Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The Perfect Plan ... is that you, Snidely?

I have added so many new Names, Facts and Sources to my RootsMagic 5 database over the past two years that I wanted to update my Ancestry Member Tree.  I wanted it to be "perfect" as far as it could be, with attached media, over 30,000 source citations, etc.

However, I knew from past experience that:

*  If I import a GEDCOM file created by RootsMagic into Family Tree Maker 2012 that the Notes and sources have extra spaces in the text due to FTM 2012 GEDCOM file read problems, and truncates long source citations.

*  If I import a GEDCOM file created by RootsMagic into a new Ancestry Member Tree, then long source citations are truncated.  And when I sync that AMT with FTM 2012 all of the line returns in the Notes disappear in FTM 2012.

*  If I import a GEDCOM file created by RootsMagic 5 into Legacy Family Tree 7.5 that everything is added correctly, except long source citations are truncated.

*  If I import a GEDCOM file created by Legacy Family Tree 7.5 into Family Tree Maker 2012 that everything is added correctly (except for the truncated long source citations).

*  If I use Family Tree Maker 2012 to upload the file to a new Ancestry Member Tree, then all information and media are included.

So what to do?  I decided to sacrifice the truncated source citations... and did the following:

*  Created a GEDCOM file in RootsMagic 5 and exported it to a file.

*  Imported the GEDCOM File into Legacy Family Tree 7.5, then exported a GEDCOM file from it and saved it.

*  Imported the LFT GEDCOM file into Family Tree Maker 2012.

*  Upload the FTM 2012 tree to a new Ancestry Member Tree using the TreeSync feature.

That went very well, according to plan, and relatively quickly.  Until the TreeSync step (the last step...).  Here is the screen I've seen about five times since yesterday afternoon:


It gets this far and then hangs up for some reason.  Every time.   Lemme see, the definition of stupidity is what?

This is a fairly large tree - over 41,000 persons, over 90 mb in size, with about 200 media items.

I asked on Twitter:

I've been trying to upload my database from FTM 2012 to a new Ancestry Member Tree for two hours. It seems stuck. What to do?

And @Ancestrydotcom responded:

 Sorry to hear about the inconvenience. Some suggestions that may be of assistance can be found here: 

I wrote back:

 tried the ideas at , compacted it too, TreeSync failed again. This is a new tree uploading first time

Ancestry responded:


  We are sorry to hear  you are still experiencing issues. Please call us at 800-262-3787 for further help.


Finally, I emailed FTM 2012 guru Russ Worthington, and he put me in touch with the FTM developers, and I've transferred my FTM 2012 file to them for analysis.  I'll let you know how it comes out!

To make matters worse (or not?), I deleted my previous "big" tree on Ancestry - the one that was two years old.  
 

I guess my next plan would be to import the RootsMagic 5 GEDCOM file into a new Ancestry Member Tree, and into Legacy Family Tree 7.5, and then download the AMT to FTM 2012 (and accept the Source citation truncation and the Note text running together).  

Aw, yes, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."  True!!

Another observation:  There is no way to export everything in a RootsMagic 5 database into an Ancestry Mermber Tree, Family Tree Maker 2012 and Legacy Family Tree 7.5 and have them all be perfect!  


As Snidely Whiplash famously said:




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Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver


1 comment:

Andrew Hatchett said...

Randy,

I know that when uploading a GEDCOM to Ancestry Member Trees there is a file size limit of 75 MB Might that same limit apply when uploading a FTM file to teh Member Trees?