Comments on: Family Tree Maker: Entering Foreign Names and Locations

By: Andy Hatchett

Andy Hatchett — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:54:23 +0000

Julie,

There is another way to handle it.
Create a custom source- call it something like “Research Annotations” and then whatever you were going to enter that gets converted to Notes on the member trees enter that in the “Actual Text” part of your custom source.

Granted, people will have to click on that source link beside the person’s name on the member tree overview page to actually read it – but it will at least be available.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 12:40:18 +0000

@Brian Scheick- FTM10 does have issues but maybe not the ones you think. Yes, it only shows 3 tabs for children but when you fill in the third spot it automatically creates a spot for the fourth, and so on. Theres a button to sort multiple children by birthdate. It won’t be as difficult as you believe.

The only ‘real’ problem with FTM is that as you enter in your supporting documentation and upload to Ancestry, your documentation (which should go under ‘Stories’ it seems to me) goes under ‘Notes’ and therefore is only accessible to people you deem as ‘Editors’. This means your documentation is not available to the masses. (Note: Ancestry’s Help wrote back and acknowledged the bug and their solution was to type all my documentation into a word processing program, then attach it as files in the ‘Media’ section. NOT a good working solution at all. Why use FTM then?) I’m hoping Ancestry/FTM repairs this issue- and SOON.

By: Carel

Carel — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 21:04:40 +0000

I realy enjoy using the Ancestry program, but I do have difficulty checking the european history, how can I contact and obtain that information?

By: Charles

Charles — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:13:58 +0000

i agree with dklart. if you use symbols they will not be recognized on ancestry.com or internet search engines. also, this cute feature is not available at ancestry.com, just the FTM product on your PC.

By: Brian Scheick

Brian Scheick — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:41:23 +0000

Good to know. I’ve been using the VERY old Ancestry Family Tree program (it was free to download back ~2005). I bought FTM10 but hated the look, with big text and only 3 tabs (most of my ancestors seemed to have 10+ kids). I’m just now looking to upgrade to FTM-2010 and bet my old program only does GEDCOM 5.0, so I’ll lose or have to correct my Swedish ancestors.
I use the windows keys (ALT+num keys) because I mostly use the same 2 and it’s easier once I’ve memorized those than all that clicking.

By: John Donaldson

John Donaldson — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 02:29:01 +0000

FTM 2010 supports GEDCOM 5.5.1

John D

By: Andy Hatchett

Andy Hatchett — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:01:45 +0000

Tanya,

The last GEDCOM standard released and approved for public use had no provision for using UFT-8.

There was a subsequent draft proposal (5.5.1 I think it was) but that draft was neither officially approved nor officially implemented.

GEDCOMs are, by definition, ascii text. Use of anything else will always cause problems of one type or another with the import routines of several other programs.

By: Tana L. Pedersen

Tana L. Pedersen — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:46:24 +0000

#1 Peter

I don’t know that I have the perfect answer for recording multiple surnames. I record each individual under the name they were recorded with at birth (or the record I can find closest to that). Then I record each surname variation as a different Name fact for an individual. That way I can display the alternate names in reports and charts if I want.

# 2 Renee

I’m sorry you weren’t able to download the PDF. If you’d like to send me an email at tpedersen@ancestry.com, I’d be happy to forward you a copy.

There is a source template you can use for phone calls, emails, interviews it’s just a little difficult to find. Go to the source group Archives and Artifacts, then choose Private Holdings as the Category. In the Template drop-down list you’ll see personal correspondence, person e-mail, and interview.

# 3

Thanks for the information on how characters are used in GEDCOMs. I’ll have to do some experimenting with this.

By: Tenant Verification Miami

Tenant Verification Miami — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 03:17:07 +0000

This is so useful for scandinavian names!

By: Kerry

Kerry — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:12:14 +0000

dklart’s comment is more a reflection on the inability of some software to handle UTF-8 encoding in the GEDCOM. One reason why I haven’t used many of the “big name” packages that can’t handle my GEDCOM of mixed Chinese and English characters.