Hi Everyone,

Please excuse me if this has been asked and answered previously already. (If it has, kindly point me in that direction.)

I am working on my family tree "off-line" using FTM2009 at home. My grandmother is also using FTM2009 at home (we live in different states). Is it possible for us to use Ancestry.com to share our work on our family tree? Does it have a synchronization feature that works both ways (lets me upload my changes, and download hers as well)?

Thanks for any help you may be able to offer!

Mike,

No, there is no synchronization feature period.

You can manually upload and download files with Ancestry.com but then you both would be working on separate files or multiple files.

I would suggest that you use this link:

http://ftm.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ftm.cfg/php/enduser/ask_feed...

And provide some detailed feedback to Family Tree Maker 2009.

You will probably not receive feedback from them, but the developers do read the feedback.

Good luck,

Russ

Thanks for the feedback. Has there been any success in working on FTM files over a network?

That being the case, another issue comes to mind:
That means that I also cannot keep all media in sync with ancestry.com, as the only method to export is the GEDCOM format; which means that any media I add on my local tree, or vice-versa any media I add in my online ancestry file, will not be transfered.

How do people work around this limitation?

-Mike

Mike,

Not that I am aware of, at least in the configuration that you are trying to do.

You can work online together, but not with the Family Tree Maker software on your PC.

Sorry,

Russ

Mike,

You are correct. It's either online or on your PC.

Working around the "limitation", there are other online genealogy websites that might be used.

You might look around CyndisList for other options.

Russ

This is a problem that is larger than just FTM. The problem of synchronizing project files that are shared between multiple sites is a difficult one, and solutions are continuing to evolve. There are many solutions, such as RCS/CVS/SVN/etc. However, all of these systems require some IT administrative knowledge and access to server resources (in general), and are unsuitable for the casual user.

My wife and I work on the same .ftm file from two machines by sharing the drives. I would only recommend this solution for already networked machines, as enabling sharing over large networks (without a VPN) would be a security vulnerability. We have also noticed that only one of us can actually work on the same file at once, as FTM only allows a single reader or writer to open the file at a time. This, and the lack of threading during merges, are two of my main complaints about the software.

One thing you can do when you want to share the information is to backup the file to .ftmb, and place it online somewhere that can be accessed by the others you want to work on it. The FTM backup file includes all sources and media, so there is nothing lost. The files are also automatically named with the date of backup, which will work fine so long as you don't swap files more than once daily.

Thanks for sharing your experiences with this, Daniel. I'm in a similar situation as you are, in that I actively collaborate with at least one other person on our family tree (my grandmother, mother, and myself; others tend to provide us information to integrate into the tree, rather than actively collaborating).

The difficulty I am facing is that it is technically extremely difficult to work on the same tree across 3 different states, for precisely the reasons you mention.

Now, Ancestry.com has a great feature for building my tree online and inviting other to contribute. This is great, and answers the collaborative issues, however, it lacks the detail and sophistication of the desktop application (which is why I bought FTM).

Because of the technical issues of Ancestry.com only allowing me to import or export GEDCOM files (and not the data as well) this puts me in an awkward position of having to keep two sets of "books", which is very undesirable, because so many things can go wrong (missed data, media, errors, etc).

In my ideal scenario I would like to build my family tree with all the media and attachments using FTM, then upload everything to Ancestry.com and share it with everyone else in that manner. They in turn can make updates, additions, contributions there, which I would then be able to synchronize with my local tree in FTM. This way my local copy would act as a baseline, and I could use it to create books, burn CDs, make backups, etc.

To be honest, I'm a bit surprised that this isn't more of an issue with other genealogists as well, or is it that there just isn't that much active collaboration on the same trees (where people work together on the same tree on an ongoing basis)?

Regards,
Mike Bronner

This is perhaps the most criticized area of TNG's (lack of) support in this product family. People have been asking for synchronization between online and offline versions of trees for quite some time, but TNG has turned a deaf ear to their customer base. I am not certain of the motivation for this decision, but suspect it may be tied to the monopolistic nature of the company. Two easy options for TNG are to provide a download method that includes media, or to provide true synchronization, either of which would not be that difficult for the source developers to create, and both of which have been done in other products already.

Until then, we are stuck with essentially the options already presented here.

This is very upsetting to learn. I had specifically asked Customer Support which software that would allow me to sync with my online trees. I was told FTM 2009 was the best and was lead to believe that syncing was possible. I can't believe that they actually promote anything but that since it would make the online info so much more complete and reliable. Heck, my navigation software on my cell phone can sync with the online file.
Very disappointing indeed.