Where do you keep your family tree online?

lupaglupa

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Apr 18, 2019
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Upstate New York
I've just about had it with Ancestry and I'm itching to find a program that will help me with my genealogy research without constantly trying to give me reams of stupid search results (Yup - I'm sure in 1899 my Tennessee family carried their newborn to AUSTRALIA to be baptized. WTH??)

So - tell me what's out there that will take the files I have and let me keep working without driving me to yelling colorful language at my computer. Any suggestions welcome.
 
I have my tree on Ancestry's site. I just purchased the new version of Family TreeMaker.

Having said that, I have to explain my dilemma. About 2 years ago, I was not on Ancestry so my friend uploaded my GEDCOM file under his Logon ID. I eventually purchased Ancestry and continued to operate as an "Editor" for "my tree" that was under his account. Now that I have FTM, I wanted to transfer "my tree" back over to my own Ancestry account.
I don't know how to do that.
This is what I tried. I downloaded the tree to my computer & renamed it and is viewed by FTM. But when I asked it to sync to Ancestry, it connected back to my friends account.

I know you can start a tree on FTM and then upload it to Ancestry. Since I have downloaded it, should I have him delete my Tree from his account and then try to upload my FTM Tree to my account?
 
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I know you can start a tree on FTM and then upload it to Ancestry. Since I have downloaded it, should I have him delete my Tree from his account and then try to upload my FTM Tree to my account?
I have had no luck getting through to help at Ancestry but this might be worth getting a good novel and waiting for a real person. It makes no sense to pay for Ancestry and not "own"your tree. Maybe they can tell you the steps to fix this.
 
Thanks to everyone who gave advice. I'm going to check out the other programs and see how they work. I do have Family Tree Maker and keep my tree synced - but I enjoy the convenience of having an online tree for sharing with others and for quickly adding new facts.
 
I have my main tree on Ancestry and versions with fewer ancestors and information on Geni and FamilySearch. I too am not as happy with Ancestry as I used to be; I was very disappointed when it acquired the rights to RootsWeb and made RootsWeb almost useless when it comes to gathering information for me.
 
I started with ancestry.com in 2000, I pay through the nose for it, but I've just gotten comfy there. I have edited and uploaded my tree to wikitree and I do lots of work with Family Search. I do like being able to order documents and microfilm from Family search and reading them at the local LDS church, although i think they have recently stopped shipping microfilms.

I do keep a local hard copy of all real documents I order and use Roots Magic for the tree
 
I have never tried that - is it easy to do?
Very, just find your what they call a Family Center which is usually a room in the LDS church. They have computers there usually and have the ability to 'see' all records. When you use FamilySearch from your home, certain records will say something about view them at one of the Family Centers. Like i mentioned, I think they may have stopped shipping ordered MICRO films from Salt Lake to the centers. But they will still send documents and books to the centers for you to look at there. There is a small fee for the cost of shipping something from Salt Lake to the center. In my case I was able to order a film of a book that a relative wrote. it was worth the 14.00 to get my hands on this. They are really helpful at the Family Centers. Not being a mormon, I was a little apprehensive about going to the LDS church, only because I thought that I might have to sit through some sort of welcome to the church kinda thing, nothing like that happens, they are just happy to help you do research.
 
Very, just find your what they call a Family Center which is usually a room in the LDS church. They have computers there usually and have the ability to 'see' all records. When you use FamilySearch from your home, certain records will say something about view them at one of the Family Centers. Like i mentioned, I think they may have stopped shipping ordered MICRO films from Salt Lake to the centers. But they will still send documents and books to the centers for you to look at there. There is a small fee for the cost of shipping something from Salt Lake to the center. In my case I was able to order a film of a book that a relative wrote. it was worth the 14.00 to get my hands on this. They are really helpful at the Family Centers. Not being a mormon, I was a little apprehensive about going to the LDS church, only because I thought that I might have to sit through some sort of welcome to the church kinda thing, nothing like that happens, they are just happy to help you do research.
Great - that sounds really helpful. When things calm down I will have to try it.
 
My sisters and I have been using familysearch.org through the LDS church. They have a lot of old records, census data, military files, etc. You can even attach outside source links to ancestors' files (findagrave.com, old newspaper article sites, etc.) It's fairly easy to navigate and you can even collaborate on relatives. Loving it so far. Kind of wish I had an ancestry account though as I found someone who probably has an album containing pictures of one of my CW relatives in it. Would love to see images of him as the family only has one picture of him.
 
I am still using The Master Genealogist as software; because I do so much foreign genealogy and because I have multi-family (unrelated) research, the absolute fluidity of use suits me! Crumudgeon that I am, none of it is online nor do I have any intention of putting it online.
 
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