Syncing FTM and Ancestry.com.au

[Grosert]

Hi Everyone

I've confused myself a little. I have just installed FTM 2011 and I had some information already on ancestry.com.au.

I downloaded this information to FTM. Now I always start using FTM instead of going to ancestry, but somewhere along the way, I have gone on to ancestry.com.au and now FTM and ancestry have different information.

How do I merge this information.

Sorry for asking a stupid question.

Kind regards
Helen

[Elaine ..Spain]

You merge ... with difficulty!

If you have not added too much to Ancestry then I would suggest you add to FTM manually, rather than merge two files. You really need to be sure to only update information on one or the other, not on both as and when!

If you do want to merge then initially you will need to make a back up copy of your FTM data on your computer, just in case something goes wrong.
You then download the Ancestry data file as a GEDCOM file, calling it something different to the FTM file on your computer.
To merge two files together, open FTM and select FILE -> MERGE.
You will then be asked to choose the two files to merge. When it does merge the two files it will find matching people and suggest merging them, rather than duplicating, but it rarely picks them all up and you may well be left with duplicate individuals. Having seen the result of merged files I would always suggest that the better option is to add manually.

Good luck .... and make sure you do a back up before you start anything!

[Grosert]

Thank you so much Elaine, I had myself so confused. I think the manual adding sounds the best.

God Bless!

Helen

[Guest]

nudge