Not looking at this blog regularly, I just read your May post: Unmarried or Childless Relatives. Since I missed the opportunity to post a comment there, I am posting here.

I would like to point out that the upgrades and patches for post-FTM 16 versions have not addressed the inability of Reports (not Charts) to include – or even mention – names, facts or notes for spouses when there were no children. The new format ignores this info.

Unlike others’ enthusiasm for putting in “Never Married” in the marriage boxes, I think this is a bad move as it creates additional unnecessary files as the program will read this as a new individual (unless it is added only as a fact and not in the marriage box). I believe this to be a step backwards.

The result is that all the current reports since the FTM overhaul is that (for example) there is no mention of my late husband (because we had no children) or gay spouses in reports, while siblings with spouses and children get to read all about the facts and accomplishments of their significant others.

I have been pleading for three years to return this information to the report format. It is not even possible to include these spouses in customizable reports.

This is a grossly unjust and insulting mistake on FTM’s part and I refuse to share data with family until this is corrected in the program. I refuse to distribute reports that ignore my husband but include my sister’s.

I have reported this issue at least a dozen times to the the various feedback and issue sites to no avail or even awareness that this problem persists. How can I be the only person that is bothered by this?

Russ, as you know, you and I have been corresponding for a couple of years about this issue.

It is not a technical problem as I have no other problems with 2010 except that it is cumbersome and clunky and no where near as easy to use as ver 16 and earlier.

Any idea when it will become a priority for FTM to format the data in Reports as they previously did?

The team at Ancestry.com is ahead of schedule. The webinar can be found at http://learn.ancestry.com/LearnMore/Webinars.aspx (in the Learning Center portion of the Ancestry.com website). The webinar highlights numerous FTM 2010 tips and tricks, some that I had not previously utilized — so I found the webinar helpful. Please pass along the thank you to Duff, Michelle and the other at Ancestry.com who collected the users questions and created/facilitated the webinar (as well as to the individual(s) who quickly posted the webinar ).

Lynn, the Advanced Topics Family Tree Maker webinar will be posted on the website in about a month.

In terms of Media (pictures) FTM only links to the media file on your hard drive. To provide a copy of the image file, simply attach it from where it is stored on your hard drive in an email.

In terms of specific information, there are many ways but I would suggest that you consider a familiy group sheet or an invididual report of an individual. Both can be Shared as PDF files and again attached to an email.

John D

# 36

Glenys, it depends on which version of Family Tree Maker you are using. In 2009 and 2010, you can choose to ignore a hint after you’ve viewed it. Access the Ancestry hints for an individual. Then click the result that you want to ignore. Then click the Ignore Record button on the Search result detail toolbar (it’s a circle with a cross through it). This record won’t appear in your Ancestry hints anymore (although it will appear in manual search results).

# 28
Barry, there isn’t a way to copy a fact and paste it for another individual. Another great enhancement I’d like to see.

# 26
David, the typical way of entering name suffixes in Family Tree Maker is to include it in the Name fact. If your ancestor was a Jr. or a Sr., enter the suffix the end of the name without a comma (for example, John Bobbitt Sr.). Family Tree Maker recognizes name suffixes and sorts them correctly in the index and charts/reports.

# 23
Lynn, I haven’t been able to get an answer on when the latest webinar (from June) will be posted online. I will send out a message when it is.

Some additional thoughts, just because I can imagine the panic of potentially loosing years and years of research … although I am likely stating the obvious again, it is always a good idea to periodically backed-up your computer to an external hard drive (or otherwise). If you did that and transferred the related FTM files to your computer and are stuck on next steps … in FTM 2010 (and likely similar in earlier FTM versions) go to the “Plan” page, then go to the upper right hand corner of the screen and select “Options” then “Browse” and locate the FTM file that you want to open.

Not sure if Ancestry.com help desk could help, but they might have some further thoughts.

Hope you find your original tree!

Although this is probably stating the obvious, contact the Geek Squad and let them know they did not tranfer all your information and you would like that information transfered to your new computer. Alternativly, if you posted a tree to Ancestry.com, you can download that tree to FTM. If you are uncertain how to download an Ancestry.com tree to FTM, watch the FTM Advanced Topic webinar since this topic is covered [you can find the webinar at http://learn.ancestry.com/LearnMore/Webinars.aspx (or go to the Learning Center portion of the Ancestry.com website)].