all be in queue until New Year’s day.

I have not received any emails from Ancestry concerning the FTM 2009 upgrade. Have all the first email notifications been sent? In the past 2-3 months I have notified Ancestry that my ISP is blocking emails from Ancestry. This still has not been fixed for me to receive newsletters and other emails from Ancestry group. Ancestry Security was suppose call my ISP. Now today I have received very few emails from my list if any at all. I have been a regular since Ver2. I just want to get the emails to upgrade to FTM 2009 and receive my newsletters. Please help.
Thanks.

So much impatience….come on, you have 1 month to order this free software….and like last time its going to take 2-3 weeks to get through the mail anyway.

After posting 151 I tried the store for the free upgrade a few minutes ago. I got right in to the server without a wait. Placed my order for the free upgrade and was back out the door in two minutes at the most. Success!

After SP3 came out for the 2008 version I am well pleased with 2008. I expect 2009 to be well worth hanging in there for and expect an outstanding application as time passes.

I’m looking forward to trying the new product and the additional features that are coming down the line.

Thanks for the upgrade!

I thought that I received an email with a coupon code to be used to obtain my free copy of FTM 2009. I was a beta tester for FTM 2009. When I tried to use the code, the dollar amount did not go to zero.

Thanks for your help.

Comment Number:
161 Written by:
Roxanna Deane

Posted on:
September 12, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I have tried several times to order the free upgrade. I do get a message that says there is a long wait and then “go to shopping cart” pops up. The screen that comes up has an order for two copies. I remove one, put in the code and the prices all go to 0. Then when I to go to checkout, I am asked to log into ancestry and put in my credit card information. After that the screen pops up with the original price – shipping costs and taxes. I am asked to confirm my order which I don’t do. Please fix this.

Roxanne, I’m having the same problem. Have spend hours today trying to figure out what is wrong! Maybe they think we’ll get frustrated and want the product so much that we’ll just give up and pay for it!

I waited after my first foray into the jungle did not work out well. All was quiet as I entered the second time. Yippee! I was able to get the order in.

Thank you!
Charlene

Hi there,

After reading all the problems with the code, let alone getting the email, which I still never got. I decided that I would purchase a copy of FTM 2009 instead. I decided that it would be better than waiting and waiting and waiting…..

I got my disc this morning, and I have loaded it and YES there is the ability to export to a single PDF – thank you thank you thank you, it was woth paying the full price for to just get that function for me.

However when I registered my copy , it still came up with FTM 2008 registration page and not 2009, but It is definately 2009 that is running. I might email ancestry support about this as I will want to get the correct updates for FTM 2009 as and when they happen.

Thought you may all want to know about the export to single PDF page

Lisa

I love the changes, there have been some little tweaks meade and they are very good. You can now choose to ignore records to stop the green leaf always showing. However, you cannot ignore all of them if you do not subscribe to the worldwide ancestry. I am in the UK and I subscribe to the UK membership part, so i can now choose to ignore irrelevant records for the UK but not for America. I hope that can get sorted eventually, however well done so far!!!

Don

FTM 2009 supports single page PDF

best to pose technical questions to the FTM-Tech list where most of the long-time users hang out or to the Ancestry FTM site

John D

I have not yet received the update email. I did receive the previous mailing. What must I do to obtain the 2009 version.

OTHER READERS – PLEASE READ THIS!
Especially if from the U.K.

* Free UK registration contact no. 0800 404 9723
* Not an automated voicemail system!
* Direct to TGN/Ancestry in USA
* Open on Saturday!
* FTM 2009 update emails on their way
* Should receive by Friday 19 September at latest

Hello,

As I’ve said earlier here, I’ve not received an upgrade email, here in the UK.

However, yesterday I did receive an email from TWR Computing from whom I bought FTM 2008. They they said this about the current upgrade situation:

“Customers who have bought FTM 2008 over the last 12 months will probably be already aware that they are entitled to a free upgrade as they should have received an email from Ancestry explaining how to send for a disc. If you have registered your program and have not received the email then we suggest you ring the Ancestry help line 0800 404 9723 to find out how to go about receiving your free upgrade. However there is a deadline for this offer which ends on 26 September.”

That’s me – so I did! This is what happened when I rang at 1.00pm, GMT+1 today (Saturday 13 September):

After a musical interlude of less than five minutes, I was put through to a friendly and calm operator, based in the USA. I explained that I hadn’t received the expected email, and she checked to see whether I was successfully registered. She assured me I was, and instantly read my home address and other details back to me based on the email address I had used to register. My name was wrong, based on a previous Ancestry account I had, so a little updating was done there, but she said that wouldn’t have affected the emailing process.

I’m telling you all this to reassure you that TGN/Ancestry probably do have a record of your FTM 2008 registration, even if it appears otherwise.

I was then told that the emailing is being done in batches, and I should receive one in the next day or so. However, if I don’t hear by Friday, then I should not hesitate to ring back again.

She also updated my records so that I receive monthly updates from Ancestry once more. We had a little chat about FTM 2008/9, and hoped each other “had a nice day” – which you have to do; I think it’s the law!

I can’t fault her customer service, and the speed at which I got through. I’m just a bit mystified that the number I rang hasn’t been issued here (actually, I can guess why not!), along with the information I’ve just been given – assuming it is correct, of course!

Here’s hoping it is – I’ll keep you posted…!!

Having said all that, I do feel Michelle Pfister is doing her best to keep this board informed. Keep up the good work, Michelle. I know there have been issues with FTM 2008 (I bought mine a year ago this week), but I am genuinely excited at the prospect of trying out FTM 2009.

Hi Michelle,

I have not received any emails regarding FT2009. I bought my version locally in Australia and registered it through .com.au. Does this make any difference, or will we not receive the FTM2009 option?

As I am not the only person with this query, a response would be appreciated, as to date I haven’t seen any response to this question from Aussie and Kiwi users.

Cheers

Kerry

Michelle,

Thank you for the update. I look forward to receiving the email and FTM 2009.

I have not received any notification by email regarding the free upgrade to FTM 2009.

I received my email yesterday (Friday) around 3.15p edt but waited until this morning to try it.

The link works, I saw I was in a queue with nine ahead of me, then presto I was told to go to the store where I entered my code and pressed Continue. However from that point on red words appeared saying the site could not take my order now, yet I could still enter data incl my credit card info (why if it’s free?). Three more screens go by and I am easily moving through the ordering process, yet get the red warning we are unable to process your order at this time…so why is the site letting me continue? I’m at the last screen now but not sure whether to commit…if I do and it’s offline do I get blocked from trying again?

If the site cannot process the order then it should clearly stop the user at that point rather than requesting more info in a different part of the web page and letting the buyer continue.

I’m still using FTM v16. Having tried a friends disappointing FTM 2008 I decided not to upgrade.
I’ve always had 2 major problems with FTM v16. Unfortunately I can’t find any wishlists or full feature lists for 2008/9. So I’m posting here.
1) When printing a chart I would like to set some kind of size for the photographs included in my trees. This seemed to be available in FTM 2008, well done. Of course I’m not sure if his version of 2008 was up-to-date but I’m hoping it will still be in 2009?
2) When printing my descendant chart in v16 it is extremely difficult to join it together. No printer for the home market prints 100% straight pages and therefore you can’t just cut all the pages to the same size and assume they will line up. But FTM could have made it easier by printing marks on the individual pages to help cut and therefore align the pages when joining. Every other piece of software I’ve used, to my knowledge, which allows printing over multiple pages has included this option of printing cut marks of some sort. Usually lines at right angles in the corners of the page.

My only other issues have been wanting more control over the layout of my trees in order to reduce the number of pages for printing.

Alan.

I received the e-mail last night but left it until this morning. I was told to go straight to the cart, no waiting.

I followed the instructions and entered the code, clicked apply and lo and behold got this message:

There are problems with the current shopping cart.
We are unable to process your order at this time. Please try again later. Thank you.

On a whim I removed the coupon code and it removed the message. What on earth is going on?

From my experience this morning, I can pay full price and the process will go through, but enter the ’special’ code and it fails.

TonyC

Tried again this morning. Here’s the message I received…

There are problems with the current shopping cart. We are unable to process your order at this time. Please try again later. Thank you.
Item Quantity Price Total

Family Tree Maker 2009 Upgrade * USD 39.95 USD 39.95 Remove

Subtotal:USD 79.90
Calculate Shipping
Postal Code (US only):
Standard US)
Expedited (US only
Outside US

*Shipping:USD 4.00

Redeem Coupons
Coupon Code: FTMHGPVT
Tax:USD 3.41
Total:USD 47.36

Return to shopping
* includes shipping and processing

When I clicked on the link it went to the page stating the wait time and number of people in line. Wait time was 1 min…2 people in line. Then the button appeared to go to the store. Clicked on it once. The shopping cart appeared with 2 FTM upgrades in it! Removed one and entered the code. That’s when I got the above message…and the price was still there…instead of changing to a zero…

I hope FTM 2009 is the answer. I bought 2008 just after it came out but I was smart enough to keep my FTM16 intact and working. I used both programs for awhile just to see how things were going to work. After about 1 month worth of problems on 2008 I quit using it. From the comments that I have read over the past few days it seems like we are not getting off to a good start.

Michelle,

I understand that you are releasing the new coupon code emails in small groups. I am still waiting for mine. Could you please provide some numbers on how many emails have been sent, how many are left to go, that sort of thing? Or let us know when you have completed the emailing process? I would hate to keep watching my in-box for something that’s not coming, if you know what I mean.

Thanks

I have been trying since yesterday to use my coupon code. It does not work yet even though you posted that it was working @9:30 a.m. It keeps asking for my credit card information then it charges me the full price for the upgrade even though it shows 0.00 charge before the shipping screen comes up. Please! Do they think we have nothing better to do than to fool with this non functioning site all day!

Have tried for several hours on & off since I got the email last night. I keep getting this message:
ERROR! We’re sorry but the store is temporarily unavailable. We are undergoing routine maintenance or we may be experiencing unexpected technical problems. We apologize for the inconvience and ask for your patience as we work to correct the situation. Please check back with us shortly.

So, now what?? I realize that this is a huge undertaking for TGN, but, giving us something for FREE should have prepared you for the huge response. It’s just human nature to want something for nothing.

Hope this upgrade is worth the wait.

Ruth Skinner

In the last few minutes I successfully completed the process to order the free 2009 version.

No glitches this time, shame it didn’t work the first time, but then these things do happen

TonyC

Michelle, thank you for your update. I was able at 1.25p edt finally to use the coupon code and order the update.

Unlike Tony above, I would add as an IT Director that these things do NOT have to happen: e.g. rolling out an upgrade on a Friday afternoon is not a best-practices event anywhere in IT. Perhaps you all can meet when this settles down and review what went wrong. Many groups in banking and healthcare (my own field) do orders and upgrades like this with no failures (in fact we are legally required not to have them)..perhaps some outside consultants could give you better forecasting advice on methodology for future planning.

Sorry Scott – it looks like we’re in the same business, and with the same title

It’s called Murphy’s Law

TonyC

I am going to give it another shot. Hope you’re right and it’s fixed now.

It still does not, does not, does not work! It still insists on my credit card and puts the price in.

Is this free offer open to people who bought 2008 before a certain date? I just bought mine 2 days ago from best buy without relizing 2009 is out. Will i get an email with a coupon?
BTW I seem to be one of the few who really likes 2008, I haven’t had any problems with it at all. And I’m running windows on a Mac!

I have been trying to upgrade for days. Today I am able to access the site, but the coupon code does not cause the totals to zero out. It still shows the full price. I have tried hitting calculate, apply and update. Still NG. I have had this happen on about 8 attempts now.

Michelle

As previously asked:

Has anyone in New Zealand been sent an email with the coupon code.

I haven’t received any email yet.

I too never recieved a e-mail regarding the upgrade to 2009. How do I go about notifying someone to get the upgrade?

Thanks

Carl

Michelle: I am trying to obtain the free FTM 2009 using the Coupon Code ‘FTMQTYYN’ that I was provided in the email Sep. 12. I also indicated that shipping was ‘Outside US’ as I live in Canada. I went through all steps, as indicated, i.e. 1] Enter your Free redemption code; 2] Click the ‘Apply’ button. The Amount did not change to ‘0.00′. However, the description of the item changed from ‘Free FTM 2009 Upgrade’ to ‘20% Discount With World Deluxe’ – USD 31.96. Will you please help me with this. What am I doing wrong?? I have been a subscriber to FTM since Version 8 and also have a World Deluxe Membership.

It is Sept. 15th and I have not yet received the update notice

It will not work!!! When I input my coupon code (a different one than what has been posted here), it will not re-calculate the total so that it is free. Very frustrating!!
Ruth

> People have asked why we don’t provide a download. There are a few reasons for this:
> 1) The download would be too large for practical application,
That is nonsense.

> 2) We wanted our Free 2009 upgrade users to have a full disk and package like those who have bought it.

We want a download.

Michelle, I’ve been trying to get my upgrade since yeaterday afternoon. I can get into the store , go to shopping, the regular price appears, I have entered my zip code and my update code from the email link and click apply. The screen does not change the price to zero. Am I doing something wrong? I realize that i have time before this offer expires but what happens if I try everyday and there’s no change? I read your reply about sending them in the mail you have to have an address, couldn’t the link just have brought us to a form to fill out our address since the upgrade is going to be mailed anyway? I realize this is a great opportunity, I hope problems can be resolved soon! Frustrating!

Michelle,

Could you contact me on how to obtain my FTM2009?

I clicked on email link. Put in code, hit apply and amounts switched to zero. Clicked continue until I got to page to confirm my order for 2009 and it was no longer free.

I placed a zero in the quantity box, updated the page and closed it.

I clicked on the link again and when I go to Checkout I get 2 orders for the upgrade. Even after removing 1 of the orders and putting in the coupon code I can’t get the amount to zero out.

It appears that the “store” thinks I already used my coupon and ordered my free copy. I tried but didn’t finish the order.

I received my copy today of the new FTM 2009. I was a Beta Tester and reported a problem three times during the testing period. I was disappointed to find it was not fixed. I imported a large file with 105,000 names. If a name in my file exist as “Malinda (Ada) A. Baugher” it show up in the index as “A. Baugher Malinda (Ada)” and also reports. If I add a new person the same way the result is the same. I just don’t understand why this wasn’t fixed.

So as a user of FTM back in Version 1.x something….I see that people are receiving the upgrade email however I have yet to see it.
I call customer support and I keep getting a ‘please’ wait line and contact us again in another week.
Who the project manager on this?

I’ve not received email for free upgrade also, thanks Lee

Michelle,

Not wanting to be too impatient, but do you know when Ancestry will send the next batch of emails? I realize that you do want to create a good experience for those individual (understandably so), but the flurry of complaints about having difficulty ordering the free upgrade have subsided.

In other words, based on few blog entries from individuals who have already received 2009, I am excited to start using 2009 … it sounds like many improvement were made.

Thank you for your continued comments on this blog, it is much appreciated and a significant improvement from prior experiences on this blog!

You are restoring my faith in FTM, and ideally that will be reinforced by the functionality and performance with 2009.

I’ve been a loyal FTM user for, well, more years than I can remember. I didn’t upgrade to FTM 2008 for one reason – the lack of integration with my online family trees at Ancestry.com.

I’m trying to engage my relatives in my research so the online trees are essential, and not being able to move back and forth between the online trees and FTM forced me to make a choice, and I had to opt for the online trees.

Now I see that FTM 2009 will – eventually – offer integration with the online Ancestry.com trees so I’ve taken a risk and ordered 2009. I hope the integration truly allows me to use both.

To me, what integration means is that I can sync the online trees with FTM – I don’t expect it to be seamless, although that would be nice, but, at a minimum, I would expect to be able to update one from the other, to include people, data, photos linked to people, and links to Ancestry.com records.

If FTM won’t be able to do this in some fashion, it simply won’t be usable to me and I will have wasted the purchase price.

Regards,
Gene

Michele,

I have tried repeatedly to”zero out” the amount for the FTM 2009 upgrade and it will not accept my code. I previously received an e-mail that stated “Please use the coupon code below. The old one will no longer work.” The new code will not work either, even after trying a dozen times. Is there someone that I can contact regarding this?

> 1) The download would be too large for practical application
Nonsense.

> and we expect there would be a lot of problems associated with this.
You expect the wrong way round?
You keep creating problems.
The FTM 2008 Beta download worked fine….

2) We wanted our Free 2009 upgrade users to have a full disk and package like those who have bought it.
You can do both.

YOU CAN DO BOTH.
I’ve said that before and don’t understand why you edited my post to remove that. Why don’t you want other commenters to know this thought?!?

May I suggest – Flame off to those turning up the heat on Michelle.
She is doing what she can to make this upgrade go as smooth as possible given the technical issues that the process is creating.
One day I will receive the email to take advantage of the upgrade and continue my good experience with FTM

Daryl Rickards
Warrawee
Australia
NSW

I agree with #221. Although I had niggles with FTM 2008 and was frustrated by the lack of communictaion, Michelle has more than done her best to keep the FTM 2008 registrants informed of what is happening, so much so I see she has emailed indvidual people. If you are so desperate to get hold of FTM 2009 why not just purchase it like I did. It was worth the money and there was no hassle waiting for an email or trying to get the copy through the link.

Keep up the good work Michelle

When I enter the code from the second email, it does apply the discount and erase the price and shipping.
Then I click continue and it asks me to log into my account.
The problem comes after I log in and verify my shipping address.
Then I get an error message saying there is something wrong with my cart and wrong with my address, which is not true. It’s my address, the one I always use to order from the Ancestry store.
Then I get a message that either the site is down or experiencing technical problems.
I got my code Friday and have tried multiple times every day since then.
Please help! This is apparently not the issue others are having.

To 221 & 222, Here, Here!! Lets give Michelle a break. This will all be cleared up soon. If you have a problem or concern stated it as if you were facing her not behind a screen. Be thoughtful as I think Michelle is trying her best to do under the circumstance.
Quote from a sampler: Do unto others as you would have them do to you.

Is there a link taking you back to Ancestry.com home page?

I think I owe it to Michelle to post a big THANK YOU on this blog. She personally took the time to email me and phone me to help with my problem doing the free coupon download. So, to everyone who is still having a problem just be patient, I’m sure she is doing her best to try to solve this.

Hi Michelle,
I live in Ireland and purchased FTM2008 from a UK retailer . I registered in Jan 2008 but have not received the email for the FTM2009 upgrade.
When can I expect it ?
David

Michelle, I just tried again and it seems to have worked this time. Don’t know what the problem was, but it seems to have fixed itself.
Thanks for all you’re doing for us.

Hi Michelle,
The free upgrade went through just fine. Thank you.

Michelle,

Why is the registration confirmation not written into FTM program. This way we that have purchased the product can see the date we actually registered with the confirmation number if needed in the future. Also I do not remember getting an email after I registered.

Thanks.
Chris P.

I got the link to work last Friday. It took a little time, but it finally worked. Kudos to Michelle and teh Technical staff for working so diligently on these problems and dealing with all the complaining that has been going on.

I really think that those of us who don’t get an email with a coupon code, Ancestry do not have us as registered users.

As I’ve said before, if a person is registered, surely it must be easy to pick up the database of users and send them an email.

Michelle, please confirm that there is a problem with your registration system database.

Hi Robin,

Obviously I don’t know what the technical difficulties are, but maybe my experience as described in post #175 might put you at your ease?

Hope you get your email soon. I’m still waiting – in hope!

Cheers.

Michelle,

Thank you so much for giving us an explanation on why many of us registered 2008 users haven’t gotten the upgrade email offer as yet. It has taken the anxiety out of the wait for us, and I hope that not too many of the staff at Ancestry have to purchase wigs (from pulling their hair out:) after this transition has been accomplished.

I haven’t received an email for the free update for Family Tree Maker 2009. I have been a registered user of 2008 & all previous versions. When will this happen?

Thanks Christopher

I just hope that when all users have been sent their emails, and obtained the new program, future emails sent out by Ancestry will be received by ALL registered users, not just some of them.

I still believe that there must be a problem with their “registered users database”, or how they access it.

Michelle,

Thank you for finally being a voice that at least answers questions in a timily manner. Many of us have stuck with FTM 2008-2009 and been beta testers, offered suggustions, and tried to help with like or no reply from Ancestry.com. I believe you have replied to users more in the last week then others did in the last year.

I for one understand problems and other setbacks but did not until you started understand the lack of information and care for the user community. I hope this continues and welcome the noticable changes.

As a beta tester for FTM 2009, I think you have made the Program much more stable and I welcome that but some things still concern me:

1) The Register Report (based on the NEHGS Register Report) is still lacking compaired to the one in FTM 2006. Most noticable is the formatting is not as nice and the family path is missing. With a family like the Adams or Van Valkenburgh that have many people with the same name this is a very important tool to printing a report that people can follow easily.

2) Like many other have said intregration with the very cool myfamily.com and Ancestry.com online trees would be a huge thing. As it stands know most of the multimedia needs to be re-added and any work done on the web can not easily be converted back.

I know you as a company have done a lot of work on this in the last year and just knowing your direction and estimated release schedule would help a lot.

3) Web Searching is still not to the level of FTM 2006. Many of us have a data background or have learned tricks to find our family members and the new search has helped somewhat but work still needs to be done to make the search usable for advanced users just as it has been upgraded to help with novice users.

Again I am hopeful that your envolvement and daily care and feeding will help and me for one wants nothing more then for FTM 2009 to be the product we all know it can be.

Thanks

Mike

I agree, Michelle is working very hard to correct the problems.

I have a registered copy of FTM 2008 purchased in Canada; however I haven’t yet received the email regarding the free upgrade

Hi Michelle,
I am in Australia and have registered my 2008 FTM, but have not yet received any of the emails which have been sent out.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Lea

I received the email on Friday and was able to place my order this weekend without any of the problems from the first email. I look forward to trying out 2009. I didn’t see many of the problems with 2008 that many people did but I just bought it last month and many of the bugs have been worked out. There are some things I miss but it sounds like many of them will be in 2009. I look forward to trying it out.

I too have registered my 2008 FTM (UK version), but have not yet received any of the emails which have been sent out.

Regards Nick

I just want to say thank you for what has been (for me) a smooth process for ordering and receiving the 2009 (UK version) upgrade. I received the email on 4th September and ordered the upgrade immediately. It arrived in the post this morning. Well done to all concerned!

Hi Michelle

As far as I can tell no AU user has received an email

John D

Michelle,

Has all the USA received their emails? Here in NJ, USA I still have not received mine. Could you also check to see if Comcast is blocking your emails. I know they are blocking my newsletters and other emails from Ancestry and affiliates.

Thanks.
ChrisP

Hi Michelle,
Thanks for all the hard work. I haven’t received an email as of yet and am anxiously looking forward to it. I was alittle dismayed to see that people who just registered within the last month have received the update before others but I know will all be taken care of in the end. Thanks again.

Still no E-mail on my tree. What is the longest period of time past today, Monday 15 Sep 2008, when I should start to worry about my upgrade notice??? I have fought through many wasted hours since registering my 2008 many many months ago!
Thanks for any help you can give to speed up the process for all!
Z

In response to Posting 171 from Lisa and to Posting 173 from John Donaldson:

Thank you both for your information about PDF. It will be very helpful in alleviating issues with certain family members I have been sharing information back & forth with.

John, I agree that technical questions should be posted in the technical support section (and commented on same in my posting) but in reviewing my original posting you will see where I did originally post to technical support and received a less than useful response.

In fairness though, when I eventually obtain FTM 2009 if I have any issues I will try technical support again. Until then I will continue to work on cleaning up my facts and sources which were severely disassociated and misassociated when I imported them from FTM 2006. That was six months ago and I am still finding items needing correction. Fortunately, I kept my FTM 2006 installation intact and have referred back to it to help.

Thank you again Lisa and John for your replies to my original posting.

Michelle, I decided to give it a try today . Success!!! The site was so much easier to get into and everything was on one page. Thank You for all the time and effort you have put into this. I look forward to receiving my upgrade. For those of you who are still having problems or haven’t gotten an email yet. Try to be patient!! Hopefully all the bugs have been worked out now and everything will be a lot easier now. Thanks Again! This is a wonderful opportunity and is appreciated

For Michelle Pfifster

Glad you want “to hear thoughts and suggestions on the latest version of Family Tree Maker.”

Michelle. I, too, never got an email. but, I quickly
But, I quickly and easily ordered a brand new 2009 product for $50.00 with priority delivery —— all in all the cost is not that much ——i presently spend over $70.00/month for ink for my printer, so the $50.00 is relatively small in comparison

And I am glad to hear that it will come on a CD

Also hoping that the 2009 version is significantly better than 2008sp3

Hopefully after getting the upgrade we (the users) and you (TGN) can continue to improve the product –so many features are still missing

RE: #249 by Don Knupp
“Thank you both for your information about PDF. It will be very helpful in alleviating issues with certain family members I have been sharing information back & forth with.”

Have you tried using the book format of the descendant report (available in both FTM16 and FTM2008 SP3)? Most people find that much easier to work with than one large chart.

Just wanted to let you know that I have not received the e-mail notification about the FTM 2009 update (I purchased my FTM 2008 from ancestry.com). Thanks — and I do NOT envy you your job! ;>)

David Ives

Michelle and anyone else having trouble accessing the site for ordering the FTM 2009.

Further to my message #204.

I just tried the site and had no trouble ordering my copy. This time the site opened to a ‘one page order form’ which was different from my attempts on Saturday. Hope this helps anyone who was having trouble a few days ago.

Michelle: Thank you for your offer to ‘contact’ everyone by email who was having trouble. You can ‘remove me’ from your list.

Re: #174 by John Donaldson
“best to pose technical questions to the FTM-Tech list where most of the long-time users hang out or to the Ancestry FTM site”

If TGN takes it’s responsibility for user support seriously, it should set up a more usable online support venue.

Thanks Michelle, got email, was a breeze to use but…I thought there was a download also. Did I miss something?

I am disappointed that the book section was left out of the 2008 version. this will force me to continue using Tree Maker 16.

Thanks Michelle the email link worked great this time. Look forward to seeing the changes and thanks for answering the all-in-one-tree question!

[Sandra you didn't miss anything - there never has been a download for FTM2009; see post#178 for this answer regarding a download - "* People have asked why we don’t provide a download. There are a few reasons for this: 1) The download would be too large for practical application, and we expect there would be a lot of problems associated with this. 2) We wanted our Free 2009 upgrade users to have a full disk and package like those who have bought it."]

Just received the email, and everything worked out great.

Can’t wait to get my FTM 2009. I am a neewb at genealogy, but I am learning alot of the ins and outs along the way. This is very interesting to me, and I hope this makes an even bigger impact, than FTM 2008 did.

Can you update me on FTM 2009? I did not get any email about the product as of this date. Just stumbled upon it while trying to reinstall FTM 2008. I am always interested in upgrading my FTM program. HOpe you can get back to me with sales coupon data. Thanks, Marjorie Bednarek

Michelle,
I posted information that I thought was going just to you on the blog. It is comment #236, written by Alwina Bane. I would like this removed.
Thanks for your help in this matter.

Now that the ordering process is operational, can you tell us what the turnaround time is from order to shipment and the average timeframe for delivery is?

Don

All I can do is repeat my advice about FTM-Tech (which has been going since 1995). There is a lot of very experienced FTM users who can answer most questions and very quickly.

Users helping users

The members are all users but we get by fairly well

John D

William Greene

Note in the release notes for FTM 2009 is that it is coming.

I too still run FTM 16 for books

John

Karen

I suggest that you try the FTM-Tech list

John D

John – I know all about mailinglist and I don’t want to use any mailing list these days; they are much too cumbersome. I want a full featured web message board where I can easily review what has already been said on a subject and post my query or response. I want to know that a company representative is actively reviewing what is being discussed by ordinary users — not just those who are stuck in mailing list mode.

The fact that FTM is stuck on a mailing list could a factor in the gap between user requirements and what has/is being delivered.

Hi Michelle,

I am a U.S. user who still has not received an email.

Regards,
Bill

Michelle
I live in UK and received my email offer on 5th Sept. I completed it, returned it and today 15th Sept I received my 2009 disk. Guess I’m lucky when I read other comments but I will say this, it’s worth the wait.
Many thanks for your ‘considerable’ updates

Cheers
Ian

Thank you Michelle Pfister!

After many, many attempts, I was finally able to order FTM 2009… took all of about 30 seconds! Yippeee!!

Michelle,

I just got excited ‘cos I received what I thought was THE EMAIL. But no – it’s just an email from Ancestry.com “Family Tree Maker 2009 Special Offer”, the special offer being ‘pay $39.95 and get free shipping’.

Having purchased over the years probably every version of FTM that’s been put on the marlet I’m currently using v16 since the 2008 version I bought had to be uninstalled as it was continually crashing. I think I registered it but I’m not 100% certain – I’ll just continue waiting to see if I do get THE EMAIL offering the free upgrade to 2009 in due course. If not, then I may, eventually, take up the special offer and pay $39.95 with free shipping to the UK!

Kind Regards

John

Karen,

Try -

http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.software.famtreemaker/

Regards,
Larry

I am a registered user of FTM 2008 but have not received the upgrade email. Checked my spam fitler and nothing caught there either.

Michelle,

I’ve also not received my e-mail (UK User). I’ve sent a comment in via your help system, but not received any answer back. What is the best way to inform you? (Or is this it?)

Cheers
Dean

Hi Michelle,

I’m yet another UK reistered user of FTM2008 who has not yet received the free upgrade email.

At this rate it seems very likely that a significant number of the UK user base for FTM will not have recieved the free upgrade email before the offer expires.

What do you/Ancestry intend to do to ensure this does not happen?

Regards

Nick

I have recently bought FTM 2008 and registered on 11 September 2008. I am in the UK and have not received any email for a free upgrade to 2009, will I be getting this soon?

Karen #268

Point noted I was merely trying to help

I am sure that Michelle has noted your request

John D

In reply to Post 253 from Karen:

I appreciate your input. I would love to do a book format but at this time I have a very specific non-technical reason for not doing so that would not be prudent to share in a public forum.

Thank you for your feedback and hopefully my circumstances will change such that doing a book will be a viable option.

Michelle,
I know we are driving you crazy and I am sorry for that. Can you give us daily updates on the email situation?

Michelle,

I live in the Cayman Islands but purchased FTM 2008 in the UK and I subsequently registered it. To date I have not yet received an email offering an upgrade to FTM 2009.

Regards
Richard

Got my email yesterday, went to the link, entered my code, everything went smooth! Thanks for the experience.

Please count me amongst those who have not yet received the upgrade e-mail. I’m in the US and purchased FTM 2008 as soon as it was released last year.

Thanks

Michelle,
It takes a lot of patience to handle what you and your team are going through. You could even say you’re having an Apple iPhone moment. I also appreciate you taking the time to review this post. As someone who worked for the IT industry, I don’t envy your position in the least.

I did receive the first two posts in regards to the free offer and then the notice that I would be emailed later with a new code. Thank you!

Is it possible for your team to send out an email blast to give those of us (who have not received a new code yet)a rough idea when we will be next to receive the free update. It might ease the tension and assure people that they have not been forgotten.

Just a thought! Keep the aspirin handy and good luck.

Thank you again!

Best Regards,

Rochelle

I have 2008. I’ve been a beta tester of both 2008 and 2009. I’m pretty sure I registered my 2008 installation, but have reinstalled it a time or two over the past year and it doesn’t currently show as being registered. So I clicked on the Register Program button to register again, and nothing happens. No window pops up, no browser window pops up, nothing at all happens to let me finish the registration. How can I get registered so that I can receive my email about getting the 2009 update?

Hi Michelle,

I was wondering when I should start to worry about not getting my email. I’ve never received any emails from you about the 2009 upgrade. I understand that alot of people in the UK and Australia haven’t recived emails, but I’m in the US.

I have been a registered user of FTM for many many years as well as full World Deluxe member with Ancestry.com for severl years. I purchased the 2008 version when it first came out and it is registered. I’ve called your call center to double check that my eamil and address are registered and they are so I don’t understand why I haven’t received an email.

I know you have a lot to deal with and I appreciate the updates. I’m just getting a little concerned that I haven’t been included in the upgrade offer.

Thank you

Cathy

Hi Michelle,

I received my email, entered the code and my address. But in the next step I noticed that my address was misspelled. So I used the browsers back button, corrected the address, but now there is the message ‘Invalid Coupon Code: This coupon code has already been used.’.
What’s wrong?

Thanks
Stephan

Type your comment here.

Hi, Michelle. I have still not received an email (Houston, TX USA). Hopefully Ike didn’t get in the way Can you update us on when the next emails will go out? I am still without power but have connected my internet to a generator and I feel silly worrying about Family Tree Maker 2009, but it sure feels like something normal. Thank you so much.

Hi Michelle, Although I am a registed user of FTM and have decided to bypass all the hassle of the email etc, and buy FTM 2009, I would still appreciate getting the email and coupon, as I see from your blog that the FTM 2008 users will be getting a different version of FTM 2009 whith the update that is not currently on the FTM 2009 copy for the general public. I would appreciate it if you could look at this amongst all the many others that you have to look at. Kind Regards

Left a message here, then went to ancestry.com and it had a notice that my email was incorrect. Even though it’s the same email I use every day, I changed it to another email. Still nothing, not even newsletters or tips I signed up to get are getting thru. So I today changed it once again to a hotmail account. If it does not get thru now, I give up! This should not be this hard.

Michelle,

Thanks so much for your continued work in getting everyone the much wanted email upgrade.

As of 12:10 PM today I have not received mine as yet either.

I did register the 2008 program and looking forward to 2009.

Thanks for helping us,

Nancy

Michelle,
I purchased FTM2008 in Aug 2008 but do not recall if I had registered it.

To ensure that my copy is registered (& eligible for the free FTM20009 upgrade) I have now completed the registration process via the software… maybe for the 2nd time?

Looking forward to receiving the notification e-mail.

Sincerely,

Tony.

Shouldn’t there be a web form somewhere for people to submit if they haven’t received the upgrade e-mail message?

I’m sure there are many more than the handful who have posted here. Why not have a link at the main FTM page about the upgrade?

Michelle

You have said “I also owe several of you a follow-up so we can take care of those who didn’t receive their free upgrade email. (Incidentally, our registration database is in great shape as far as I can tell. I think I know why some of you haven’t received an email — it has to do with the cross-over of responsibilities between the US/Canada and International operations. It’s all fixable.)”

Who then, is responsible for “International Operations”? And why aren’t “they” doing something?

I purchased FTM 2008 through Mindscape in Australia. (I’m in New Zealand).

As Marguerite says, there would be a lot more who don’t read this who will miss out on the upgrade. How are “you” going to know who has “missed out”?

This is a message for New Zealand FTM 2008 users, especially those who purchased their copy from Beehive Books. You may have received an email re your free upgrade to FTM 2009. It does say you have to live in UK or Australia to take up the offer. Please ignore this – it does cover NZ residents! It also says that you have until 26 Sep to take up this offer. As US users now have until 15 Oct to take up their offer, I am sure that this date will apply to us too.
If you have not received your email, and you are lucky enough to be reading this, then here is information to help you. Please let any other FTM 2008 users you know this information too.
“It appears that quite a high proportion of AUS [and NZ] users opted-out of emails so we can not send them the email. Customers can call the call centre:
Australia 1-800-251-838 Monday – Saturday 9:00 am – 16:00 pm AEST

New Zealand
0800 442 100 Monday – Saturday 9:00 am – 16:00 pm AEST

The agent will direct them to http://www.ancestryshop.co.uk/freeupgrade and give them a unique code to enable them to order the upgrade disc. Please note there is a small charge of £2.95 that will cover P&P.

Let’s know if this works!!
Jan
Woops – just had a message to say my email address, which I have had for 20 years, is not a valid address!! Trying gmail

Michelle,
The only serious problem I have with FTM 2006 is exporting a large book to PDF format. My latest book has about 2500 pages, with no images. FTM 2006 just would not handle it. At about 1000 to 1300 pages, the program simply disappeared, with no warning, no error code, no nuthin! I could split the file, and get two outputs, so I believe it was not bad material in a book section. My hunch is that, instead of spilling out to the hard drive, FTM tried to keep everything in RAM. Although I have 2GB of RAM, one of you techs still said my machine was not capable enough! I did a work-around by installing a third-party PDF creator, installing it as the default printer, and printing (not exporting) the book. That worked. However, FTM should not make a user go through all that hassle to publish a book.

All that to say that I hope there will be enhanced capacity for exporting large books to PDF in the upcoming 2009 service packs.

Forrest Ladd

Thank you Michelle,
I received my email and placed my order in less than 30 seconds. So you can take me off your list!

Thank you!

Rochelle

Michelle,
I note that the remaining emails went out “this morning” per your 9:33 AM post. It is now 2:31 PM CDT and I have not received my email.
I don’t know what emails Ancestry are sending out, but the only ones I receive are with regard to the MyFamily site, or to the Ancestry Trees site. I am not sure if I am missing any other things or not, but I certainly did not receive any emails regarding the upgrade.
Can you check this out?
Thanks for all your efforts

I have not received an upgrade email. I am a registered user of Family Tree Maker 2008. My ancestry email is correct.

I registered again to be sure. The process noted that my email address was known to Ancestry.com. Probably vis previous 2008 registartion and my Ancestry World Deluxe subscription.

It is now 4:30pm Eastern time in NJ,USA. I have not received any emails from Ancestry concerning the FTM 2009 upgrade. I seem to have a problem with bulk emails from Ancestry and affiliates because of Comcast Cable. Ancestry Security was suppose to fix this about a month or two ago with Comcast.

Thanks for any assistance getting my FTM 2009 upgrade email and newsletters from Anceestry and affiliates.

ChrisP

MICHELLE SEE ITEM 298 BELOW WRITTEN BY FORREST LADD

I HAD/STILL HAVE THIS EXACT SAME PROBLEM WITH FTM 2006/16. I HAVE A BOOK THAT IS OVER 2000 PAGES AND WHEN THE SYSTEM REACHES ABOUT 1000 PAGES IT JUST STOPS RUNNING AND THE SYSTEM CLOSES DOWN. WHEN I BRING THE SYSTEM BACK UP IT SAYS SOMETHING TO THE EFFECT THAT I CLOSED MY PROGRAM IMPROPERLY AND MAY HAVE DAMAGED MY FILE, THEN IT GOES THROUGH A PROCESS OF CHECKING THE FILE. NEEDLESS TO SAY I STOPPED TRYING TO RUN THE BOOK. I NEVER TRIED THE WORK AROUND DESCRIBED BY FORREST. I TOO HOPE THIS WILL BE RESOLVED WHEN FTM 2009 IS UPDATED TO PRODUCE BOOKS

PS — OTHER USERS HAVE, IN THE PAST, DESCRIBED THIS SAME EXACT PROBLEM, BUT IT WAS NEVER RESOLVED BY THE PROGRAMMERS/TECHNICAL SUPPORT GROUP

298 Written by:
Forrest Ladd

Posted on:
September 16, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Michelle,
The only serious problem I have with FTM 2006 is exporting a large book to PDF format. My latest book has about 2500 pages, with no images. FTM 2006 just would not handle it. At about 1000 to 1300 pages, the program simply disappeared, with no warning, no error code, no nuthin! I could split the file, and get two outputs, so I believe it was not bad material in a book section.

Michelle,

I have received a confirmation email on the free upgrade to 2009, but thank you for your offer of help to those that were still waiting.

Nancy

I registered FTM 2008 on 9-12-2008, live in Texas and have not received the upgrade e-mail yet. It sounds like I should have received the e-mail by now…

Michelle, can you look into this please?

Thanks,
Rodney

Thank you Michelle (and Jan Gow)

I am in New Zealand and don’t know whether i opted out for emails or not.

However, for future updates/upgrades, how can I check and if necessary, change, the email situation, so that I can receive emails in the future?

Hi Michelle

I am a UK rersident and a registered user of FTM 2008 but have not received the upgrade email. Checked my spam fitler and nothing caught there either.

Regards

Gerry

Hi Michelle,
Still no email in Ontario for me as yet,
Look forward to hearing from you as I registered about nine months ago.
By the way, thanks for keeping us so well informed as late, it makes a big difference.
Regards
Dave

No emails here yet.
I suspect the problem may be with my ISP. I remember that some time in the past I got a group of email’s that claimed to be from ancestry.com but were phishing emails. I would not be surprised if there are a lot of people out there not getting ancestry.com emails. I have not seen anything from them in a long time.
It is 5:55pm CDT here.

Michelle,

I have not received any emails about the upgrade. I have not received any notices about anything from FTM since I registered my FTM2008 last January when I first installed 2008. I was so disillusioned with the product that I went almost 6 months without ever opening it. Can you help me. I have had FTM almost since the beginning and have convinced quite a number of other users to buy it. Sorry I can’t say the same about 2008 but I am looking forward to the upgrade (if I ever get my coupon).

You do deserve a big thanks for trying to keep us informed.

Thanks for trying,

KEn

Hi Michelle,
Although I was registered with the correct email address, I think I was registered on the UK site, however I am now registered on the Canada site as well.(same email on both sites).
Thanks
Dave

Thanks Michelle for the note regarding email preferences.

I have called the call centre from New Zealand and obtained the code.

Ordering the upgrade was also no problem, and I look forward to receiving FTM 2009.

Michelle,
After your post, I rang Australian call center. The response I got was that Aus mailing batches are still going out for at least another week…no offer of immediate upgrade code.

I still havent received the second e-mail with the link and instructions that actually allows you to download the 2009 release.

How much longer?

I received my email today, it was easy and only took about 30 seconds to place the order … thank you.
(I am in the US)

I look forward to receiving 2009.

Hi Michelle,

Based on your update, I have just contacted the Australian Call Centre and the message is the same as Aidan that the email batches are still going out and if I haven’t got one by the end of the week contact them again. They are also saying the cutoff date for the upgrade is 26th September.
regards
Daryl Rickards
Warrawee NSW Australia

Michelle,

I noticed that on yesterday you mentioned the following:

“Hi everyone,

We’re sending the rest of the US and Canada Free Upgrade emails this morning. Thanks to those of you who have let me know you haven’t yet heard from us. I’m taking your email info from the comments today. I have a goal to work with each of you before the end of the week. Thanks!”

As of this post I have yet to recieve an email. I hope that you can help with recieving an email or directing me to a location where I can obtain the free upgrade coupon code.

Thank you,

Chris

Thanks ever so much! Waited until all the confussion subsided and upon receiving second email was able to order free copy of FTM 2009 without a moments wait or any of the problems noted in earlier messages.

My question is this, I have two registered copies of FTM 2008, one on my desktop, the other on my notebook. Will I be receiving an opportunity to upgrade both copies. As of now I’ve only received one upgrade email which as I mentioned before that I’ve redeemed successfully.

8:30 PM here and still no email. I assume it’s not coming

Hello Michelle,

This is in reference to your reply on September 11 to my initial post.

I did register my FTM 2008, which I purchased from Ancestry.com, but have not received the FTM 2009 upgrade email discussed. You indicated that you will work with me to get the upgrade. How do I start this process?

Thanks.

Jerry

Hi again,
An update for fellow Australians. I didn’t believe what I was told by first operator (10am Wednesday another Michelle)at ancestry.com.au (which is based in Utah)regarding emails being sent out to Australians as it was in conflict with what Michelle has told us regarding information from the International desk.
I called the callcentre again 2 hours later, got another operator (Brad in Utah) who knew exactly what was going on, and he has obtained a validation code from his manager and has sent an email to me which should arrive tomorrow.
as they say watch this space – I will update all tomorrow.

regards

Daryl

As per previous comments, I am based in the UK and purchased the UK version in the UK.

Can you update us UK users as to when our e-mails are going out?

I’ve had no contact from Ancestry (despite having registered FTM) – only warning I got about this upgrade was from my UK supplier. Their e-mail also mentioned that 26th September would be last date for free upgrade.
But when I phoned UK number given, I was told that UK e-mails were yet to go out and I should only ring again if I hadn’t received it by 26th September!
Either one of these dates is wrong, or us UK users have got an awfully short “upgrade window”!
Derek Hathaway
Derby, UK

Daryl # 324 and other AU users

The AU emails are starting to arrive

As noted a lot of AU users apparently did not tick the box when registering to allow Acom to send them update information hence they are not going to receive an email.

To repeat the alternative

A high proportion of AU and NZ users opted-out of emails so we can not send them the free upgrade email. Customers can call the call centre:

Australia
1-800-251-838 Monday – Friday 9:00 am – 16:00 pm AEST

New Zealand
0800 442 100 Monday – Friday 11:00 am – 6:00 pm NZT

The agent will direct them to http://www.ancestryshop.co.uk/freeupgrade and give them a unique code to enable them to order the upgrade disc. Please note there is a small charge of £2.95 that will cover P&P.

John D

Re #326

I find it interesting that you poned a UK number reference FTM 2009 and was told that no UK emails had been sent out yet. I know of at least 2 people having spoken to them that they have received the email and there is a few on this blog too who are in the UK, so there is conflicting info coming out from Ancestry. It would be good if we could be given a rough idea of when to expect the ‘email’

regards

Lisa

I’ve not yet received an email for an update from 2008 t0 FTM 2009. I would appreciate some help since yesterday’s info would suggest that all wmails have been sent.
Tnks
Ian
Ottawa Canada

Hi Michelle,
It’s 7:00 AM here in good old Missouri. Still no email. What should I do?
Thanks for your help

Michelle,

In talking to my ISP Comcast, they sent me the following information concern blocked email:

did more research on your issue and found an e-mail address for you to contact with your issue.

Below is an excerpt from a document I found addressing your issue:

5. If the customer is not receiving email from a specific domain please review the policy on blocked domains:

a. Comcast has implemented a new policy concerning blocklisting. If you receive calls from customer’s regarding a blocklist issue or an inability to receive mail or send mail from another domain, please advise the subscriber that we are not blocking individual senders, but only mail servers that have sent high volumes of spam to the Comcast.net domain. Have the caller review the error messages received and the corresponding FAQ links provided within the error message – this will help them to resolve their issue.

b. Blocked Domains; direct the subscriber to submit a form for IP removal at: http://www.comcastsupport.com/rbl

I went to the address above and it needs Ancestry input on my behalf to fix this.

I hope this helps.
ChrisP

I am a registered user of FTM 2008 and have not yet received the free update e-mail, did register through the UK.

Called Ancestry.com and had the tech consultant enter the order(no charge) for me. I have a confirmation number and should receive FTM 2009 in a few weeks. I still have not received an email and apparently the codes will only work from the link in the email.

I am a registered user and have not received an email for an upgrade to FTM2009. I’m living in Germany.

Michelle,
i know you and the whole staff is working very hard and have been inundated the last week, so just a quick update. I have not received an update email yet.
Thanks,
Jay Thompson

I have FTM2008 installed on my computer and have not yet received an email for the upgrade. I have the 2008 essentials and am looking forward to the new version. Can you please advise when I might receive an email for the free upgrade?
Thanks for a great product.

Still no email here, I am in the UK.

I did notice that on the ancestry.co.uk website I was subscibed to all updates and newsletters even though I have never received one. On the .com site I was not subscribed to anything, would this be the reason why some of us in the UK aren’t detting the email re; the 2009 update?

jc.cable@btinternet.com

Please add me to your list of US customers still waiting…

“We’re giving you Family Tree Maker® 2009. Free.” email received 8/8/08 @ 6:38 pm.

No update email received as of yet.

Thanks…..Brian

Michelle

I think John Cable (#337) is right.

I didn’t receive an email, although through ancestry.com.au it was noted to receive them.

However, when I accessed ancestry.com, there was a different screen with different options to subscribe.

It also noted that I had other preferences in the .com.au site.

I suggest that ancestry look at this, as I have never ever received a newsletter from ancestry, even though as I say, through the .com.au site I should have received them.

As of 12:15pm PST 9/17/08, I’ve still not rec’d any emails from Ancestry.com re: the Free 2009 upgrade. I am a registered user of Family Treemaker Essentials 2008 and my address at Ancestry is correct. Can you advise when I might expect to receive the email and/or instructions on how to get my Free 2009 FTM? I’m very anxious to get the new version.
Thanks

Michelle

Further to my #339.

Under the preferences for .com are newsletters for “Ancestry Monthly”, “Ancestry Weekly Journal” etc.

I have never ever received any of these. As I say, under .com.au I was supposed to get these, but I didn’t have the options put to me. Have a look at both screens and you’ll see what I mean.

The .com.au preference screen needs to be changed so that these preferences can be selected.

I believe this will be the reason why ALL those registered have not had emails.

Hi Michelle. I’m another registered user of FTM 2008 who hasn’t received the upgrade email. I think the problem may be that I’m an American who lives in the UK. So your systems probably assume I need the UK version, when in fact I need the American one.

One other quick question – what are the major differences between the American and English versions of FTM 2009? My wife is English, and at some point we’ll start on her ancestry. Would there be any reason for me to get the UK version as well at that point?

Thanks for your time helping me and everyone else on here,

David L

In response to Kathy Marie at 304
The report size needs to be changed in FTM 2006 click on ‘help’ then ‘About Family Tree maker’ then click on ‘Advance’ and change the report size to GenReportsMemSize=75776434

I would like to add to my post at 343. Make sure there isn’t a ; in front of GenReportsMemSize=75776434
I to had the same problem many years ago
Bob Klein

Hi, Michelle. Still no upgrade email. I have never received a single email about FTM 2009; I have only learned about it through various genealogy blogs.

Any idea when it will happen?

Thank you so much.

Hi Michelle

Referencing your post 287:

I am a US customer who, I’m sorry to have to say, has not yet received an email.

From what I read in this Blog you are making progress. Keep it up.

I purchased FTM 2008 on Friday, paid the expedited shipping (and my product arrived this evening (5 days later) and then when I tried to check the status of my order the day after I placed it and Ancestry had FTM 2009 up on your site to my surprise!

I called first thing Monday morning and the gentleman that I spoke to told me that the two programs were off and on the site because of the issues with 2008 and that since I bought 2008 I could send it back to you at a loss to me for shipping!

I was also told to reorder 2009 at full price, but that at the moment you guys are offering free shipping on FTM 2009, so it would even itself out…Um NO!

I’m pretty much appalled to find out that even after he spoke to a supervisor that I was given incorrect information and not even told about or offered FTM 2009 Upgrade like everyone else and am expected to pay full price for the product AND lose what I’ve already paid into shipping for a product that had already been replaced with the latest version BEFORE my order was even finished processing.

The long and short of it is that I would appreciate receiving the upgrade to FTM 2009 for free like everyone else and would also appreciate it if customer service were updated on the latest news for the future FTM consumers.

If I didn’t already have almost a decades worth of experience with Ancestry.com I would have to say that what I was told on the phone was a bit shady and I sincerely hope that isn’t the case, but rather a matter of miscommunication between your agent and his supervisor.

My husband bought FTM 2008 for me in November 2007. I did not install and register it until June or July because of the problems I was hearing. I have not received a notice of the Free 2009 version except from a friend. Can you help? I would very much like 2009. Mary Ellen

I ordered Family Treemaker 2008 on or about 9/11/2008 unaware there was a new version about to be released. I had difficulty receiving the shipment, which is another subject, however I called support to track the package and learned of the new free upgrade and suggested to your support personnel that since the shipment had not been received either i would cancel the order and reorder with the question when could I get the 2009 version. I was instructed the shipment would be rerouted and ounce received I was to register it and I would then receive an email to upgrade to 2009.
I registered, have received an email invitation to upgrade through a purchase, but not a free upgrade.
What should I do?

Thanks
Marion Brent

Hi Michelle,

Regarding your post #287. Since you said you have sent out the rest of the emails to the US and Canada. What do we do now if we still haven’t received one? Do we continue to wait for something that’s not coming? I’m trying really hard to be patient, really, I know you have your hands full, I would just like to know what we need to do to resolve this.

Thanks
Cathy

As of today, I have not received my second email with info on how to get FTM. I have emailed 3 times and no one replied. Please help me with this problem.

Hi,
I am in New Zealand and didn’t get the upgrade email, so I rang the phone number that was listed for us here to use, got through to a really nice man, who gave me the code to use and warned me that I would be charged for postage, which is cool. Sadly the website rejected the code that I was given. I had followed the directions as given more than once and still no luck.

Michelle,
I know you and the whole staff is working very hard and have been inundated this last week, so just a quick update. I have not received an update email yet.
Thanks,
Linda

Hi Judy

I’m also in NZ. The man that I got (probably the same one as you got, nice guy, in the UK) said that if I had had any problems, to get back to him.

I had no problems submitting the order, but I would get back to him if I were you.

Hi to all Australians out there.
An update to yesterday #324.
This morning I received the update email with voucher details from ancestry.com.au as promised and the order was processed without any problems – just have to wait for the CD to arrive.

regards

Daryl
Warrawee NSW Australia

Another Australian comment.

Rang the 1800 number and was put through to Michelle. She was very helpful, sent me an email with a link to the USA Shopping cart site, entered the code, and yes you guessed it “Invalid Coupon Code” error message came uo. That was 9.44 AM aest Have tried all day but still no luck. If you see this Michelle can you please advise what I should do next.

Hi Peter #356
Call the 1800 number again and ask to speak to Brad or the callcentre manager. I initially spoke to Michelle at the callcentre and I didn’t think she knew what was going on. You should get the link to the Ancestrystore in the UK as indicated in the entry on this Blog ie:

The agent will direct them to http://www.ancestryshop.co.uk/freeupgrade and give them a unique code to enable them to order the upgrade disc. Please note there is a small charge of £2.95 that will cover P&P.

hope this helps

Daryl

hi Peter #356/357

Just had a thought – go to the UK site and enter your code – it might just work as the callcentre operator (Michelle) probably gave you the wrong link.

Daryl

Hi Daryl #357/358

I also tried the UK site same deal. Guess I will have to wait till tomorrow and try the 1800 number again.

Peter

Hi Peter #356
I’m another Aussie user,I spoke to Michelle at the call centre this morning and when she gave me the code to use she did say that she wasn’t sure if the O was a letter of the alphabet or a zero,if one didn’t work try the other. I was able to place my order without any problems.

Lea

Hi Lea #360

Have also tried O and 0 on both the UK and USA sites, still invalid.

Peter

Still have not received my update email

Please advise

Joel Swanson

To everyone still waiting for their email…

I called customer service this morning and they sent me the email while I was on the phone with them. I followed the instructions in the email and everything processed without a hitch.

Another option. I called technical support and reached a very nice young man named David. He initially told that the emails were being sent in batches. I explained that I was aware, but that Michelle had posted on the blog that all emails had gone out on 9-16. He put me on hold for a short time, came back and told me that his supervisor had allowed him to place the order himself while I was online. He confirmed my email and snailmail address and,here’s hoping, my 2009 is on the way. But, he said he had sent a confirmation email which I have note yet received.

I did learn that there is a “special” store for the 2008 upgrades. It is only reachable through the email link, so I wonder if some of you were getting into the regular store and that is why price did not return to $0.

Lastly, I decided to follow the instructions to update my email preferences. I went into ancestry.com and updated, then a yellow box came up saying I had preferences in ancestry.ca . I asked and learned that is Ancestry Canada. I don’t think I have ever signed up for that, but suppose anything is possible. I wonder if that is where my emails are going.

At any rate, the experience this morning was a good and I hope that each of you are able to get your 2009 editions ordered soon

I just called Ancestry at about 12noon eastern time, They asked for my email and address, then sent out my email letter. In about a minutes while still talking to the Customer Service Rep my email came. Then I went to the Store link to place my order for 2009 upgrade, everything worked out great.

Good luck in getting the 2009 ugrade.

Have not received the email yet.

Still no emails; registered again.

Received my disk in the mail today, 9/18/08. I entered the code on 9/12. Just info to everyone.

Tony A,

Just curious… when did you recieve your confirmation email from Ancestry? I processed my order on Monday and recieved the confirmation on Tuesday.

Eric

Update for Aussie people.

After code not working yesterday, rang the 1800 number and spoke to Brad. Gave me a new code and entered on the UK site no problems all done…..Yeah!!!!

Michelle

There are still people who have not received the emails, and are registering again. I don’t think this is necessary.

As I have already said, I believe the problem is with the “Newsletter & Marketing Email Preferences”

Both the AU and UK screens are very basic. Does not give options as to weekly or monthly newsletters etc.

When I registered, under the AU site, I ticked that I wished to receive newsletters/updates from Ancestry. I have never received anything from them.

I have now gone onto the .com site and ticked the newsletters I would like to get in future.

Please look at all these screens and confirm that this is where the problem lies.

Initially, I thought it may have been your registration database, but I now believe that you have not sent emails due to the options on the AU and UK sites not being available.

Re #203
I still have not recieved a e-mail about the upgrade. I have checked my preferences and all are correct.

In the USA

Thanks

Carl

For any UK Users who have not recieved their upgrade e-mail.

In frustration yesterday I contacted Ancestry UK Store who kindly gave me the freephone number 0800 404 9723. (had to try it a couple of times to get it to ring though). I eventually got through and a very helpful person took my details. Validated my e-mail address against details on ancestry.co.uk and apologised that she couldn’t give me a voucher code immediately as her supervisor wasn’t present but promised to e-mail me once the supervisor returned.

Yes the e-mail arrived within the hour and I have succesfully ordered the free upgrade (£2.95 p&p)

Hope this helps Nick.

Thanks Nick,

I’m in the UK and just rang the number you gave. A very nice man on the phone gave me my validation code straight away. I typed it in while speaking to him and ordered my copy.

Dean

Hi, I too phoned the UK freephone number 0800 404 9723 last night and spoke to a lady called Michelle who was helpful with my queries. She also gave me my unique code and directed me to the relevant website. I entered the code and validated it, put in my billing and shipping details and lo and behold my order went through straight away, no problems, just £2.95 P&P. Got the email confirmation within the minute of submitting. Thanks for the easy process. Regards

To #371 Carl

Go to blog #364.

The USA no. is 1-800-958-9124 that I used and got through and worked.

Good luck.
ChrisP

Re: Blog #336
I finally called the Ancestry number and was told by Jennifer that there was another batch of emails going out. As I had registered just before the send date I was missed in the Sept 16 batch.She also told me to call next week if I did not receive an email.

Gonna try this again. I have yet to recieve an email from ancestry.com. Not one after registration, not any of the newsletter, tips, marketing stuff, etc. Nothing! I’d really like to take advantage of this upgrade offer. Please help out.

To #369 Eric G

I received the 2nd coupon on 9/12/08 @ 1:21pm CDT. Ordered immediately @ 1:22pm CDT. Confirmation email received same day @ 2:12pm CDT.

Have just loaded FTM 2009. Have not spent any time using it other than importing files from 2006 version. I got frustrated after twenty minutes.The web search yields several( yes,,several,,,less than 10) hits on searches previously having hundreds of hits.Am I not using it correctly? This complaint was the same one I had with FTM 2008. It appears not to compare to 2006 version. I went back to 2006 after installing 2008 and will likely do the same now. It is terrible.Period.

Was wondering for those that where able to place your order, how long from when you placed your order did you receive FTM 2009? I placed on 9-12 and have yet to receive mine. Am hoping i receive this weekend or at latest monday. This is for a US order.

Hi Michelle. Welcome and thanks for the improved communication. I was part of the 2008 Beta testing. I own and registered a copy of 2008. I have not received any information about upgrading to 2009. What should I do?

Still haven’t received an e-mail as of 1pm, Sept. 19. I’ve checked my preferences at both Ancestry.com and my e-mail server to make sure it wasn’t going to my spam box. If the e-mail doesn’t show up at the end of the day, I will call on Monday.

Michelle,
I may have missed the email announcing the FTM 2009 free upgrade. My domain, alan.walls.com, and email address, alan@walls.com, was sold out from under me. Please resend email to alan@wallsplace.net. Thank you.
A. Walls

Ordered 2009 around noon CDT on September 13, the confirmation arrived the sane day at 12:16 PM.

The software was in the mail today

Anybody loaded it yet?

TonyC

What country do you live it in that you got an order confirmation e-mail message?

My nerves couldn’t stand it any longer so I called Ancestry customer service, Mike seemed to know all about what is going on, he took my details (seems that as I bought my 2008 from a High St. retailer there was a bit more checking involved), I duly received my coupon the next day and have just ordered my free 2009, in minutes, no problems at all.
Thank you Ancestry for making this offer possible and Michelle for keeping us updated.

Its now September 20th. Still have not received email about the update. I am in the US. Ive checked my email settings and everything is correct.

when will I get emailed???

So it seems that not all customer service calls are alike. After messages left here, emails cahnged, updated and confirmed, I decide to take the advice from otehrs here and call customer service. While others may have had an agent to take their info and help out, I got one that said they are now asking us to email customersolutions@tgn.com and explain our problem with not receiving email or the update announcement/codes. Well I did as I was asked and still no email. I am fairly new to FTM, so please tell me things are not always this bad.

Ref 388

I got the same story. I guess it is one more way to eliminate “customer service”, bad enough you talk to a service center in who knows what 3rd world country, now they eliminate it. I have decided to quit looking into it. If I get the upgrade great, If not, I am not sure I need a magazine, deluxe ancestry subscription, and FTM2009.

UK RESIDENTS

Don’t wait for your email – call 0800 404 9723.

The agents are very helpful and will give you your FTM 2009 upgrade code for use at http://www.ancestryshop.co.uk/freeupgrade

My order was successfully made within moments. I shall now wait eagerly for at my letterbox, rather than my inbox!

Good luck everyone.

Karen
I’m assuming you directed the question of “what country do you live in to get an order confirmation e-mail?” to me.

We live in Dallas, Texas, USA – Go Cowboys

TonyC

Having problems finding a suitable chart in FTM2008 so went to website and discovered this blog page by complete accident. Interesting to find all the problems that people have with 2008, not just me then (I am still running v16 as a read only version as well as 2008 as I can not get my head around all the changes, lack of charts and I have a problem with the spell checker crashing FTM2008 when I run it.

Here are a few quotes and comments:

12) In terms of priority, the all-n-one tree is in the same general area as the features that are planned for the next free upgrade. It’s a very, very important feature to us. I can’t say more than that because it is also difficult to implement. I don’t want to make promises we can’t keep

- When FTM was completly re-written for 2008 wasn’t charts etc. one of the major reasons for doing so?

178) People have asked why we don’t provide a download. There are a few reasons for this: The download would be too large for practical application, and we expect there would be a lot of problems associated with this.

- A slow background update download might have been an easier and cheaper option, espectially if it just happened automatically.

Oh well, here’s hoping that the 2009 version is easier to use and has more charts etc.

To David, Blog# 388

I, too, called c/s yesterday and was told to send an email to customersolutions@tgn.com which I did at 10:57am yesterday. As of 11:57pst today 9/20 I’ve not heard or rec’d anything. However, the c/s rep did indicate that was how it is now being handled – thru the customersolutions email box and that it will likely take a few days as they handle the emails in the order that they receive them; to expect about a week or so.
I, also, posted it here a few days ago – blog post# 340 on 9/17/08. Hopefully something will come soon.

I just made a backup with 2009. I trusted that the problem with media files being pulled into the media folder when they are only linked to on the hard drive had been resolved. NOPE, I got 900 images loaded into my media folder that I don’t want there.

As an added bonus, the backup file WASN’T created. All I got for my trouble was the work of sorting those 900 files back out of my media folder and into the recycle bin.

I just hope they weren’t deleted from their original locations.

You guys knew about this problem and released 2009 without resolving it.

What’s the problem? What’s the point of our linking to files instead of copying them into the media folder?

Oh, I see what you did now. Because you couldn’t resolve the problem of externally linked files being included into the media folder during a backup, you simply said in the help file that is what’s supposed to happen. That’s pathetic. In a previous post you agreed there was a problem. Now it’s not a problem

Could you at least make the box unchecked by default?

Benjamin Nettesheim’s comments on this subject at:

http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/04/21/news-about-sp3/

in post # 24 are -

As for backing up w/ media… this is still an area where the team is looking at other options and improvements. But currently, when backing up it copies all media into the Family Tree Maker media folder and zips it up.

I am confused. I am registered on Ancestry.ca as well as Ancestry.com. Have never registered on Ancestry.ca and would like to be removed from such list. I have tried upgrading my account to no avail. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Michelle,

Thanks. I got my Order Number from Ancestry a couple hours (Sept. 19, 2008) after I went online with the code, also I got a confirmation code.

Also, I will keep you informed about getting my newsletters, etc.

Again thanks.
ChrisP

DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT HERE AND CAN THEY PROVIDE SOME ADVICE

I HAVE FTM 2009 LOADED ON MY COMPUTER AND EVERY THING WENT SMOOTHLY

I AM IN THE PROCESS OF TESTING SOME OF THE REPORTS TO CHECK THEIR ACCURACY AND DETERMINE HOW QUICKLY I CAN GET THEM TO RUN.

I AM RUNNING INTO PROBLEMS TRYING TO GET (SAY, FOR EXAMPLE, A REGISTER REPORT TO RUN). IF I ONLY TRY TO RUN THE REGISTER REPORT FOR A FEW GENERATIONS AND FOR ONLY PREFERRED FACTS IT SEMS TO RUN OK. BUT WHEN I CHANGE THE SETTINGS TO SAY 13 GENERATIONS AND TO ALSO INCLUDE NON PREFERRED FACTS IN THE REPORT I CAN’T GET THE REPORT TO RUN TO FRUITION [IN GENERAL WHEN I LOAD THE REPORT WITH A FAIR/LARGE AMOUNT OF DATA IT SLOWS DOWN (OBVIOUSLY AS IT SHOULD) OR IT STOPS RUNNING]

MY SYTEM IS XP3 PROFESSIONAL WITH 2 GIGS OF RAM AND MANY MANY GIGS OF HARD DISK

IN AN ENDEAVOR TO FIND OUT WHY THE REPORTS WON’T RUN. I HAVE “BROUGHT UP” THE WINDOWS TASK MANAGER ON MY SCREEN AND THEN RESTARTED THE RUNNING OF THE REPORT. BEFORE I START THE REPORT THE TASK MANAGER SHOWS 2 GIGS OF RAM WITH ABOUT 1.5 GIGS OF AVAILABLE RAM.

ONCE THE REPORT STARTS RUNNING THE AVAILABLE RAM STARTS DECREASING AND AFTER ABOUT 20 MINUTES OR SO IT HAS DECREASED TO LESS THAN 1/3 GIG. WHEN IT REACHES AROUND THIS LEVEL THE REPORT STOPS TRYING TO RUN AND BRINGS ME BACK TO MY ORIGINAL WINDOW. NOTE: FTM 2009 DOES NOT CRASH, THE REPORT JUST STOPS ATTEMPTING TO RUN.

I DON’T KNOW WHAT ALL HIS MEANS, BUT IT IS OBVIOUS MY SYSTEM HAS USED UP ALL ITS AVAILABLE RAM (ANY MAYBE THE SWAPPING OUT TO THE HARD DISK HAS STOPPED.)

IN ANY CASE THE REPORT WON’T RUN.

MY PRELIMINARY READINGS INDICATE THAT MAYBE FTM 2009 IS “LEAKING” [WHATEVER THAT MEANS] AND WHEN IT REACHES A CERTAIN LEVEL [THAT IS, HAS USED UP ALL THE AVAILABLE RAM] THE REPORT GENERATION STOPS.

ONCE THE REPORT STOPS, THE AVAILABLE RAM SLOWLY STARTS TO INCREASE AND EVENTUALLY GOES BACK TO WHERE IT STARTED.

MAYBE THIS ISN’T THE PLACE TO REPORT THIS, BUT HOPEFULLY SOMEONE CAN HELP.

ALSO MICHELLE, MAYBE YOU COULD PASS THIS PROBLEM ON TO THE FTM 2009 DEVELOPERS

IT IS QUITE FRUSTRATING—AND ALL I AM TRYING TO DO HERE IS GENEALOGY

I’m still wondering about these confirmation e-mail messages that some people have received.

I am in the US. I received all the no-charge upgrade notices and was able to place an order on the 12th. My order history at the Ancestry Store includes an entry for the “Family Tree Maker 2009 Free Pack” but I never received any kind of confirmation.

Although I was expecting a 7-10 day delivery delay, I’m now reading that some people (who all seem to have received confirmations) have already received their orders. Should I be concerned? Is there another glitch in the process?

Have successfully loaded FTM 2009 but have discovered what I feel to be a serious problem in that if you try and delete an entry in the ‘Edit Person’ screen FTM crashes with no error message.

Thank you Michelle for your response re: the upgrade to 2009. I received my email this morning and have ordered my new FTM2009. The process was easy and went without a hitch. Now I can hardly wait for it to arrive so I can check out all the new and improved features.

Jim

Thanks Michelle ,
I got my email this morning, 21st, and have order the upgrade. Can’t wait, I started using TMG but found the learning curve too steep.I originally left FTM due to the inability to show siblings in ancester trees which I understand has now been restored.

Good morning, Michelle. I received my email when I got up this morning, 9/21, and have already ordered my copy of FTM 2009. Accomplished within a couple of minutes. Thank you so very, very much for your help. I look forward to getting it!!!

Keep Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast in your prayers. The devastation is horrendous.

Janice Heidt

Received email early this AM. Order went smoothly. Thanks for the help.

Hi Michelle,

I received your email this morning and placed the order. Thanks so much for you help to order the upgrade.

Kind regards,
Bill

Michelle – Thank you. I rec’d my email last night from you, went to the link and purchased my FTW2009 using the coupon code you gave me.

I’ve not yet, however, rec’d an email confirmation. Nor does it show in Ancestry Store | My History yet. Should I be concerned at this point that I’ve not rec’d an email confirm? (I do have the Confirmation# from the purchase that I printed out as it instructed.)
I got the impression that I should receive an email confirm within an hour or two, so a bit concerned.

Thanks again.

Recieved letter of confirmation on 12 Sept. Recieved 2009 disc 20 Sept. Installed on my computer everything got transfered over, appears to be running fine. Will know more when I get into it. lol

Thanks Jack

Kathy Marie @402:

2008&2009 are memory hogs, but it doesn’t sound like you have a memory leak (that’s when an app consumes memory when running but doesn’t release it when done).

You may be exceeding your page file limit. Instead of focusing on real memory usage, in task manager, look at PF usage. If you are near the limit when (trying to) run your report, then increase the pagefile size under control panel | system | advanced | performance settings button | advanced tab | virtual memory change.

Shouldn’t be this hard.

Michelle,
I also received my e-mail and successfully ordered 2009 on 9/12 but did not receive a confirmation e-mail and have not received my 2009 upgrade. It shows in my order history as shipped.

Does your order history include a “shipped” date or just the label “shipped”?

Mine is blank; in other words, nothing has shipped. I’m concerned that we may be stuck in some sort of order processing black hole.

I’m disappointed in FTM 2009. Installed it and found it does not print anything at all. The print jobs all stall before completely spooled. Then the print jobs pop out of the printer at random in machine code.

I actually bought a newer printer thinking mine was not fully Vista Compliant and had the same result.

Yes, FTM 2008 is working fine on either printer. so it seems to FTM 2009.

Since it won’t print, I’m deleting it from my system.

Whatever I do I seem to be unable to get to the place to provide the unique code to enable me to order the upgrade disk to FTM 2009 18th edition – what am I doing wrong.

Regards,

Arthur (aka Bill) Evans

Thanks for your personla e-mail to me Michelle.

However it does not explain why I in the UK (registered in the UK and bought 2008 in the UK) never received the Upgrade e-mail.

I suppose we will never get to the bottom of this problem. I have since phoned the UK Support team and ordered the free 2009 online with the code.

Hi Michelle

I live in the UK and bought the UK version of FTM2008 last year from an online UK retailer.

I have not received any e-mail offering the free upgrade.

I phoned the Ancestry.co.uk helpline last week and was told that all UK registered users should receive the e-mail by 26 Sept which is the day the special offer expires!

I still have not received the email.

Please can you help.

thanks
Clare

In looking at my account in Shop none of my orders going back to 2002 have a shipped date. The shipped date would be nice to have since the space was provided. Also we would be able to tell if there is a problem with snail mail.

Thanks
ChrisP

I have an old Family Tree Maker tree on line. It has my old email address on it, and I want to change it to my new one so folks will know how to contact me. How do I do this?

Re #372

I’m impressed I actually placed order on Friday the 19th September and it turned up in the post this morning Monday 22nd September.

Installed without a hitch although it did load my previous 2008 file without asking me. Just need to re-import from FTM 16 live version and away we go hopefully.

Cheers Nick

I have not received my email yet. I’ve registered FTM 2008 twice already since I’ve owned it.

Thanks,
Todd

I am a registered user of FTM 2008 and I have not received the free update e-mail. Reading some of the
comments I am on comcast and I may
have been blocked. Your help would be appreciated

Marv Wachendorf

I still haven’t received the 2nd upgrade message. I bought it from Ancestry.com. My order information is:
Order Date: 09/14/2007
Order # 20819267

Thanks.

I just bought FTM 2008. Can we no longer create Genealogy reports?

Hello,
I have not received the email for FTM 2009 yet

On both FTM 8 and 9, none of the charts and reports print, Instead, the program shuts itself shuts down. There are no compatibility problems that we can find. I had a professional here for three hours and she searched for something to no avail. Can you steer me to a solution.

As a UK user, and registered as a UK user, I as far as I am aware have never opted out of receiving e-mails from Ancestry, only from third parties. In fact under the e-mail address I use posting this blog, I never receive update e-mails from Ancestry.

Can this be looked into? Perhaps myself and others don’t receive e-mails despite not having opted out!!

Help please. I got my first e-mail about the free FTM2009 upgrade, but I have not received a second e-mail!

Please help.

Beckman97@att.net

Thanks!

I agree with Peter.

I have just checked my email settings. I have not opted-out of receiving email communications from Ancestry, only those from third parties.

I have never received the Ancestry newsletter. The only emails I receive from them are when my renewal is due.

Like #433 and other users my email preference is set to receive upgrades and emails from Ancestry. I have registered on the .au site.

I too have checked both .com.au and .com sites and there is a difference between the 2.

Maybe this should be checked by your staff and amended to reflect the same information.

Thank you Michelle. I did indeed receive the confirmation email this morning. Guess it was held up in cyberspace somewhere for a couple days. Thanks again for checking on it for me.

Looking Forward to getting my 2009.
Thanks again,
Carol

I still have not received an email from FTM and have not received information about FTM 2009. I would like to upgrade before I decide to extend my subscription to Ancestry.com which expires on October 4th.
Thanks

Thank you Michelle. I received the upgrade email Sunday morning. I placed my order at that time, without any difficulty.
Last night I received the confirmation email.

I had emailed a question to support because I had not received my free upgrade offer to FTM 2009.

They responded promptly, gave me the code to insert in my upgrade order. When I went to check out there was no charge for the upgrade.

Thank you Ancestry. I am looking forward to my FTM 2009.

Barb Yeoman

#433 and #434
Regarding my comment #432

Yes I have been to Ancestry .com, and I did not have any boxes ticked to receive e-mails from Ancestry.com, although I did in Ancestry.co.uk.

I agree taht there must be some anomolies here and that TGN need to look into the fact that we do not receive e-mail in the UK although we may have requested this in our UK website account profile.

Same as Peter in #439 and others.
I have never receved any newsletters or offers. And I am still waiting for my first eMail about FTM2009.
Regards.

Thanks Michelle

I did as you suggested – rang UK support and they gave me the coupon code straight away. I have now placed my order for the free upgrade,(although you do have to pay the postage). The offer in the UK expires on 26th.

Before I download the patch for FTM 2008 concering Genealogy Reports I want to make sure we are on the same page and talking about the same report.
I am looking for the Genealogy Report that allowed you to print descendants or ancestors of a person. In this report it put in in word/paragraph form. This was great to take to reunions etc and hand them out as it included everyone. I am not looking for a chart or a family tree line in chart form.

Thanks !!

I think it would be very beneficial to have two blogs. (1) Tips on using FTM2009. (2)Questions (and responses) on how to do something specific in FTM2009. It would be helpful to keep these blogs free from off-topic comments such as “why does my system crash” or “I haven’t gotten an email about the free upgrade”, etc.

I checked my order history under the username jdfolz and my purchase of FTM 2008 is there, and I know I registered it, but I have not received the free upgrade email.
Thanks,
Joe

When I installed FTM 2008 and tried to import files, the files were corrupted. Among other things, place names were recorded as “religion”.

Has this problem been fixed in FTM 2009?

More of an FYI than anything. I’ve two ancestry.com online trees and had my offline tree (in FTM 2006 (v16). The two online trees are subsets of this one, but have a lot of newer info. I decided to purchase 2009 and bring my trees back together there. I moved the v16 tree to 2009 without a hitch, but each time I tried to merge ged files from my online trees, 2009 would eventually crash. I then went back to v16, merged the geds from the online trees and then imported the result to 2009. Good thing I didn’t get rid of v16!

I have been a registered user of FTM for many years. I also purchased FTM 2008 and registered it. I still have not received an email for the upgrade to FTM 2009. What do I need to do to obtain the upgrade?

!!ATTENTION UK USERS!!

If you want the free upgrade call the UK Ancestry customer services on 0800-404-9723 … don’t hang around waiting for the email.

You’ll be given a voucher code and directed to http://www.ancestryshop.co.uk/freeupgrade.

I got my code within a couple of minutes of ringing and had ordered the free upgrade within seconds.

Michelle and Ancestry.com-

Received my software today. Thank you so much for such an excellent gift. No company is perfect and there are bound to be mistakes, but I have never been disappointed with ancestry.com after more than 5 years and the great service I have received through the upgrade will make me continue as a member.

Thanks again!
One very satisfied customer.

FTM 2008 is still on the shelves here in Boulder and I grabbed it not knowing that 2009 was out. Are those of us newly registering qualified for a free upgrade?

Please bring back the calendar in your next upgrade.It was a wonderful feature. in fact, I made birthday calendars for our family reunion every two years. The calendar helped in securing needed birthdays and anniversaries for the family tree. New members of individual families along with photos were gladly sent for the new calendar for each reunion.

Do users who did not sign up for the trial ancestry subscription qualify for the FTM2009 upgrade?

If you didn’t provide a credit card when you registered FTM2008, you don’t have a profile with mailing preferences

As far as I can tell, the only people eligible for this “free” upgrade are those who either purchased directly from Ancestry.com or who subscribed to Ancestry when they registered the product.

Is that correct? Has TGN decided that the only FTM2008 customers who deserve the upgrade are those who have Ancestry accounts?

If that is not correct, what are the exact steps non-Ancestry customers should follow to get their upgrade?

Well I cna not get FTM 2009 to register. Called tech support and still it will not register. So how do I get the free upgrad FTM 2009 as tech support told me it had to register on the internet.

Sorry on last post it is FTM 2008 that will not register.

I received my free copy of FTM 2009 in the mail today. No lost emails, no issues at checkout, no delays in shipping: the system worked (for me at least). Thanks Michelle.

I recently purchased FTM 2008 for use with Vista Business Bonus, 32 bit. I have had major problems from the start including: can not register – error message, “not connected to the internet” even though I am with all security software turned off, program is extremely slow and freezes up frequently, can not access technical support since I keep getting an error message “E-Mail address requires a value”, could not successfully download SP3 for Vista. Am extremely dissatisfied and about to give up. HELP!!!!

Michelle, will you please check and see what the problem is. I have not received the second email or my copy of 2009.
I might have used my other email… which is cillabent@att.net.
Thanks
Joyce

Michelle, I am sorry I cut off part of the email address.
drucillabent@att.net

I was able to place the order and got a blank confirmation email back. Confirmation number is: 2009105962. The date of the order was 9-15-08. when can I expect to receive it?

I still haven’t received an email and have checked all my spam filters.
I see a note saying that UK customers should contact UK customer support. I am not a UK customer but live in Ireland the 0800 number will not work here. Have I been included in the UK (wrongly) or is there something else I should do?

Michelle:
I purchased FTM 2008 when it first came out and registered immediately.I have not yet received the email offering the free upgrade to 2009.I live in Canada.
Thanks,
Jack

Hello, Michelle!

I just received my FTM 2009, and haven’t really had a chance to explore all the changes.

However, I do see that once again, alas, the “custom reports” function is not as “custom” as I had hoped for. It would be sooo nice to be able to pull up, for example, a report of everyone with a death date between this date and that date. Or everyone who died in this county. Sort of like the reports a la Filemaker Pro. It doesn’t seem like it would be too difficult…how about it, FTM developers?

Thanks!

Is everyone who has registered their respected FTM 2008 to receive the FREE FTM 2009 upgrade or just selected customers? It is my understanding Sept. 26th, 2008 is cutoff date and I have yet to receive an Email for my upgrade. Do you have any comments on the subject?

Michelle,

Although I haven’t received a specific reply to my earlier message (#281) I did follow your advice given in this site and I invested in the cost of an international phone call. The service was prompt and excellent and I was given a personal code. My problem is that when I log onto the free upgrade site I am only given the choice of of UK, Australia or New Zealand in the drop down country menu. As mentioned in my earlier posting, I purchased the UK version of FTM2008 from the UK but I live in the Cayman Islands. Can you tell me how to obtain FTM2009 short of paying full price to buy a commercial version.

Regards
Richard

Re #463:
“It would be sooo nice to be able to pull up, for example, a report of everyone with a death date between this date and that date. Or everyone who died in this county.”

You can do that in FTM2009, 2008, or even 2006: Select Custom report then choose “Selected Individuals”. When the pop-up to select individuals appears, click “Filter In” (”Find in older versions) and use any criteria you like to select who should be in the report. You can even choose people based on whether a field is (or is not) blank.

The problem in FTM17 and 18 isn’t that you can’t generate this kind of report but that you can’t export the results in a usable format. The CSV output of FTM18 is just as dysfunctional as in FTM17.

This is another example of the failure to systematically analyze requirements in a way that ensures you deliver what people actually need. There is no point in listing CSV output as a feature if customers can’t actually use the output in standard ways.

I agree with Richard’s request in post 443 to start a new blog with comments on tips and questions about the new version of this software. This blog had exceeded 460 entries, which no one is going to read.

Hi, I’m from the UK, and have just received my free FTM 2009 upgrade, exactly a week after placing my order on the special order page, having rung Ancestry UK for the code.

Thank you. It installed and copied files over from 2008 with no problems.

Hope the wait was worth it?! Cheers.

A Blog is not the place to try to address specific problems.

If people have questions about how to do something specific, they should be directed to a functional help forum. As some one else noted, neither the FTM message board on Ancestry or the various mailing lists are very funtionally today. FTM needs to pay more attention to the need and come up with an online support venue better suited to today’s users.

http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.software.famtreemaker/mb.ashx

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jfuller/gen_mail_software.html#FTM

http://www.

I have a code number for the FTM 2009 upgrade but the website was down before the close date of 26 Sept & I could not use it.
Can I still upgrade it?
Ron

I’ve been a long time user of FTM software and have endorsed it’s use with many family & friends. I was happy with all the versions up to 2008. While I did try the 2008 version and registered it,the interface was just too cumbersome for me to use.
I’ve waited patiently for the 2009 email upgrade, but have not received one.

Thanks.

I am looking at buying FTM but need to know whether I can download data from an extensive family tree I have been working on for some time on Ancestry.com. It seems a waste of my time to have to manually enter everything again so am hoping there is a user friendly answer to this. I have emailed FTM directly but received no response to date.
Lyn

Received the FTM 2009 disk today and installed the new program.

No problems.

Thank you Michelle.

I own the 2008 version of Family Tree Maker but did not receive an email or coupon for the updated program. Since I have not been using 2008 because I don’t like it, I’m hoping 2009 will resolve some issues and let me upgrade from Version 16 that I now use. I moved in April 2008 and have a new address and email address now. Can you help me? My NEW EMAIL is sgo1334@yahoo.com.

Michelle,

Thanks for the help.

Yesterday at about 6pm I got my Ancestry Weekly Journal in two years. May be I will be getting emails from Ancestry from now on. I hope that Ancestry and Comcast Cable has fixed that problem.

I will be making sure in the coming weeks.

Michelle,

I too received my first ever update e-mail for 2 years, the Weekly Journal

A FRIEND OF MINE JSUT RECEIVED HER 2009 DISK IN THE MAIL.. IT TOLD HER SHE HAD TO ORDER THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR $19.95 IS THIS HOW THE “FREE” UPGRADE WORKS??

Michelle,

I received the first announcement email but have not yet received the upgrade email. Can you send/resend it? Thanks!

Charlie

Dear Michelle,

I have been a purchaser and subscriber to FTM and Ancestry.com for at least 12 years. Last year, I did not purchase my 2008 program from Ancestry.com. I did get a 3 month extension to my paid Premium Access subscription. Now, Michelle, please, tell me how I got the 3 month extension to my acess if my program was not registered before September 12, 2008? (Please read email below from your customer service in response to my posting #436 to you and #138 to Russell Hanning) By the way, my access subscription expires around October 4, 2008. Three months ago would have been June, so your records should show that if one were to look.
Here’s waiting to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Kathy

Dear Kathy,
We appreciate your message.
You had to register your Family Tree Maker 2008 before 09/12/2008 to get the email offer for the upgrade to 2009.

Great news, you qualify for a special upgrade to the World Deluxe annual membership for $199.00 for the first year. If you wish to take advantage of this just call 1-800-262-3787 and ask for me,

(Kimberly] at extension ( 22078 ).

If there is anything else with which we might assist you, please let us know.

Kimberly
Member Solutions
Ancestry.com

Hi Michelle

I registered FTM 2009, and was also advised that I could extend my Ancestry.com subscription for World Heritage membership by one month.

However, on accessing the screen to do this, I was asked for my 19 digit activation code.

I was given a code when I purchased FTM 2008, but I have not received a code for FTM 2009.

How do I get this code for FTM 2009?

(I did try the FTM 2008 code, but this did not work).

I think this is a great idea! Merkel Walters

Hi Merkel

What are you referring to?

I note a comment in Athena #466 mentioning FTM17 and FTM18. Is this the same as FTM 2008 and FTM2009?

Ernie

Okay here is my problem, purchased FTM 2008 (should have done my homework as I am not pleased) on September 4 (if I had known about FTM 2009 I would have waited), received it around September 9 and registered it, emailed tech support around September 24 (problems still not resolved and haven’t heard from them), started looking for my own answers to the problems with FTM 2008 and saw this blog site, contacted customer service for free upgrade on September 25, on September 27 received the following email:
We can help you with that, please contact our customer support line toll free number at 1-800-262-3787. Our office hours are 9 AM -7 PM EST Monday to Friday.
Best regards,
Evens
Member Solutions
Ancestry.com
September 29, you will love this, started calling around 9am EST just like the email said, didn’t get through until after 10 (the gentleman said they didn’t open until 10) anyways, he told me to send an email off to customersolutions@tgn.com which I did, today is October 1 and I still haven’t heard anything.
I am a first time FTM consumer, first time Ancestry.com paid subscriber, all I want is the free upgrade in hopes that FTM will not have the same problems and I can continue with my paid subscription with Ancestry. Any suggestions out there?

I have a suggestion for 2009, if it hasn’t already been mentioned …

When working in the sources panel, and viewing the links to a source citation, I’d like to see those links sortable just like facts can be sorted when viewing individual and shared facts for a person.

#500 coming up soon!

RE: 485 Christine – My email was sent to customersolution@tgn.com (without an “s” on the end of solution. I forwarded my email to the one you gave in case I have it wrong. Haven’t heard anything.
Kathy

RE: 487
Well good luck. I have sent two emails off already to them with no reply. I think what bothers me most is the lack of communication between the right and left hands. I believe Ancestry.com should have told me to email customersolutions@tgn.com, rather than tell me to call the 1-800 number. Calling the 1-800 number was a waste. Their phone menu was confusing. They weren’t open at 9 like the email stated. There should be instructions to consumers on what to do if you haven’t received the coupon (maybe there is). And they said they could help me, which as of today they haven’t. If you hear anything, please let me know.

Michelle,

I only hope the new version is better than the one I presently have! I have not been able to share information from Ancestry.com to FTM (v6.0) as detailed in the program.

I have contacted support at Ancestry.com and have come up with nothing! As a matter of fact, I got the distinct impression that I was getting the round-around. Luckily I saved all correspondence for future uses.

To top it all off, I never got compensated for the free time offered on Ancestry.com which I was already a member of. I couldn’t find anyone who would answer/respond to that particular aspect of my purchase of FTM v6.0.

I still use FTM v6.0 although it’s ‘crippled’ and feel it appears to satisfy most of the requirements to a genealogy composing program, but the support leaves much to be desired! Needless to say I’ll not be purchasing any newer versions!

Frank

I am requesting a coupon for the free update to FTM 2009. I have not received an email from you, but I am a registered 2008 purchaser. You may reach me at the email address shown in this comment.

Hi all outside US & Canada,
For the record, I received my copy of FTM2009 from the UK today (2nd Oct) 2 weeks after ordering.
The software installed and registered without any problems – took my FTM2008 data and I am all systems go.
Now the fun starts in putting it through its paces.
Thanks again Michelle for the work you have put into getting this show on the road, I will now move over to the new blog to track FTM2009 progress

Regards,
Daryl Rickards
Warrawee NSW
Australia

Michelle,

I received my FTM 2009 disk yesterday. It is working great. It took about 10 days after ordering.

Here is an enhancement I would like to see.

I would like Place Names upgraded. I will try to explain.

1). In the Place area (say Birth) I would like a field for Street Address, City or Township, County, State, Country, and Zip Code. Each Country could have its own breakdown. The main Place area would be expandable to show these fields, but can be condensed from the fields input.

2). Also I would like the Place Map to recognize the words City, Township, and County after such designation. If I know the complete address I will enter as Street address, Beverly City, Burlington County, New Jersey, USA but the map cannot find it until I take off the words City and County. Part one would take care of this.

Thanks

I should of said:

Individual fields for Street Address, City or Township, County, State, Country, and Zip Code.

Michelle,

Question regarding Free upgrade to FTM 2009?

I’ve been using FTM (2005 & 2006) happily for some time now and invested in a copy of FTM 2008 at the end of June of this year, however due to other committments I’ve only just got round to installing and registering it. Will I receive the email containing the code for the free upgrade to FTM 2009 before October 9th which I believe is the cut off date.

regards,

Ian A
UK

I have also yet to receive an email regarding an upgrade to 2009.. I put in a request on the customer service website to no reply. I have a registered copy of FTM 2008 and stopped using it because it frustrated me.

I understand that we are to make known if we have not recieved our FTM upgrade e-mail, so here goes. I have a US registered copy of FTM 2008, and have not received an email for my upgrade to FTM 2009. Thank you!

I did not get an email about the upgrade to Family Tree Maker 2008. Please send me an email with the URL for the upgrade website for family Tree Maker 2009 to the above email address. Thank you.

Stuart Gilson
scubee97@cox.net (Email address change)

Ok, got the program, installed and imported. Seems to be working well. Where are the blogs for using the program?
Thanks

RE 488
I got the code for the 2009 program and placed my order with no problems.

The email answered was sent to customersolution@tgn.com without the “s”.
Good luck.

Kathy
Yes, I also received the coupon today, ordered it without any problems.
Thank you!

I refer to Robbie Burnett’s comments (number 40). I have just had my entire family of 292 individuals become unrelated. “No Direct Relationship found”. Other than for a half dozen entries.It thinks I am my own half sister! I have checked for duplications and can’t where the fault is.
Does this mean I have to create an entire new file and manually put all these individuals, plus facts, notes etc in again? I hope not. Please help.

I have been an avid user of family tree maker for more than 10 years. I was wondering how I can get a free upgrade. I am not sure I registered my 2008 but Im am willing to do whatever it to prove that I am worthy to get a free upgrade. thank you for reading this and hopefully you will respond. I am anxious to try the new version out. Ann Ciero annie13328@aol.com

When will I receive the email for the free kupdate to FTM 2009. Still watiing.

Thank

Jerry

I have not received an e-mail with a code for the free upgrade for Family Tree.

I did not get an e-mail to update my 2008 version to 2009. Please e mail me about what I am to do. Thank you,
Kathleen Willard

Not sure if this is the correct forum for this question, so sorry if I’m barking up the wrong tree!
I’ve just upgraded from FTM 2005 to FTM 2009. I notice that the font size ( for inputting the data ) is much smaller, although I have noticed in the tools option, there is a choice to “large” font, however it still seems to be much smaller than my older version with a yellow background!
Anyone any ideas how I can make the font larger or the background a different colour making it easier to read. My eyesight isn’t what it used to be!

Thanks
Jennifer

I am a registered user of Family Tree Maker 2008 software. I have not received an e-mail with download code to provide for a free upgrade to the new version.

Trammell Lindsey

I understand there is a free update to FTM 2008. Would you please advise me how to obtain that free update. Thank you. Pat Bernard

After perusing this Blog site, I went to FTM and downloaded successfully SP3 and my FTM says I am in version ….0.965. Is this the latest update that has caused so much discussion, or is there another update that the 2008 registered FTM owners need. Thank you for your continued patience. Pat Bernard

I keep hearing that there is an update to 2008 but have not received a notice…what gives?

Hi Michelle, your quote issue “503:
“If you recently registered Version 2008 and you’re in other parts of the world (outside of the UK, AU and NZ), you should see an email upgrade offer in the next few days”.
Hope that I will be in that group, I live in Europe and UK office can not send my a free FTM 2009 so I hope your head office can give me a good upgrade offer.
Regards.

I have not received my upgrade email also. Please let me know what to do to upgrade
Thanks
Teri

I have not received an email with a code for the free upgrade to FTM 2009. I bought my FTM 2008 online on 8/15/2007. Order # 20559711. Please check my account because I am a registered user. Thank You.

Did not receive email for free FTM 2009 upgrade. I bought my FTM 2008 in 11/30/07 from Ancestry store.

Thank you!

Hi Michelle,

First me say I love the product, I have been using it since the 90’s. My question is, is there going to be an easier way to add audio and/or PDF files.
Presently when you add media files, it only recognizes image files in the drop down. You have to select all files to see pdf, or audio files. I have been able to add these files to records, but they open in the original program not in FTM.

I like to use pdf format because most everyone can get that information, and when you scan documents they can be converted to true text for use in the program.

I would like to see a basic media (Audio) player added so that music or audio can be heard directly from the individual record.

What I mean by this is that it would be nice to have the ability to hear an audio file play either automatically or when clicked from an individuals main display page.

Is something like this being considered. I have set the program up at family reunions, where family can find their family information, and listen to audio, but it would be really awesome to do this from the program.

Thank You,

Miles A. Carver
cathboy@hotmail.com

Did not receive e-mail for the update version.

Did not receive e-mail for the free version FTM 2009 upgrade.

Hello Micheal,
As instructed by you on the 3rd Oct 2008, I phoned the UK phone number. The lady was extremly polite, and gave me my free upgrade code. I went on line to the web addi given. Guess what, and I am quoting: “WE’RE SORRY. THE PAGE YOU TRIED TO ACCESS IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE”.

Ok, I returned the fax you sent me concerning being chosen as a beta tester for FTM 2009, NEVER heard any more. I enquired by this ‘blogg’ concerning UK upgrading, again ignored. YOU state on the 3rd Oct 2008 for UK to phone 0800 404 9732. I have now been informed that UK free upgrades ended ON THE 26th Sept 2008.

Sorry, this is ‘not on’. I have been faithfull for at least 6 years, and have now come to the point that I am know claiming under British Trading laws, a free upgrade to version 2009. I accept you are in the USA but that does not matter in the UK. Micheal, it may not be your personel fault, but you have taken over this question, so I am having to ‘post’ here. I would have prefered to emailed you direct, it would have been more polite, but after 3 emails to Ancestry UK, and USA, and having NOT received ANY reply, this is my only method.

Before being asked, yes, your operator confirmed I am registered.
NOT happy,
Bob Sangster

I have registered my copy of the 2008 software, but when I contacted Ancestry about the free upgrade the customer service girl said she was unfamiliar of what I was requesting.

I have not received any news on the improvements in the 2008 FTM. When will it come?

I still don’t have my email for the free 2009. I beta tested 2008 and 2009 and am still waiting… Will you please check on this for me and give me an email reply please.

Joyce

Did not get code for upgrade to FTM 2009.
Why not?????
Thanks

Did not receive e-mail for the free version FTM 2009 upgrade.

I have not received any info on my 2009 free upgrade.

Michelle,
Very refreshing for someone to be so proactive and to take the time in listening to consumer concerns. I am a registered user of FTM 2008 in Australia but we do not seem to have been given the same opportunity of upgrading to 2009 for free. Can you please explain?

I have used FTM programs for over 10 years. Loved the product until the 2008 version. I purchased it from Amazon.com in Dec 2007. I have registered it more than once but still have not received any e-mails concerning the free 2009 upgrade. I have also contacted Ancestry.com regarding this through e-mail last week and still no response. Your attention would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Julie

Hi Philip/Julie #526/527

Take a look at #503 – Michelle has provided this information a couple of times now however the “horse may have bolted” by now.
I and others in Australia have received our upgrades by following the 503/307 instructions

Daryl Rickards
Warrawee NSW
Australia

I registered my Family Tree Maker 2008 software many months ago, but have not received an email for my FREE Family Tree Maker 2009 upgrade. I would like to get the free upgrade FTM 2009…Would you please look into this for me.
Thank you,
Gayle Falt
gfalt@frontiernet.net

Did not get an email for my free FTM 2009 upgrade.

Add me to the list of FTM 2008 users who haven’t yet received an upgrade notification.

I have a suggestion I’ve been wanting for a long time; I think it would be interesting and helpful for FTM to give certain facts. For names: how many people in your file have a certain first, middle, or last name. For dates: What is the most common birthdate in your file, what month has the most births, and what year. It would be great if the Ancestry team was ever able to do such a thing.

I keep on getting the “Due to the high popularity of our FTM 2009 free upgrade offer, we are unable to fulfill your order at this time. Please check back later.” Notice.

Will I be getting a new e-mail, or should I keep on checking?

Hi,

I have received a confirmation message almost a month ago that my copy of FTW 2009 was confirmed. What I do not know is how is it coming ? Mail or download?

Maurice

I do have Family Tree 2008 and did not receive an email concerning the update for 2009.

I have a registered FTM 2008 and did not receive an email about the free upgrade.
thanks
Sara Kelly

Add me to the list of folks who didn’t get the upgrade email.

Thanks.

How do I get a copy of the 2008 update. Never got a e-mail regarding the latest version. Thanks. Mike

Add me to the list who purchased Family Tree Maker 8 direct, registered it, and never received an email.

i have not received the new FTM upgrade link and coupon code…Oct. 15th is almost here…

Michica

I recently registered a new FTM 2008 and haven’t received an email about 2009

Thanks,
Judy

I have a database of 150000 persons.
Importing an FBC or FTW 2006 file in FTM 2009 gives an unknown error and the import is stopped. Import of a GED files was at 75% after 24 hours. Went back to FTM 2006.

Is there another way to do it?

I’m a US customer, and I’m still waiting for my email. I’ve posted here before, and made sure my preferences are set to receive upgrades and emails. Is there something I’m missing? Can someone please let me know what I need to do? Is there a phonenumber i can call?
thank you
sara fleming

One feature still missing in FTM2009 is an ancestor tree with the ability to show siblings of all ancestors. It was available in FTM 16 and I used it extensively. Do you plan to add it to 2009

Waiting for 2009 upgrade email.

I rec’d the initial “free update” e-mail…couldn’t (many tries over days) get in. Then I got an e-mail that said “Wait” and gave an October 15th date as D/L/
Today is the 13th and no word has been received. Can you tell me the status?
Thanks,
DJS

I ordered FTM 2008 in mid-August 2008 from a third-party vendor, installed and registered it at which time I was notified about the patch. The only hitch was that the code for a free trial subscription to Ancestry.ca wasn’t recognized.

In early September I received an e-mail regarding the free upgrade and in mid-September received a second e-mail with a code that worked.

Since I couldn’t believe I wouldn’t have to pay a shipping charge, I contacted the customer service number listed where the agent was very helpful answering my questions and activated the free trial for me.

The CD arrived within 14 days. Great customer service!

The program itself, however I’m finding a steep learning curve from my very old version.

After being one of the most outspoken people, who were enraged by the release of ftm 2008, I would like to give credit when it is due. Congrats on the fine changes you made to the new FTM 2009, that was sent to me. Thus far, all of the stuff I was railing about before, seems to have been corrected. There are still irritants about the 2009 version. The main one for me is this: WHEN I SET THE SIZE ON THE INDEX SIDE AND ALSO THE SIZE ON THE INDIVIDUAL INFO SIDE, IT SURE WOULD BE NICE TO SEE IT STAY THAT WAY.