Saving Mom's work on Ancestry.com

[D.Clade]

My mother passed away earlier this month. She left us years of work on Ancestry.com and nobody messed with it. We want to preserve her work as is, a master copy of her work.
Using Family Tree Maker deluxe and logging into her account, what do I have to be careful about? My understanding is that doing it wrong could change settings and allow people to mess with mom’s work.
Just want to be extra careful and trust the advice on this forum.
Deep Clade results are due Monday or sooner I hope. Thanks, Joe

[ScooterCat]

First thing I would do is:
From ancestry.com website, click on "Tree Pages" next to the name of the tree, then select "Tree Settings"
Click on "Export Tree"
Wait till it generates the GEDCOM, then click on "Download your GEDCOM file"
Save multiple copies in multiple places so that you won't lose it if, for example, your computer dies

Is her tree on ancestry.com synchronized with Family Tree Maker?

[D.Clade]

Hey ScooterCat,
Your GEDCOM ideas are what I was thinking too. Family Tree Maker has not been synchronized with her large tree. The product is in the box and I have not logged in to her account. Am I correct that how one does the sync is important for security settings? Mom had a reputation of documenting everything. Can those be saved in addition to the GEDCOM file? We want to capture everything and save it to multiple places for safekeeping. This is so important to us that granite is not out of the question.

[ScooterCat]

You can download the GEDCOM from ancestry.com directly into Family Tree Maker, and all the notes and source citations in your Mom's tree on ancestry.com should come along with it.

ETA:
Do you plan on keeping her ancestry.com account open and updating the tree there?

[D.Clade]

As far as keeping her account open on Ancestry.com, we have not thought about that yet. No shortage of people who want to run with her work. All the more reason to preserve it as is.
If I understand this, create and export a GEDCOM file from Ancestry.com that would have the basics in a data file format and save?
Then install Family Tree Maker and export the tree including everything. Burn to cds or whatever and into the safe deposit box. Should I do the sync manually and unlinked? Joe

[ScooterCat]

Definitely export/download/save the GEDCOM from ancestry.com first.

When you first run Family Tree Maker, create a new tree and select "Download from Ancestry." That'll give you all the notes & citations.
Then export and/or backup and file away safely. If someone else will be working on the tree at ancestry.com, I would think long and hard before I decided to link or sync. Errors will propagate from ancestry.com to FTM.

[D.Clade]

Thank you ScooterCat. No need to think long and hard about linking and syncing, I'll avoid it. You have answered my concerns and I'm ready to go, tomorrow morning. Hopefully I will post good news. Joe

[vinnie]

D.Clade,

I'm sorry for your loss. You may also want to designate a beneficiary for your account here if you haven't done so already.

[graycan]

preserving your mom's tree

D Clade -- I am very sorry for your loss.

The best way to preserve your mothers work is to install Family Tree Maker on your PC and download the ancestry tree directly into FTM. Everything will download, including all media, citations, and notes.

When you export a gedcom from ancestry.com, you lose all media including pictures, stories, census images -- anything attached to the tree.

Carolyn

[mkdexter]

Just a word of caution, save the tree via an export gedcom directly from Ancestry first - BEFORE trying to synchronize FTM.

I have lost an entire tree using FTM synchronization and I had to rebuild the entire thing over again from backups but I lost some of the more recent changes I had made.

Caution is always best.

[EdwardRHill]

Sorry for your lost. One of my Y matches sponsor died and for awhile the family was able to look and work on the tree adding her death info and pictures of her. Than either the subscription ran out or something else happened and they had to start a new tree. No big deal really because it now becomes part of her legacy.

But just in case Ancestry decides to purge the system of old trees one day. But just in case something happens publish a book of her research so she will get credit and send copies to different Libraries. Her work will live on and that way and you'll be able to pay tribute to her by getting the book published.

[D.Clade]

Vinnie, Thank you for the kind words. The beneficiary has been changed from mom. I've been following your work for the last couple of months. My kit #257842 may be of interest to you. Hopefully by Monday we will know. I'm on the R1b yahoo group if it really is interesting. Mom sure was interested.

Carolyn, Mom was a very young 75, thank you. I'm going to try and do both the GEDCOM and download the tree to FTM(her christmas present from me) with everything. I'm sure a book is in the works.

Matt, I want caution thrown my way. Opening up her account last night, I got the username/password swapped. I have read a few of the horror stories and mom's not here to reconstruct anything. Thanks

Does anyone know if Ancestry.com has a designated beneficiary? Please, more cautions if you go them. I understand DNA way better than Ancestry.com. Thank, Joe

[D.Clade]

Edward, Thank you for your kind words. I agree with your publishing ideas. Family size will make for a best seller and the small midwest towns of the area like this kind of thing. Making sure mom gets the credit due her is a concern of her kids. Will software be compatable 100 years from now? Joe

[ScooterCat]

And don't forget to update the e-mail address for the ancestry.com account. That's probably the only way to recover a misplaced/lost/forgotten password.

[Bertp]

One thing important to remember is that CDs and DVDs age. after a few years your computer may not be able to read them. Therefore make sure new backups are made regularly