OK, so I have a big family tree online, and for the past week, I have been adding information to the same tree, but on my computer. Now, I would like to add the new information to the online tree. What is the best way to do that?

The Help files say that I should upload it as a whole new tree, but if I do that, I am afraid I will lose the links to photos that I have posted. What will happen if I upload the updated file into the online tree without deleting the old tree first?

Would this be easier if I split the big tree into four smaller trees, one for each grandparent, for example?

Is it even possible to work on a tree on the computer, and still maintain an online photo album with links to people on the family tree? (I'd really like to do that because I have some great photos.)

How do more experienced people handle this? Thanks.

kbmidura,

What program and version are you using on your PC?

Where are you trying to put your information "online"?

Please be specific, as there are many options and way to do what you described.

Thank you,

Russ

Oops, sorry. FTM 08 Essentials running on Vista. Ancestry.com online tree.

I bought FTM 08 under the impression that I would be able to synchronize it with my ancestry.com account, but evidently, that is not the case. I did successfully download my ancestry.com tree as a gedcom file without errors and have been working with it in FTM for the last week or so. Now I would like to reload it to my ancestry.com account with the updates that I have made.

I wouldn't have a problem just deleting the ancestry.com tree and replacing it with the updated tree every now and then, but I am concerned that I will lose the links to about 80 photos that I posted on the tree. Will the photos be deleted if I delete the tree? If the photos are not deleted, will the links to them from people in the tree still be functional if I replace the tree? Thanks for your help. Ancestry.com help files leave something to be desired!

If i am understanding you right the photo's are on your first tree on ancestry so if you delete that tree you photos and links would be lost. Your best option would be to delete the links in your ftm2008 tree and then link the photos to the person their instead. Then when you upload a new tree the photo's will upload in most cases. The cases when they wont are 1. if their linked to a source it would upload and 2. if you do not upload full tree the photo's wont upload.

This is a good topic. Can we try to make a complete list of behaviors about importing a tree from FTM 2008 to Ancestry.com? It seems to me that this is something that many people are interested in.

Here is what I have found:
1. Person notes from FTM2008 (both Person Notes and Research Notes for an individual) show up when selecting "View Research Note" in Ancestry.
2. Fact notes do not appear to import.
3. Images associated with sources do not import (unless they are also linked to the person independently).
4. The link to the "primary photo" for an individual does not import.
5. Images that are associated with an individual do import.
6. Non-image media (pdf and rtf) show up as "Stories" but they have to be opened by another program. Does anyone know how to get a file to import as a story that is displayed in Ancestry?
7. Fact description field does import.

Any other quirks or hints?

kbmidura,

A GEDCOM file will NOT include any images. It is a plain text file.

Russ

If it is a plain text file, it can include hyperlinks, right? So, maybe the best way to handle this would be to post the photos online using another service, like Picasa, and then add hyperlinks to those photo files to the Notes on people in the tree. It wouldn't look as nice, but that way, the tree could be reloaded every time I wanted to update it without losing links to the photos.

It is really dumb that there is no way to synchronize the FTM tree with the ancestry.com tree. Considering the software and the website are owned by the same company, I am surprised this has not been developed yet.

Kelly

Kelly,

I do not use the Online Tree products at Ancestry, so I don't know what other Options you have to put your information online. In the Family Tree Maker program, prior to 2008, there is a User Home Page option that I do use, and I an put anything on there I want.

You might look at what your other options are at Ancestry of putting your information online. GEDCOM does not appear to do what you want.

Russ

Kelly,

"If it is a plain text file, it can include hyperlinks, right?"

If by 'hyperlinks' you mean clickable links, I believe the answer is "No" because most generally the HTML tags have to be included AND the site you're uploading to has to allow HTML within the uploaded data to make it clickable.

If you simply include the URL, it won't be clickable...but it's easy enough to copy and paste.

Caveat: some sites, such as these boards, convert a plain text URL into a hyperlink.

Brynne

>>5. Images that are associated with an individual do import.

Can I ask you to clarify this? Have you exported your FTM tree to ancestry.com and successfully exported photos of individuals, as well? That is the thing I am most concerned about because I have older relatives who would really enjoy seeing the photos on the tree. As far as the other images--census pages and stuff--those don't matter as long as I have them on my computer for reference and backed up at home. Thanks for your help. (I am doing all this for the first time.)