Changing to a later FTM

[geno500]

Hi all I have been doing my family tree for a long time and I used a very early version of FTM when it was made by Avonquest before Ancestry bought the company,I have continued to use it,even though I bought version 4 FTM and later version 10,I did try with version 10 but I had wives split from husbands and hardly any children showing it was a mess,so I have carried on with I suppose version 1,what I need is a expert who can tell me what I have to do to get my trees in either ftm or gedcom to work with a later version,my trees are on a vista laptop,but I have a windows 7 laptop that I could use,I hope somebody can point me in the right direction

[AntonyM]

The current version of FTM (FTM2014) can import from earlier versions , but only from FTM5 onwards.

You have a couple of choices I think.

1) If you export your tree as a Gedcom file , you can then import it into the newer version on your new laptop. But I believe the Gedcom standard doesn't transfer any media files so they would have to be moved separately and re-linked.

2) You may have to move your tree in stages - open your version 1 tree in FTM4, and then save it in that format and then open that in FTM10.

Whatever you do - make a copy of your current file and use that for the upgrade process, do not try moving to a new version of FTM using the only copy you have of the information. Do not delete those original files until you have successfully done the upgrade and checked that all the information has moved across successfully.

There is a good support board for FTM on the Ancestry site, they may be able to give more detailed information:

http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/topics.software.famtreemaker/mb.ashx

[Anne in Carlisle]

If your version of FTM is able to export your tree as a GEDCOM file you could use any other program you choose.
Whatever your choice it will involve quite a lot of checking and comparing. However, look on it as a reason to review all your work .... a sort of fresh start. It is surprising what you might see that you might have missed the first time. Look on it as a good opportunity to fine tune your research.
Anne

[geno500]

Thanks to both of you,I will give it a go,I suppose I carried on with the early version because it was so easy and basic,and as long as your tree is not too large you can see the whole tree on the screen great when you are fleshing out a certain line,all these new versions seem so complicated,but I will have to try,into the 21st cent I must go.

[clematised]

Some of the later FTM programs can be bought on Amazon/E Bay with offers of free 6 months Ancestry so check them out before spending money, save some too.

Edna