Thursday, July 23, 2009

Comparing Genealogy Software - FTM 2009 Data - Part 2

In Comparing Genealogy Software - FTM 2009 Data - Part 1, I uploaded a native FTM 16 database into Family Tree Maker 2009.

For this post, I uploaded a GEDCOM of the same FTM 16 file into Family Tree Maker 2009. Here is the summary of the file statistics:


The file statistics given say:

* 38,420 individuals
* 15,121 families
* 120,931 records
* 1,466 sources
* 0 media items

The file took 4 minutes and 49 seconds to upload according to FTM 2009.

The FTM 2009 file size is 82.468 mb for the database, and the 0 media items are not included.

There are some interesting differences between the uploading of the native FTM 16 file and the GEDCOM file:

* The number of "records" for the native upload is 55,013 records, while for the GEDCOM upload it is 120,931. That is a big difference. I wonder why this happens? What are the added records? Are Records = Facts?
* The number of sources is slightly different - 1,472 vs. 1,466. Are these master sources, or source citations? I can't tell.
* The native upload for media items was 11, but was 0 for the GEDCOM upload. This is typical - a GEDCOM file won't upload media files, at least from FTM 16 to some other program.
* The time to upload the file was much shorter for the GEDCOM upload than the native file upload - about 16% of the native file time. I did not expect that large a difference.
* The FTM 2009 file size for the GEDCOM upload was lsightly smaller than for the native upload. I wonder why? Fewer sources? Fewer links to media items?

I hope someone who is working with FTM 2009 can explain these differences!

In the next post, we'll look at the FTM 16 to Legacy Family Tree 7 upload statistics.

2 comments:

QuiltinLibraryLady said...

Maybe my reasoning was silly but 2-3 yrs. ago I chose Legacy Family Tree over Family Tree Maker (which I already had) because Legacy would show my complete looooong German names in its main family view and Family Tree Maker wouldn't. Sometimes it isn't the fancy stuff, but something as simple at that, that becomes a deal breaker.

Unknown said...

Good data, but I wouldn't recommend choosing your genealogy program based on how long it takes to upload your initial massive file. That's something you only do once in a while, so it's really not a factor in deciding.

The "quality" of the upload could matter, if you find that one of these pieces of software isn't importing everything nicely.