FAMILY TREE MAKER to be discontinued!

[Yonks Ago]

Wonder if "ancestry" are wanting us all to put all our work online........something I'm "NOT" all all keen on doing...as so many just copy or..don't research and prove their work.
 
Yonks

[DavidG02]

Oops just spotted crisanes reply.

RootsMagic were quick to respond. Received an email suggesting that RM 'A New Home

Over the past few years, thousands of Family Tree Maker users have made the switch to RootsMagic.  They’ve enjoyed its amazing new features such as

I wont go further. I use RM and found it to be a good software/desktop package , but I guess like most things , as it was the 1st I really tried , its one I am comfortable with. I did try a few others but find RM works for me.

[crisane]

I have also tried a few other programs but settled on RootsMagic a couple of years ago because I find it the easiest to use. I put my info on there then every so often download a gedcom and put it on to Tribal Pages as an extra backup.

[weste]

Got the email this morning. I'd already decided to keep a copy of my tree on another software package. The feature for attaching census data is very useful. A few problems such as getting duplicate features, plus I think I've lost some data and few other things.i think there's probably problems with all software. Wonder what happens to the DNA interface?

[BostonLil]

This is probably a timely lesson to everyone to keep their Trees under their own control and invest in a FT program.  I use Ancestral Quest.  I've used it for years and updated it several times to newer versions, but found that, after 2012, it got a bit too jazzy for my taste.  A 3 year old program, does what I need and want, and I'm happy.   

[Gen List Lass]

My first reaction on reading about this just now was that Ancestry want us all to use their online tree facility and NOTHING else. And of course that means you have to subscribe to Ancestry.com which is not cheap. Dumping FTM will be a huge saving to their company.

I've used FTM for nearly 20 years (long before Ancestry bought it) and have always gone back to it after trying other FT software. I've recently bought a disc of the latest version and it's stand-alone so this decision doesn't really affect me. From it, I can make a Gedcom of any file to use on any other FT software, so I'm not panicking.

I have not uploaded my own family tree ANYWHERE on the internet. After seeing the bodged attempts at most online trees, I don't want anything to do with any sort of co-operation via Ancestry.

Ancestry is a money making business and anything they do will always be for the benefit of their profits and not necessarily their customers! As with all products, use what is helpful and dump the rest.

Gen in NBL England

[StevieSteve]

Must admit I don't buy the conspiracy theory that Ancestry are using this as a means to force people to use their online trees.

No, I'm going to take their statement at face value - they don't see it as a growth area, so they're getting out of it

[mezentia]

I don't think there's any "conspiracy theory". I just think that Ancestry want to lock customers in to their services. It's a technique called increasing the switching costs. Our banks, power suppliers, and lots of other use it all the time. I do think they have very considerably underestimated the extent of  user dissatisfaction though.

In the meantime, if anyone is thinking of switching to a new software package, can I please put in an honourable mention for a British package called Family Historian. I've used it now for many years and found it meets all my needs and more. I also has dual benefit of being more British focussed as well as being 100% GEDCOM compliant. There's an active user group , although this can tend to get very technical, and if the program can't do what you want, there's a facility for writing plugins to add that extra functionality.

I'd counsel anyone using FTM to take some time to decide what to do next, and remember that Ancestry does have datasets that other online service providers do not, so cancelling subscriptions may not be wise, unless you plan to use a trial memberships to fill in the gaps.

[Jo.]

I was a bit miffed when I received their e-mail yesterday, and I'd only just brought another copy of FTM...  Long story short, this was a replacement after losing my downloaded version, so this time I ordered a copy of the cd as well. 

But if you've got a CD copy of FTM then it's probably good for quite a few years to come, yes some of the features but will still work as a stand alone.  Same if you got the downloaded version unless you need to restore at anytime.

As to are they trying to get use their online tree only etc...  Doubt it, it just ain't hitting the profit margins Ancestry wants it to hit nor can they see a way of getting to hit the profit margin any time soon.... 

I've tried several programs out, but liked the layout of FTM as it was very similar to Ancestry which I do have subs for at the moment...  But perhaps it's time to check others programs out.