RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: TaffyBlue on Saturday 22 January 22 17:22 GMT (UK)
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Just curious, where does everyone keep their tree? Is it all on online sites now such as Ancestry, etc, or do people still use offline software packages?
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Ancestry for me and Family Tree Maker. They sync with each other, so that if anything happens to one, I still have the other.
Regards
Chas
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Ancestry for me and Family Tree Maker. They sync with each other, so that if anything happens to one, I still have the other.
Regards
Chas
Sorry you may find that both data sets have been trashed. If the set that has been trashed syncs itself to the older "good" set it will trash the good data set.
You do not want backups to talk to each other under any circumstances.
Cheers
Guy
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I don't have an online tree. I use Reunion for the Mac.
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I use Family Historian software for mine :)
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RootsMagic on my PC.
Ancestry online.
The trees are not linked!
I also keep copies on USB drives (plural!)
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Family Historian on my computer - nothing on line.
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At home on my computer, nothing online.
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I don't make a tree, I keep all records as Word docs, there is so much more to the family history that could ever be put on a tree.
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Nothing on line - I have multiple back ups on USB drives (sticks) of my data which is kept in my PC..patrexjax
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I use My Heritage software in my computer, not allowing it to synchronise. I can create a gedcom to update my on-line trees at MH and Anc. I don't publish photos on-line.
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Family Historian on my computer - nothing on line.
Likewise with regular back ups to separate (portable) hard drive and multiple USBs. Having worked in finance all my life, it became part of daily life to back up all that day's work, this instilled in me the importance to do regular (and multiple) back ups.
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Rootsmagic on my computer. Basic tree (no photos or notes) on Ancestry, mainly for DNA purposes. Backup on separate harddrive and in the cloud.
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Rootsmagic on my computer. Basic tree (no photos or notes) on Ancestry, mainly for DNA purposes. Backup on separate harddrive and in the cloud.
Whoops, I just realized that I misspoke in my earlier comment! I now have a very basic tree, going up to my great-grandparents (edit: or great-great grandparents, I can't remember), on Ancestry for DNA purposes only. It's a bare-bones tree intended only as a pointer for distant cousins who might be encouraged to contact me.
As for my Reunion database on my desktop Mac, my husband set it up so my entire computer automatically backs up to a separate hard drive. He recently gave me a MacBook Air and set it up so I have the database on both machines and it is synced through a secure server that he uses for work (he's a computer programmer). The way he explained it to me, I'm not accessing the database via the server, I'm only syncing it that way.
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My main tree on Tribalpages, plus Ancestry and Myheritage. A small basic one on Familysearch
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Rootsmagic on my computer. Basic tree (no photos or notes) on Ancestry, mainly for DNA purposes. Backup on separate harddrive and in the cloud.
Whoops, I just realized that I misspoke in my earlier comment! I now have a very basic tree, going up to my great-grandparents (edit: or great-great grandparents, I can't remember), on Ancestry for DNA purposes only. It's a bare-bones tree intended only as a pointer for distant cousins who might be encouraged to contact me.
As for my Reunion database on my desktop Mac, my husband set it up so my entire computer automatically backs up to a separate hard drive. He recently gave me a MacBook Air and set it up so I have the database on both machines and it is synced through a secure server that he uses for work (he's a computer programmer). The way he explained it to me, I'm not accessing the database via the server, I'm only syncing it that way.
Unless you want to lose all your work ask your husband to remove the automatic syncing it is one of the easiest ways to lose all your work.
Syncing makes separate databases contain the information made on the database last used. In other words if you are using one computer and corrupt or delete the database on that computer that corruption or deletion will automatically be repeated of the synced database rendering both unusable.
It is best to have three separate databases, the first being the work database (the one used to make changes on) a separate database on a different hard drive which is updated after each work session and a third remote backup on a hard drive only plugged in when you want to update your remote backup (the updating of this would depend on how much work you have done on your work database).
This system ensures you will always have at least one working database which contains at least the bulk of your research.
Never rely on syncing to provide a backup that is the best way to lose everything when a failure occurs.
Cheers
Guy
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Thank you, Guy, I will speak to my husband about it this evening.
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Sorry you may find that both data sets have been trashed. If the set that has been trashed syncs itself to the older "good" set it will trash the good data set.
You do not want backups to talk to each other under any circumstances.
Cheers
Guy
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I keep my FTM tree on a cloud service, and sync to ancestry. Safest way I know.
Martin
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Sorry it might sound boastful but a lot in my head.. Lots of saved certs, lots of word docs, lots of papers and books. Will never have on-line tree.
pH
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I started on Ancestry so that's where I keep my info. I also download the Gedcoms from time to time as back up.
But reading this thread and also one from a week or 2 ago, I'm looking at some sort of PC based programme.
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Sorry you may find that both data sets have been trashed. If the set that has been trashed syncs itself to the older "good" set it will trash the good data set.
You do not want backups to talk to each other under any circumstances.
Cheers
Guy
I keep my FTM tree on a cloud service, and sync to ancestry. Safest way I know.
Martin
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I used to host a number of my webpages on Rootsweb, a cloud service that made frequent backups. This all worked fine for around 15 or so years then one day a large number of the Rootsweb pages disappered, after about a month an apology was presented with the news their backups had also failed, luckily I had all my work on my desktop computer here at home and was able to more or less replace what was lost on a different server. I say more or less as I have still (about 7 years later) not updated a number of the interconnecting links, all the pages can be viewed but a few of the convienient links between the pages do not connect as they point to old servers.
That taught me never to trust automatic backups, syncing etc., instead I use manual backups and check each backup before I rely on it to be safe.
Ok some may think I have lost the plot but better that than lose years of work.
Cheers
Guy
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Quote from Guy:
That taught me never to trust automatic backups, syncing etc., instead I use manual backups and check each backup before I rely on it to be safe.
Ok some may think I have lost the plot but better that than lose years of work.
Cheers
Guy
When I was still working, our servers were scheduled to do nightly back ups but after a failure, we were advised to manually back up our daily work on secondary hard drives. As Guy says, it's better to rely on yourself for back ups as no one wants to lose years of research.
Allan
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I have my trees laid out on basic spreadsheets in diagramatic form, based on each grandparent. Each has one for direct ancestors and one which includes the siblings of each generation. They contain only limited birth/baptism and marriage information.
Other information, bmd and census records are recorded in word documents, one for each surname branch.
I have colour tagged people in entries to make it easier to follow them through their lives.
These files are occasionally backed up, manually, onto a storage hard drive. This proved very useful when
my laptop died recently.
Stefan
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Ancestry for me and Family Tree Maker. They sync with each other, so that if anything happens to one, I still have the other.
Regards
Chas
Kiltpin, Just out of interest, as I have a very old version of Family Tree Maker, do you know if I'd be able to move my saved records from the version I am using, if I were to buy a new version?
Thanks.
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Ancestry for me and Family Tree Maker. They sync with each other, so that if anything happens to one, I still have the other.
Regards
Chas
Kiltpin, Just out of interest, as I have a very old version of Family Tree Maker, do you know if I'd be able to move my saved records from the version I am using, if I were to buy a new version?
Thanks.
I had an older version and bought the latest. The latest version knew about the older one and disabled it and retrieved all the data from it. I did not have to do anything. It did ask to be synced, which I did. Then it said I was up to date.
Regards
Chas