FTM2017 User Question - Where to start a FTM2017 File ?

User Question:

Would you rather start your tree on FTM 2017 and sync to Ancestry or start in Ancestry and sync back to FTM 2017?

My Answer:

It is my opinion that WE, the User of this or any other genealogy software, need to take responsibility for our research. That starts at the beginning. The short answer is start with your genealogy software, in this case Family Tree Maker (FTM2017). 

Further, that includes manually Backing Up our files, and from time to time, doing a test Restore from Back Up. The Tools menu, has a great utility to do this, Compact File. As I have blogged about many times before, using that utility will help maintain a good file. Testing that Back Up from time to time is a MUST.

Then the FamilySync™ feature comes into play. As I have blogged about before, in order to get Ancestry Hints, you must have an uploaded and linked Ancestry Member Tree (AMT). That AMT can be Public, Private, or Private and not searchable by Ancestry. User Choice.

That AMT then, can be another Back Up of your research. BUT, some of the information in your FTM2017 file is NOT included in that AMT. Privatized Media, for example, will NOT be uploaded to the AMT. Privatized Facts, Notes, Research Notes, Todo or Task Lists will NOT be uploaded to the AMT. If you use the Source Template Feature in FTM2017, those Sources and Citations will NOT be formatted correctly in the AMT.

All of that to say, my Best Practice is to Compact and use the Back Up feature, all check marks along the way. Backing up to an External Drive (NOT a Flash Drive, but External Hard Drive) is another best practice. If your Hard Drive crashes, which it will, your information is on an external drive. Also, doing a Restore from Back Up from time to time, once a month for example, is another Best Practice.

One additional Best Practice, for me, is to have my Hard Drive AND External Drives backed up to a Cloud Service, like BackBlaze. will back up your external drives as well. All done in the background. And, to a restore from there as well.


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Copyright © 2017 by H R Worthington