Exporting Ged or PAF friendly Files from Family Search/Family Tree for import into a stand alone pro

LegacyUser

Clifford Leon, Jr Kemple said: I would like to be able to create a gedcom file from downloading a portion of my Family Tree in order to import it into with another genealogy program such as PAF 5 so I don't have to enter it all by hand manually.

I don't lots of time to imput by hand all the new data that is coming up in the Family Tree online program. I like to be able to create copies of our family pedigree tree and Family Group Sheets for all my kids. Being able to go into Family Tree and select a specific individual and download that person's pedigree chart for 3 or 4 generations would then permit me to check the information off line and submit corrections online at a later date.

LegacyUser

Cathy Anderegg said: You will probably be able to do this when the 3rd Party Affiliate programs such as Legacy, Roots Magic, Ancestral Quest, etc. are allowed to sync with Family Tree. But I sincerely doubt that there will ever be a way to download anything to any PAF version. PAF is 25 year old technology, and just won't do what modern applications need to do. It has been said also that in a few years, the new computers won't even be able to load PAF. You would do well to upgrade to something else.
However, if you really want to print a really neat 9 generation pedigree chart for your kids go to Createfan.com. They pull the info off the database used by FT and nFS when you enter your account name and password. It will be a colorful fan chart, very nice to frame. You will need to make sure the data showing on Family Tree is what you want to print. For example, if there are more than one spouse for a person, select the one you want to show by clicking on that person's name and then View Tree. That makes that spouse stick.

LegacyUser

robertkehrer said: Clifford,

Cathy is right. Most well used online and desktop genealogy applications use the FamilySearch APIs (a way for two applications to talk to each other and share/sync data). We don't have plans to do a file download system. I would recommend that you go to https://familysearch.org/products and identify a modern genealogy application that will meet your needs and which makes use of the FamilySearch APIs (those listed do). Then your work will be much much simpler. Rather than going to the website and doing something to designate a portion of your tree to download, then downloading a file onto your desktop and then switching apps and figuring out how to do a file import and a lot of clean up and linking - all you have to do is work in your application as you normally would. Those changes you desire are automatically propagated up to the Family Tree and any changes you or anyone else makes in the Family Tree are presented for your approval to include in your desktop app.

PAF as a product is end of life. It is very old, has not been updated in many years, and never will be. It lacks many features these newer apps have. I recognize there will be a small learning curve as you move to a newer more modern application, but once past that I sincerely doubt you will ever regret it.

LegacyUser

H Andersdotter said: We must make LDS aware that PAF is old news. As a ward FH consultant I meet too many complacent folks who say they know PAF is old, but they like it. They refuse to even consider the new programs. They won't take my word for it that they will be sorry before too long when all those old computers in our FHCs with drives to accept floppy disks are hauled away. Can you make some sort of official announcement to folks that they need to upgrade and soon?

LegacyUser

Cathy Anderegg said: We no longer teach PAF at the FH Library at all. We teach our patron classes not to use it. And also not to use new familysearch.

LegacyUser

gasmodels said: interesting. for ordinance qualifications you must make the changes in new Family Search.

LegacyUser

Cathy Anderegg said: Sometimes that is correct. So when is that going to stop? We do teach that if users see a Needs More Information yellow triangle on a couple box, they may have to go to nFS to rearrange the Summary data for standardization. Why don't we just let the edits in FT standardize the data to qualify? It has to happen eventually, so why not sooner than later?

LegacyUser

gasmodels said: Because they have not incorporated ordinances or the search function into Family Tree yet. it is not completed. They are still using nFS information. they haven't got the coding done to do it in Family Tree. We just have to wait.

LegacyUser

Richard Michael Ormsby said: I am not really interested in the politics of all the changes and upgrades, downgrades, switches, etc. I accept everything is changing therefore I need to know how do I transfer what I have in PAF over to Family tree or is that not possible.
Mike.

LegacyUser

gasmodels said: you can upload a gedcom to family search.org -- geneologies - once there it can be compared with family tree and new information moved to Family Tree.

LegacyUser

Cathy Anderegg said: It takes a much longer time to upload a GECCOM to FT because the program looks carefully at each individual to see if he or she is already in the system. So some of the individuals will be added, some will not, and the user will have to review others to decide if the record that is similar is actually the same individual. So don't be in a hurry.

LegacyUser

Elaine Booth said: I want to export a gedcom or other file from FamilySearch/ FamilyTree so that I can put it into RootsMagic 6. My friend has no other information on their family except what is in FamilyTree and it is way too much to retype. It will be much easier for her to correct the data once it is in RootsMagic and in her home. Then she can go back to correct the information on FT by shifting the corrections from RM to FT.

I cannot find a way to export the information in FT. Please tell me how I can do this now. There use to be programs to do this for PAF. Is there anyway for RM6????

Elaine

LegacyUser

Christopher Allen Young said: Programs like Legacy, Ancestral Quest and the current RootsMagic can all download information from FT into a new file directly. You can then produce Gedcoms from those programs (or often other older file types for the same program) and then import the gedcom into your older program.

how to download one of these is at https://familysearch.org/products

LegacyUser

Elaine Booth said: Yes, they download information, piece by piece, but I want to download several generations back from an individual all at once.

LegacyUser

Christopher Allen Young said: You can download several generations at a time with Legacy. It just takes some time. Im sure the others do similar.

LegacyUser

Elaine Booth said: Found a FREE program called "Get My Family" from Family Insight. It will download however many generations you chose, back from yourself, from "new.familysearch" and put it into PAF. PAF can then be imported directly into RootsMagic6. Is there information in "FamilyTree" that would not be in new.familysearch?

Individual will have to edit information from book he has in his possession, so he can update information from FamilyTree as well.

Thanks for your help! I am glad that Legacy has a feature to download several generations. I am still waiting to hear back from RootsMagic.

LegacyUser

Ronald Tilby said: Elaine, Start up RootsMagic
If you haven't already done so, update to the latest release (6.3.0.3).
Click Help in RootsMagic
Search for "Importing from FamilySearch"
There you will find instructions for importing a tree from FamilySearch.
You can specify who to start with, and how many generations to import.
I recommend importing between 4 and 6 generations into a new, empty database so you can see how long it takes, and then examine the data that you get without adding it all to your primary database.

LegacyUser

Cathy Anderegg said: There is a TON more information in Family Tree than new FamilySearch because of the ease with which we can add sources now. We not only attach sources, but add new people based on those sources.

I would not take anything off nFS, nor would I put anything in PAF. Ron Tilby's answer below is the way to go.

LegacyUser

Elaine Booth said: Thank-you. RootsMagic called me back with the same information. Appreciate everyone's help with this problem.

LegacyUser

Elaine Booth said: Importing from FamilySearch into RootsMagic --- (direct from help Menue)
There may be times when you wish to import a tree from FamilySearch Family Tree to populate a RootsMagic database or to add to your existing RootsMagic file.
To import a tree from FamilySearch Family Tree, do File > FamilySearch > FamilySearch Import from the menu. You can choose the starting person for the tree; either "Me" or any person that you know the FamilySearch ID for. You can also choose how many generations of ancestors and descendants you want to import. Keep in mind that depending on how big your tree is out on FamilySearch, this could take a long time to finish importing. You can click Cancel at any time during the import and RootsMagic will keep any records that it has already imported up to that point. If you do cancel the import it will start from the beginning the next time you do an import (it doesn't start where you left off).
When you import a tree from FamilySearch, RootsMagic will import basic (birth, christening, death, burial) information for each person, as well as any LDS ordinance information. RootsMagic will also match each imported person to the corresponding person on FamilySearch. You can then open the FamilySearch Person Tools for any imported people to copy any additional information you are interested in.

LegacyUser

Cathy Anderegg said: Just make sure you don't use Roots Magic or any other 3rd party affiliate program exclusively, never comparing and referring to Family Tree. Family Tree is where the best of your finished work should be done, ie. best sourcing, discussions, relationship fixing, merging, etc.

If you are still researching or working with living people, 3rd party programs are fine.
But in the past, like only two months ago, we have had great messes created in Family Tree by folks using only 3rd party programs, never referring to what was already done in Family Tree. So be careful please!

LegacyUser

S. said: Yes, 3rd party apps allow, others don't, I Wish they would do this it would make it easier on all

LegacyUser

freeseek said: I think you refer to GetMyAncestors (http://www.ohanasoftware.com/?sec=dow...). However, this will only download your ancestors, and not your relatives (at least no more than two generations, so that second degree cousins will not be downloaded). I don't have a good solution to that. Something that sort of works is to download multiple trees with GetMyAncestors, use PAF (http://download.cnet.com/Personal-Anc...) to convert them to gedcom files, and then use GenMerge (http://www.genmerge.com/GenMergeSetup...) to merge them all at once into a single gedcom file. Very tedious but it works in the end.

LegacyUser

freeseek said: One of the links I posted above is not working anymore. Here is an update:
1) GetMyAncestors (http://www.ohanasoftware.com/?sec=dow...) to download different ancestor trees
2) PAF (http://store.lds.org/images/estore/do...) to convert trees into gedcom
3) GenMerge (http://www.genmerge.com/GenMergeSetup...) to merge all the gedcom files into a single file

LegacyUser

cej said: The problem that I have with having to use the third party programs (and not getting a GEDCOM direct from Family Tree, is that *so far* none of the programs will download source information from Family Tree. I also don't think they will download stories and pictures.

There is a LOT of basic functionality that the Family Search folks have not included, and I think they have produced a substandard product!

LegacyUser

Cathy Anderegg said: Just curious. Why do you need to download your information from Family Tree? Why not just use it as is? Are you afraid it is going to go away or not work? There are multiple copies of it, and archived older copies.

For research, you may want to get organized in a different way. But otherwise, I wouldn't worry about downloading.

LegacyUser

cej said: A few of the reasons-just from the top of my head:
1. The Family Search people are telling us to keep a copy outside of their records.
2. Other people can make changes to what I have struggled to find and document. While it keeps records of the changes, if the person is really out in left field, they could really screw things up and it would be easier to figure out what needs to be fixed by having a "stable" copy.
3. I would like to export the things that I have found in Family Search (which I have placed in Family Tree) and import it into Ancestry (and possibly other sites). There is a way to import directly Family Tree data into Ancestry from the Ancestry website, but it is currently nearly useless.

LegacyUser

cej said: I would also point out, that the Family Search website won't IMPORT sources and notes either. Importing ALL of the data that people have spent years gathering should have been the FIRST thing that they had figured out!

I talked with Family Search engineers a few times last fall and every time I was told that they will get to them. So far I haven't seen any of the changes.

LegacyUser

cej said: This is the thing that kills me. They pushed Family Tree out too soon. They should have had more of the behind the scenes stuff done correctly before opening it up.

LegacyUser

Jade said: One reason some may wish to copy FS-FT data to import via GEDCOM file to a home genealogy program is that FS-FT's built-in structure does not facilitate cluster research (family groups; friends-associates-neighbors), such as in using these to track migrations and help with spouse identifications.

There is no way in FS-FT to *tag-link* these as associated persons and retrieve associated-persons via a search. For example, baptismal sponsorships so often provide strong family clues.

There also is no way in FS-FT to retrieve geographic locations for specified family groups.

These drawbacks are typical of strictly lineage-based trees, while home genealogy programs usually provide ways to retrieve associates and locations, albeit not necessarily in the most research-helpful ways (for which narratives can be more overview-helpful).

Trees really are limited and simplistic ways to display some genealogical material, even if providing ways to add graphics and narratives. Allowing tagging of persons in these two types of items still does not link persons by relationships (though some may already be lineage-linked in the tree).

LegacyUser

Cathy Anderegg said: They did move sources (Legacy sources) from new FamilySearch to Family Tree, but they are only as good as what was put in by the contributor.

I would not move any data, that is not currently proven with reliable sources, from other on-line databases, which are notoriously flawed. Copying other folks stuff has led to a lot of junk

Jade, you always make so much sense. I wish I knew as much as you do. The research ideas make sense and others have wanted more from Family Tree regarding that. We'll see what happens. Thanks.