Uploading GED file to other websites (or not!)

[cponeill]

Thanks Bob.

Maybe I'm a bit slow on the uptake, but I'm not sure I'm following you. I do not have an Ancestry tree. What I want to is to start one. So - downloading my Ancestry tree doesn't really apply.

As to no GEDCOM into FTM - I was just following directions in FTM to create a tree from another program - here Reunion.. The path was, according to FTM, create a GEDCOM from your program and then import it. Did that. Worked great. Installed a lot of my multimedia.

But what I've found re limit of upload file is repeated in many other places on the web (I've been searching).

I got excited when I found an Ancestry YouTube video entitled "Splitting or Combining Family Trees."

I'm not sure if the link I'm listing just below will come through or not - but if you Google search for "Combining Family Trees in Ancestry," you get that hit Splitting or Combining Family Trees | Ancestry - YouTube
https://www.google.com/search?client...n+ancestry.com

AHA! Just what I need thought I - however they don't show you how to do that online with Ancestry. Their answer to combining family trees is to export your individual Ancestry trees (via GEDCOM) to FTM (which they use) and combine them using FTM. Not what I wanted. And a number of comments following this video were along the line of "thank you for wasting x minutes of my time by watching a video which really doesn't address combining within Ancestry."

One reason I though FTM was the answer to my goal is that FTM will export multimedia to Ancestry - which GEDOM use will not. My family tree is 87MB - about 4000 persons. The 4000 persons is certainly not extraordinary for a family tree. But size is cranked up because of the significant amount of multimedia the file contains (photos, documents, obits, and the like).

Still hoping for a way to do this without spending hours copying stuff to Ancestry.

[Bob White]

Perhaps I should have supplied a bit more detail. No to loading a GEDCOM into your new nifty copy of FTM. What you should do is create a new family file in your copy of FTM with precisely the same name as your tree on Ancestry. (Your created file will add ".ftm" to the local copy.) Then on the first tab in FTM, "Plan", choose Download a Tree from Ancestry. It will respond with a dialog to sign in to your Ancestry account and you can follow subsequent dialogs. How long it takes depends on the size of the files. Hint: Data will come down pretty quickly; media may take several hours; just keep FTM running in the background while you do other things.

I have been doing Ancestry for nearly 15 years and I did not know of a 75 MB upload limit. You must have a huge file. Just looked at the local backup copy and it is only about 17 MB for roughly 3,000 people. The advice page shows the limit but does not offer a solution.

Go to Ancestry. Choose Help > Support Center in the top bar. Most pages have a Contact Us at or near the bottom of the page. I believe one can do either live phone or live chat. See what they have to say.

[cponeill]

Well, according to Ancestry "Functionality to merge trees is not currently available on Ancestry. We recommend copying people from one tree to another..." Well, so much for the idea of splitting my tree, and importing each Family Tree Maker piece into Ancestry separately, then combining the pieces back together in Ancestry. Apparently won't work. And the idea of adding person after person into a truncated tree does not at all excite me. I'm not anxious to build a tree on Ancestry a person at a time.

Looking for some great ideas here. Can anyone help?

[cponeill]

O. K. - I just spent my $79.- and bought FTM 2019. Created a GEDCOM in Reunion and imported in to my new nifty FTM program. Went pretty well and now I have an FTM version of my Reunion file. But - the ONLY reason I bought FTM was to be able to use it as an intermediary to allow me to get my Reunion tree into Ancestry (while I'm hesitant to put my info on Ancestry, I like others here, I worry about years of work disappearing when I shuffle off this mortal coil). So now I have this nifty new FTM family tree to import into Ancestry. I fire up Ancestry, find and follow the directions for importing an FTM file, and give it a go. Aaaggghhhh!! Ancestry now tells me my file size is too large to import. They have a 75MB limit on file size for importing. Has anyone dealt with this limitation? Hopefully I don't have to split my tree into his side, her side and then try to rejoin it within Ancestry.

[Bob White]

If you are using Ancestry along with Reunion, there is really no need at all to download media and link items to Reunion entries. I only link portrait style photos to Reunion. As for the rest.....

Open your wallet and purchase the Family Tree Maker application. Link it to your tree on Ancestry. Synch the FTM app and the Ancestry tree. Now you have a local copy of all of the media that has been attached to records in your Ancestry tree. Then synch regularly. Need to see a particular census sheet. Fire up FTM, locate the person and choose that census sheet from the media sidebar. I've been doing this for close to ten years. I find it totally satisfactory as really -- how often does one need to look at those items again?

Advisory: I only use FTM as a storage medium where it does very well. The software is pretty clunky.

[Kingsbridger]

Kurt Cowling, I can't help your problem for now. I experienced the same problem as yours (with finding and identifying yourself in a gedcom export/import) when trying to import a file into MyHeritage. If I figure it out I'll certainly advise. Thanks.

[thomprod]

Re: Uploading GED file to other websites (or not!)

For what it's worth, I generate a gedcom & upload it to ancestry.com once or twice a year. I don't use any other on-line services.

I don't even try to keep my ancestry tree updated and I don't include any photos or documents - just a basic gedcom for sharing info with others and enticing other researchers to contact me. I keep my tree private for that specific reason.

When I upload a new tree, I delete my older ones & re-invite the people on my share list.

Edgar

Edgar, I uploaded my first GEDCOM to Ancestry many years ago and used their "hints" feature to discover more information and saved that new info both to my Ancestry tree and Reunion. After several years of updating Reunion, but not Ancestry, I realized that I should upload a new updated GEDCOM to Ancestry, which I did. Unfortunately, the "hints" feature then presented me with hundreds of the same hints that I either accepted or ignored before on the original tree. I spent a lot of time wading through hints that I just had to "ignore" again. IMHO, this is a drawback to Ancestry trees. A user can't simply upload an update to an existing tree.

[Kurt Cowling]

Re: Uploading GED file to other websites (or not!)



OYE. Never mind. I guess FTDNA will aide with hiding the identities of the living. I assumed I had to do this. Sorry.

I have turned privacy filtering off when exporting my GEDCOM for FTDNA and still cannot get it to find me (or anyone). Any help regarding settings in the GEDCOM export to get FTDNA to read the file? Thanks!

[Katharine Ott]

Re: Uploading GED file to other websites (or not!)

OYE. Never mind. I guess FTDNA will aide with hiding the identities of the living. I assumed I had to do this. Sorry.

Hey Kingsbridger - You're right, I think most of the DNA sites have wised up to privacy concerns now. Good luck with your research!

[Kingsbridger]

Re: Uploading GED file to other websites (or not!)

Katherine, I have a question that you may have some advice about. I'm exporting a gedcom file to FamilyTreeDNA that has living people simply shown as "living", for privacy concerns. However, that includes ME. FTDNA asks to identify myself as a person in the tree and only the deceased "Murray" people show up when I type in my surname. So I cannot upload a gedcom to the site. What am I missing to do?
Thanks.

OYE. Never mind. I guess FTDNA will aide with hiding the identities of the living. I assumed I had to do this. Sorry.

[Kingsbridger]

Re: Uploading GED file to other websites (or not!)

Hello - I produce what I call a "skeleton tree" GED file which only contains direct ancestors, no photos, no sources, just names and dates. I upload those to sites like Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA, Gedmatch and now MyHeritage. I try to update them periodically, but should probably do that on a regular schedule. Since different people attach themselves to different testing groups, I feel it can only be a good thing to cast my net over many waters! My experience with MyHeritage is much more recent and intriguing although I'm not having good luck getting matches to write back. And I am not real keen on the fact that they consider a match to someone else's tree as a "Record Match." Good luck with your research!

Katherine, I have a question that you may have some advice about. I'm exporting a gedcom file to FamilyTreeDNA that has living people simply shown as "living", for privacy concerns. However, that includes ME. FTDNA asks to identify myself as a person in the tree and only the deceased "Murray" people show up when I type in my surname. So I cannot upload a gedcom to the site. What am I missing to do?
Thanks.

[mrstucci]

Re: Uploading GED file to other websites (or not!)

I'm glad to hear that! Your previous post made it sound like you were totally dependent on Ancestry.

In reading online about the people who do depend ONLY on Ancestry and when disaster strikes (and it will) it's just something I don't want to have happen to me.

[John M. Leggett]

Re: Uploading GED file to other websites (or not!)

Rest assured I do have backups. I do not rely on Ancestry. It's just another avenue I can use.

I have Time Machine, a clone back up, I back up to a NAS and also Back Blaze. Plus there is the Reunion file being synced to Dropbox.

I'm glad to hear that! Your previous post made it sound like you were totally dependent on Ancestry.

[mrstucci]

Re: Uploading GED file to other websites (or not!)

It appears that you do not maintain a local backup--or two or more. I would be really nervous about my Reunion data if I had to depend upon Ancestry or anything else other than a recent backup on my own hard drive and another drive that is external.

Rest assured I do have backups. I do not rely on Ancestry. It's just another avenue I can use.

I have Time Machine, a clone back up, I back up to a NAS and also Back Blaze. Plus there is the Reunion file being synced to Dropbox.

[Katharine Ott]

Re: Uploading GED file to other websites (or not!)

Hi
I originally started my research 11 years ago and did as much as a could using online resources back then. I'm now picking it up again as there is so much more data available on the various family history websites. Previously I had a windows computer and used different software, but now have a MAC so have decided to use Reunion, the main reason being that the data is stored on my computer, so hopefully will never get lost!

Having looked back I have uploaded my tree to Ancestry, Findmypast and My Heritage. I am interested to know if other people are uploading their GED files to more than one site and also if you update each tree on the web manually as you add to your tree in Reunion, or do you upload new GED files every so often? I'm not sure if there is any merit in me having my tree on all these sites. Am I getting different hints from each site depending on what records they hold?

Any advice and thoughts appreciated.

Hello - I produce what I call a "skeleton tree" GED file which only contains direct ancestors, no photos, no sources, just names and dates. I upload those to sites like Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA, Gedmatch and now MyHeritage. I try to update them periodically, but should probably do that on a regular schedule. Since different people attach themselves to different testing groups, I feel it can only be a good thing to cast my net over many waters! My experience with MyHeritage is much more recent and intriguing although I'm not having good luck getting matches to write back. And I am not real keen on the fact that they consider a match to someone else's tree as a "Record Match." Good luck with your research!