Changing from Ultimate Family Tree to a different family history programme

[Joy Dean]

A laptop will need to be replaced in the not too distant future (we have two in the family). We feel almost certain that the Ultimate Family Tree programme will not work on a new one; it has not worked on our other laptop, windows 7 home premium with a 64 bit operating system; having said that, we had put a virtual computer on the laptop with the XP and the UFT in it, but we really don't find it that easy to use the virtual and the real one at the same time  - fortunately, for us, the UFT does work on the Vista laptop, so we have been adding things to the UFT on that.
 
 So now may we ask for some advice, please? We had been thinking of buying the Family Tree Maker 2014 and importing a GEDCOM from the UFT. However, after reading posts about it and other programmes, I am wondering what would be best, especially after reading about best free family tree software in http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-genealogy-family-tree-software.htm. We had previously used the Mormons PAF but our information is not up to date in that.

We would appreciate thoughts and advice. Thank you.
 

[rosie99]

I have today uploaded from PAF5 one of my trees on to family tree maker 2014 - I have a desktop running Windows 8.   I am not a happy person as it has dropped dates, linked people with the wrong families and who knows what else.

Rosie

[Joy Dean]

I have today uploaded from PAF5 one of my trees on to family tree maker 2014 - I have a desktop running Windows 8.   I am not a happy person as it has dropped dates, linked people with the wrong families and who knows what else.

Rosie

That's scary.

[RJ_Paton]

PAF is no longer supported and has been discontinued. (although if you can get hold of the installation program it does still work)

Use your current program to create/export a gedcom file and use this file to try out the various programs still available until you find one that suits you - many of the commercial programs offer free trials.

[rosie99]

It is scary.   

I only uploaded to FTM2014 as I wanted to completely edit my tree removing a lot of unnecessary people so that I could pass it on to my brother who has recently purchased the programme but is only interested in the 'closer' family.  There is quite a lot of information that has not transferred over and it is also listing information out of date order.   

I have previously done the same transferring PAF (gedcom) to rootsmagic with no problems on a couple of my OH's trees. 

Rosie

[Joy Dean]

Yesterday evening I tried downloading trials of roots magic, my heritage, family historian, ancestral quest 14 and PAF, and imported a GEDCOM into them.

I don't have any notes about the first one, I'll try that again to see what happens. My heritage told me the GEDCOM file in its format could not be supported, family historian stated there were some issues, I wasn't sure what, I didn't understand the next one, and PAF had loads of errors.

[Berlin-Bob]

Hi Joy,

There are some topics about GEDCOM in the Reference Library
http://surname.rootschat.com/lexicon/reflib-lexicon.php?letter=G&lang=EN&input_form=0
but basically, it is a plain text file which is the standard interchange for various genealogy programs.
But ... and it is a big but ... some firms use a non-standard GEDCOM to enhance their own programs with stuff that isn't in standard, ... and to bind you to their product.

If you look at a GEDCOM file in an editor, you will see  something like this:
0 HEAD
1 SOUR Legacy
2 VERS 7.5
2 NAME Legacy (R)
2 CORP Millennia Corp.
3 ADDR PO Box 9410
4 CONT Surprise, AZ 85374
1 DEST Gedcom55
1 DATE 22 Sep 2013
1 SUBM @S0@
1 FILE C:\Legacy\Data\ag-mm-02.ged
1 GEDC
2 VERS 5.5
2 FORM LINEAGE-LINKED
1 CHAR ANSI
0 @S0@ SUBM
1 NAME Not Given
0 @I9@ INDI
1 NAME Hanns /Margulies/
2 GIVN Hanns
2 SURN Margulies
1 SEX M
1 BIRT
2 DATE 27 Nov 1889
2 PLAC Sosnowice, (Russian-)Poland
1 DEAT
2 DATE 30 Mar 1960
2 PLAC London, England
1 _UID 37EE84C86B7142EEBBEF37DE17CA0B39619D
1 CHAN
2 DATE 9 Oct 2011
3 TIME 12:10
:
:
:

Note that most keys (in the 2nd. column) have 4 characters, and more important, _UID has an underline.
The underline is usually a sign that this is non-standard.
In this case it is an ID number that Legacy uses.

You could try making a copy of your GEDCOM file and then deleting all lines with a non-standard key and then see what it looks like in other programs.
BUT .... only do this with a COPY of the original GEDCOM file

Bob

[Berlin-Bob]

ps
this might give a clue:

1 DEST Gedcom55

The current version of GEDCOM is 5.5. Perhaps UFT has used an earlier version ?

[Joy Dean]

Thank you, Bob. My brain hurt just now 

From memory, I could be wrong but I think it was 5.0. I shall have to have a look. It could be easier just to start all over again.