The following is from Ancestral Quest.

Incline Software Releases Ancestral Quest 15

Salt Lake City, Utah (December 15, 2016) – Incline Software, LC, producer of Ancestral Quest™, premier family tree software for Windows and Mac, announced today the release of version 15. This new release provides exciting, easy to use new features, including the new TreeTips™ research assistant and Memories Manager, along with improvements to core screens that take better advantage of newer, higher resolution monitors.

Major New Features

TreeTips is a new technology built into Ancestral Quest that will search the world's major databases of genealogical records and let users know if there are any records for them to examine. TreeTips combines the hinting capabilities of MyHeritage (based in Israel, with over 6 billion searchable records), FamilySearch (based in Utah, with over 5 billion searchable records) and Findmypast (based in England, with nearly 3 billion searchable records). With TreeTips, many users will feel like Ancestral Quest practically does their family history research for them. Users simply enter what they know about their family into Ancestral Quest and let TreeTips examine over 14 billion records, suggesting where to look next, as they expand their tree and discover and document more depth into their family's heritage.

As AQ finds hints on one of these sites, it shows icons next to the name of the ancestor to whom the records relate. Users simply hover their mouse over the icon to see how many records are available, and click on the icon to see actual records.

Note: While receiving hints from all these sites are free, accessing some records may require a subscription or other fees.

Memories Manager. Many family historians have ancestral photos, documents and stories to share with others, and have wished there was a quick, easy method of uploading these to FamilySearch, for the benefit of their extended family. Many researchers have found that distant cousins have shared such memories about their ancestors on FamilySearch, and they have wished there were an easy way to download these family treasures to their computer. AQ's new Memories Manager views the stories and scrapbook items users have collected in their local family tree, side-by-side with the memories for the same people in FamilySearch, then uploads or downloads memories with the click of a button.

Some users need to store their scrapbook items offline, so that as they share their family tree records with others, the links to scrapbook items will not require them to also find a way to transfer the media files. AQ can link a scrapbook item not only to a file on their computer, but also to a file stored on the Internet. Memories Managerprovides a means of linking the scrapbook items in a user's file directly to the memories in FamilySearch, so it doesn't matter whether original files are transferred when sharing databases. This can be especially helpful to those who use AQ's Collaboration feature, which allows a team of researchers to work on one master file over the Internet, using Incline Software's proprietary NetFam™ Collaboration service, without having to worry about copying photographs and documents to multiple computers.

For those who use a Family Tree software other than Ancestral Quest, who would like to more easily exchange memories with FamilySearch, they should consider getting a copy of AQ, using GEDCOM to bring their records into an AQ database, then using Memories Manager to easily exchange scrapbook items with FamilySearch.

Learn more about Memories Manager by watching this short video.

Other Enhancements

Pedigree View. Ancestral Quest has always provided a 5 generation Pedigree view to see the big picture of the family tree. AQ 15 now also allows users to select up to 7 generations, if a user has a large enough monitor, or select down to 3 generations if they have a smaller screen, or need to see much larger fonts.

Individual Merge. When comparing the details of two people to be merged, AQ 15 now allows a side-by-side comparison as well as the over/under comparison of recent versions.

Family View. The Family screen now takes better advantage of wide monitors and has a new icon next to each child, indicating whether the child has a spouse, children, or both. This helps users see at a glance which children may need more attention.

FamilySearch Integration. Users who work a lot with FamilySearch through AQ's award winning interface will appreciate that AQ can append not only the RIN or the FamilySearch ID next to a name, but can now show both the RIN and FSPID.

Importing of Ancestral Lines from FamilySearch has been improved. In the past, if users needed to extend several lines of an ancestor, they had to extend them one at a time. Users can now import extensions for all the lines of a selected person with one operation, making the importing of multiple lines much faster and more efficient.

Incline Software™ developed Ancestral Quest in 1994, and has been enhancing it ever since. AQ is a powerful yet easy to use, full-featured genealogy records manager, used both by beginners and professionals. Its reporting capabilities are excellent, and it uses unique, advanced technologies to enable accurate source documentation. AQ has advanced scrapbooking capabilities that allow users to preserve their precious photos, video clips, and audio clips for posterity, keeping the memory of ancestors alive for generations to come.

Ancestral Quest was the first family tree desktop product to be certified by FamilySearch to sync with with the FamilySearch databases, and was given the “Most Comprehensive Syncing” award by FamilySearch in 2009. AQ is now the first such product to be certified to sync memories with FamilySearch.

Genealogy enthusiasts can acquire Ancestral Quest for Windows or Mac by visiting www.ancquest.com. A free "Basics" version is available, which contains all of the essential features of recording a family tree at no charge. For a modest fee, new users can purchase a key to unlock the advanced features ($29.95 for Windows or $38.95 for Mac). Existing users can upgrade for $19.95 for Windows or $24.95 for Mac.

All users of versions 12-14 should download and use the newer AQ 15. If they do not purchase an upgrade key, they can still use the features for which their key entitles them, while taking advantage of the ongoing adjustments needed to keep their copy of AQ working with constant changes in the FamilySearch API.

In addition to English, Ancestral Quest is also available in several other languages including complete translations in German, French, Spanish, Danish, and Norwegian, and ample translations in Swedish, Polish, Finnish and Hungarian, with more languages being developed. Learn more about Incline Software, Ancestral Quest or Ancestral Quest Basics by visiting www.ancquest.com or by calling Incline Software at 801-280-4434.

Family Tree Maker/Ancestral Quest Announcement

The following is from Ancestral Quest.

Ancestral Quest Provides Family Tree Maker Users 

with Path Forward and a $10 Discount

We know that Family Tree Maker (FTM) users were disheartened to learn recently that Ancestry.com will be discontinuing FTM, and even though FTM will continue to function for some time, many FTM users are anxious to explore alternate software. Incline Software invites them to give Ancestral Quest (AQ) a serious look. Here are a few things they should know about AQ:

* Ancestral Quest can easily import their data. You can watch a short video that will guide you through this process here: watch video

* Ancestry.com has previously licensed AQ to be the base of their company product. Prior to acquiring the company that owned FTM, Ancestry.com had licensed AQ and distributed it to millions of their users under the name of Ancestry Family Tree (AFT). Just like AFT, AQ has the option to do background searches on the Ancestry.com databases, and provides links to the results.

* Ancestral Quest has been licensed as the basis for other major family tree software titles that have been used by millions of people, including the Windows versions of Personal Ancestral File (PAF).

* Ancestral Quest is available both for Windows and Mac.

* AQ is easy to use, yet full-featured. Beginners and professionals alike enjoy the simple yet comprehensive options for recording and sharing their family tree information.

* AQ has a unique capability for teams of users to share their data on a private cloud-based system. We call this “Collaboration.”

* AQ was the first family tree product to be certified to share data with FamilySearch, and received an award for the completeness of that offering.

* Ancestral Quest Basics is a free version of AQ. FTM users could download the free AQ Basics, import their FTM data into it, spend some time getting a feel for the screens and reports, and then make a decision about whether to continue using AQ as their FTM replacement – all without any cost.

* Thanks to the efforts of volunteers around the world, AQ is available in many languages other than its native English. These include German, French, Spanish, and many others.

* Until January 31, 2016, you can apply a $10 discount to your upgrade to AQ.

To learn more about Ancestral Quest, the transition from Family Tree Maker, and the $10 discount, please visit this page: www.ancquest.com/ftm.

The following is from Ancestral Quest.

Ancestral Quest is Now Available for Mac

Salt Lake City, Utah (August 19, 2015) – Incline Software, LC announced today thatAncestral Quest™, its family tree software, is now available for Mac.

For over 20 years, Ancestral Quest has been a Windows program, providing excellent, easy-to-use yet comprehensive tools to millions of users worldwide, both professional and beginner. During that time, it has been sold directly by Incline Software, and licensed by others, often under different titles, including Ancestry Family Tree (AFT) by Ancestry.com and with more extensive adjustments as Personal Ancestral File (PAF) by FamilySearch. This powerful family tree record keeping program is now available to users of Mac. Ancestral Quest for Mac will run on OS X 10.7 and later.

Ancestral Quest for Mac simply downloads and installs directly to the Mac, without the need for additional software. Those who have used Ancestral Quest on Windows computers will find that AQ for Mac is the same program as AQ for Windows.

Overview of Ancestral Quest for Mac

Ancestral Quest for Mac allows users to record their family tree, including the names, dates and places of ancestors and descendants, and provides for the recording of notes and sources for each individual, as well as scrapbook collections for each person. AQ for Mac also allows users to print standard forms and charts such as Pedigree charts, Family Group Records, Ancestry and Descendancy charts, birthday and anniversary calendars, and scores of additional charts, lists and reports to help them review and share their family tree. AQ for Mac can create a web-site that can be uploaded to the Internet, showing whatever parts of a family tree users feel like sharing. It also generates a customizable research timeline, to help put ancestors in perspective of the times and events in which they lived, and provides users with a research log and manager to keep their genealogical research efforts organized.

Ancestral Quest provides an ability, unique for desktop family tree software products, to have several users work as a team on a single data file, from multiple computers anywhere in the world. This feature is called "Collaboration." Whether the user has a Windows computer or a Mac, team members will be able to work together with AQ's Collaboration system.

Ancestral Quest for Mac meets the same certification requirements with FamilySearch Family Tree (Family Tree) as its Windows counterpart. This means that users can upload portions of their personal family tree to the Family Tree, or download portions of theFamily Tree into their personal file. Users can also synchronize individuals, families, and notes and sources for both individuals and families between their personal file and Family Tree. Additionally, like its Windows counterpart, Ancestral Quest for Mac allows users to search such online databases as those of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org, along with other sites that can be added into Ancestral Quest's Internet search engine.

Ancestral Quest has won several awards over the years, including the 2009 FamilySearch award for "Most Comprehensive Syncing", which is indicative of the way AQ is not only easy to learn and use, but of paying attention to the important details required by genealogists. AQ was also awarded the 2009 FamilySearch award for "Best Listing Tool", which epitomizes the fact that AQ provides the most advanced tools for finding individuals and defining groups of individuals for various reporting and research tasks.

Benefits to PAF Users

Many PAF 5 users have moved, or are contemplating moving, from Windows computers to Mac computers. Because the Windows versions of PAF were derived from AQ, these PAF users will feel right at home as they use Ancestral Quest for Mac. Ancestral Quest for Mac can directly update a PAF 5 file, so current or former PAF 5 users can simply copy their PAF 5 file from their Windows machine to their Mac, and AQ will be able to open and work with their data, as is.

Summary

Incline Software™ developed Ancestral Quest in 1994, and has been enhancing it ever since.

In addition to English, Ancestral Quest is also available in German, French, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, Hungarian and Swedish, with other language modules being developed. You can learn more about Incline Software, Ancestral Quest, and Ancestral Quest Basics, by visiting www.ancquest.com or calling Incline Software at 1-800-825-8864.

Ancestral Quest for Mac is expected to sell for $34.95. But for a limited time, it can be purchased at the same price as AQ for Windows, which currently is $29.95. Ancestral Quest Basics for Mac is a free version of Ancestral Quest, with all of the essential features of a family tree program available for free, but with the more advanced features locked. The free version will only be available for a limited time, so those wishing to take advantage of obtaining a full-featured, free genealogy program for Mac should act quickly. Ancestral Quest for Mac can be downloaded from www.ancquest.com/mac.

SLCC Genealogy Course: Post #15 - Comparing other Genealogy Software and Apps

This week for my Salt Lake Community College, Genealogy Course we needed to compare another genealogy software program to RootsMagic. I decided to pick 5 things that are a must in RootsMagic for me and see how the other programs measured up. I need to use FamilySearch so the only other programs that work with it are Ancestral Quest (AQ) and Legacy Family Tree, so I decided to compare both against RootsMagic.  Here are my findings. 

RootsMagic Must Have Features

1. Edit Person Screen and it's spreadsheet layout in chronological order. Columns to see what you have and hover pop-ups to see details. This one screen sold me on RootsMagic the first time I looked at it. My brain just thinks in spreadsheets and having all the facts in chronological order allows me to understand the whole person. I also like being able to highlight a fact and then on the right side of the same screen edit it. 

Legacy - To much clicking to find out what info you have. Dislike the separate primary events and other events or facts in a person life. My eye has to do a lot of jumping around to understand the order of events. Too clicky to find all the info you have on a person or add new facts.

AQ - I find this the same as Legacy's person screen. Though their look is different the concept is still the same. Once you get used to a spreadsheet look and feel you just can't go back to the clickiness and disjointed layout to figure out what you have on a person.

2. Side bar with options to view an Index, Family, Bookmarks, History and Groups. I use all these options and couldn't live without them. They work in perfect harmony with the other main views.  

Legacy - no Side bar. The closest it comes is showing bookmarks at the bottom of the screen. They are not sorted alphabetically so it hard to sort through them. If you try to bookmark a female that is married it's even worst to locate them because your forced to bookmark the couple and the husband is listed first. It takes less clicks to move through bookmarked people in RootsMagic than it does in Legacy.

AQ - no side bar

3. Groups - I use Groups all the time. It helps me break down my work into manageable sections. I need the ability to create groups easily, identify what they pertain to, and make as many as I want. I need to be able to mark people in the group based on one criteria and then remove people from the group based on a different criteria. Then I want to see who's in them and have easy access to them. RootsMagic does this seamlessly.

Legacy - Instead of Groups there are Tags. You can only create 9 different Tags. If you want to create a Tag based on search criteria you have to go to a totally different part of the program to search then jump back to make a Tag out of the results. But, you can't search on every fact that you made so it's limited. I could only figure out how to add people with a fact, but I couldn't figure out how to remove people from the list that had a different fact. So I can't make the same groups in Legacy that I can in RootsMagic. I couldn't find a way to work with the people I tagged. I could move through them one at a time, export them or make a report but that's not what I wanted to do. I want to review the list like I can with the Side Bar in RootsMagic and jump to the people as needed.

AQ - uses Tags. The limit is 7 different tags. You can only assign 3 tags to a single person. The limitations on how many tags and how many times I can tag one person makes this extremely limiting. You have to use Custom Reports and Filter/Focus to work with the people you tagged. Filtering in AQ is so hard for me to understand it just isn't logical to me. I also didn't have a way to exclude people based on a different fact from the group I tagged. Since all I get is a paper report I have no easy way to work with the people that I created tags for. 

4. Timeline view - the ability to see a person and their family members' events in chronological order. This view also allows me to edit the person or family members facts as needed. You can also jump between family members and show their timeline view. It also allows me to have the same database open twice or two separate databases open side by side and then edit both without having to open and close the Edit Person screen.

Legacy - Chronology view is the same concept as the RootsMagic Timeline.  You can edit the person the view is about, but not the family members. You can't jump between family members, and it doesn't show as many family members either. You can't edit two database at the same time without having to open and close the Individual view window. In fact when you do open two databases at the same time the formatting gets all weird and you can't read what's on the screen.

AQ - Timeline view - you can jump to other family members Timeline view by clicking on them. I could not find a way to edit the person's information from within the Timeline view. This would make having two databases side by side for comparison and editing pointless for me. I did try to look for a way to even see two databases open at the same time and for the life of me I can't see how to do that in AQ. The help didn't tell me how either. I can only assume it doesn't have that capability.

5. FamilySearch Family Tree - I have added a custom fact with a code to everyone I work with in my database on FT. With this custom fact I can create very specific groups which I can use as an extra filter in the FamilySearch Person Tools to narrow down people I want to work on.  For example: I can open FamilySearch Central click on the Done link and then narrow the list further by clicking on Filter to work with my group called Cards.  This allows me to see immediately if a family member just completed a temple card I gave them. I can select the person and then on the Ordinances tab I can move the dates to my database.  RootsMagic allows me to work in an organized manner and be efficient about it without a lot of complications. 

Legacy - Their screens are similar to RootsMagic but missing the features I need to perform the same tasks. There is a way to filter all the people with ordinances completed, but I cannot find a way to filter on a second level my tagged people. 

AQ - I already knew using my groups would be difficult to translate into AQ. The thing I was really surprised with was the lack of being able to filter people in my database on any level working with FT. It looks like I would have to click on one FT icon at a time to launch the FT features. In fact as I played with this feature it kept closing on me. Then I realized every time you click save it automatically closes you out of the FT window. Then you have to open it again to see the changes you made. This was not time productive at all. 

Somethings I liked better in the other programs.

Legacy - Legacy Home tab which allows you to see your To-Do Items you scheduled to work on by a specific date. It also has a birthdays, death date and anniversaries reminder. I like Legacy's Charting program better than RootsMagic. I also like being able to get to the RINs and MRINs easier in Legacy.

AQ - NetFam Collaboration feature. Interesting concept where you can put your AQ file on their server and allow other family members to check it out. They can update the file, check it back in and then you can both take turns making edits to the file. I just wish I had a need for it. So far I don't have anyone in my family wanting to add to my research. You can also get to the RINs and MRINs easier in AQ. 

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For extra credit we had to tell our classmates about a mobile genealogy app for the iPad, iPod or Android platform and what you liked or didn't like about it. 

I use the RootsMagic App on my iPad and love it. When you have color-coded your family in the RootsMagic program it really looks great viewing them in the app. You feel like your showing a piece of artwork to your family. Here are some of my favorite things about the app.

1. View all details about a person, notes, sources, media and their family members

2. View your To-Do items and Research log. Sometimes when I am just stuck waiting for events or things to happen I will just look at them and think them over. It really helps the pondering process and to figure out a game plan for research. 

3. Relationship calculator is a handy tool. Having your database and that tool helps you answer family inquires away from home.

4. Soundex Code - we don't use this much anymore, but I have come across times away from home where I needed to know the soundex code for a surname. If you didn't know the soundex code there wasn't any way to use a repositories index. I have forgotten how to manually do the soundex code so this is a real life saver.

Ancestral Quest is FamilySearch Certified for Tree Share, Sources, Discussions, Change History and LDS Support

The following is from Ancestral Quest.

Salt Lake City, Utah (November 16, 2013) – Incline Software, LC announced today that Ancestral Quest™, its Windows^®-based family tree software, was recently certified by FamilySearch™ for Tree Share, Sources, Discussions, Change History and LDS Support.

Ancestral Quest meets the rigorous standards set by FamilySearch for allowing its users to work in FamilySearch Family Tree (hereinafter referred to as Family Tree) by sharing not only data, but documentation, discussions and reasons for making changes. This not only helps users of AQ participate as good neighbors in Family Tree, but allows them to benefit from the comments and findings of others as they record their own personal family history in their AQ or PAF file.

Ancestral Quest allows users to search Family Tree for matching records and exchange facts for individuals and relationships between their own file and Family Tree. It also allows comparing of families and exchanging of family members between their personal file and Family Tree. Users can improve the data on Family Tree by sharing their research, and can learn more about their own family by looking through the Family Tree data made available by others. For LDS users, AQ handles the processes of reserving and tracking the progress of LDS ordinances.

No other personal family tree product has met more FamilySearch certification requirements than Ancestral Quest. You can learn more about these specific certifications on this FamilySearch page.

Additional Features for Sharing with Family Tree

Ancestral Quest goes above and beyond the certification requirements of FamilySearch, providing additional features that will aid users in accomplishing quality work with their personal family file and with Family Tree.

Notes

Ancestral Quest allows users to view the notes of individual records in Family Tree, and exchange notes between Family Tree and the notes they have in their personal file. Many, many users have expressed a desire to be able to upload their notes from their PAF or AQ file to Family Tree, where those notes can be viewed by other relatives researching the same family lines. AQ now provides a simple interface for that exchange. AQ is the only FamilySearch Tree Share certified program to offer this feature.

Source Details

In addition to meeting the requirements for FamilySearch Sources certification, Ancestral Quest provides exacting genealogists with an extra bonus. In most desktop family tree programs, sources are recorded with such details as the source Title, Author, Publication Facts, Repository, Page Number, Source Quality, etc. In Family Tree, sources provide this information as a formatted 'citation', but do not contain the detailed breakdown of this data. AQ allows users to send the breakdown of these details to Family Tree to be stored in the Notes portion of the Family Tree source. This allows other users of a desktop program to later import the source in such a way that the Title, Author, Repository, etc., are properly brought back from Family Tree.

Continued Access to new.FamilySearch Data

Ancestral Quest allows users to read the other opinions of the Birth, Christening, Deathand Burial facts stored in new.FamilySearch (nFS). nFS contains a wealth of information in these extra opinions that were not carried over to Family Tree, and users of AQ are benefiting every day from the ability to see these on the same screen with their own data, and with data from Family Tree. There are three situations where these extra opinions from nFS can be helpful:

• In some cases, the birth, christening, death or burial information that was moved to Family Tree from nFS is not the best data. AQ helps a user identify these situations and import the correct data from nFS to Family Tree.
• When records of different people were improperly combined in nFS, these extra opinions are often the best clue for recognizing the situation. They help users take corrective action.
• When Family Tree doesn’t have the best data from nFS, attempts to match correct records between a person’s local record and its corresponding record on Family Tree often fail. By seeing these extra opinions during the matching process, records can be matched more accurately.

As long as FamilySearch allows Ancestral Quest to provide read-only access to these facts, AQ will be pleased to provide its users with this benefit. AQ is the only FamilySearch Tree Share certified product to still offer this read-only access to nFS data.

Benefits to PAF Users

Ancestral Quest can directly update a PAF file, thus AQ provides PAF users with the ability to share data with Family Tree, including sources, notes and LDS ordinance information. Even though PAF has been discontinued as a supported product by FamilySearch, we understand that there are millions who still use PAF and can benefit from this capability. AQ is the only FamilySearch Tree Share certified product that provides this share capability for PAF users. And because the Windows versions of PAF were derived from AQ, PAF users will feel right at home as they use Ancestral Quest.

History of Ancestral Quest's Certification with FamilySearch

In July of 2008, Ancestral Quest became the first family tree desktop program to be certified by FamilySearch to match and sync data with new.FamilySearch. In March of 2009, AQ received an award from FamilySearch for Most Comprehensive Syncing. As Family Tree started replacing nFS, AQ provided its users with the capability mentioned above to move nFS data to Family Tree. In June, 2013, AQ became FamilySearch Tree Share certified in time to make sure that users could transition from nFS to Family Tree. The FamilySearch certifications changed in early November, as some of FamilySearch’s prior certifications were removed, and new certifications added. As of November 11, 2013, AQ received the current FamilySearch certifications of Tree Share, Sources, Discussions, Change History and LDS Support.

Background

Incline Software™ developed Ancestral Quest in 1994, and has been enhancing it ever since. AQ is a powerful yet easy to use, full-featured genealogy records manager, used by both beginners and professionals. Its reporting and sourcing capabilities are excellent. AQ has scrapbooking capabilities and can also generate a web page with not only the data, but the scrapbook items as well, so this information can be easily shared with family across the world on the Internet, or placed on a smartphone or tablet to be taken on the go. AQ provides many extras such as research timelines and award winning abilities for searching and sorting through ancestral records.

This announcement has focused on a relatively small portion of Ancestral Quest: those features that deal with FamilySearch Family Tree.

In addition to English, Ancestral Quest is also available in German, French, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. You can learn more about Incline Software, Ancestral Quest, andAncestral Quest Basics, by visiting www.ancquest.com or calling Incline Software at 1-800-825-8864.

Ancestral Quest is Share Certified with FamilySearch Family Tree

The following is from Ancestral Quest.  

Salt Lake City, Utah (July 19, 2013) – Incline Software, LC announced today that Ancestral Quest™, its Windows^®-based family tree software, was recently awarded Family Tree Share certification by FamilySearch™.

FamilySearch Family Tree Share Certified

In 2008, Ancestral Quest (AQ) became the first desktop family tree product to be certified by FamilySearch to sync with their databases. This current upgrade to Family Tree Share certification by FamilySearch was granted on June 21, 2013, and all copies of AQ downloaded or shipped since that date have directly shared data with FamilySearch’s new Family Tree database rather than with their older New.FamilySearch database. The upgrade was timed to precede FamilySearch's discontinuance of updates to New.FamilySearch in early July and their announced termination of support for Personal Ancestral File™ (PAF) on July 15, 2013.

Ancestral Quest brings its award-winning “Most Comprehensive Syncing” capability into the next generation of FamilySearch’s database, Family Tree. For current users of AQ, this means that there was no interruption in their ability to use AQ to share data with FamilySearch’s databases. For those who are looking for a personal family tree program, AQ will get them started with a premier program in every respect.

The PAF Connection

The Windows versions of the program known as Personal Ancestral File, were created from Ancestral Quest code provided to FamilySearch over 14 years ago, by Incline Software. PAF and AQ have since then been sister products, with PAF being maintained, distributed and supported by FamilySearch, whereas AQ was maintained, distributed and supported by Incline Software. The parent code for both products was initially developed by Incline Software.

With the termination of support for PAF, users of PAF will feel right at home with moving to Ancestral Quest. D. Hambleton, a former PAF user said, “In my humble opinion, Ancestral Quest is what a fully updated PAF program would look like. I made the switch some years ago and found the new program like working with an old friend, with added features.”

The close connection between AQ and PAF means that Ancestral Quest provides users of PAF with two paths to move forward:

1) They can convert their data to the native AQ format, and move forward with a program that will feel like a major upgrade to PAF.

2) They can continue to use PAF and other PAF add-on utilities from which they benefit, while using AQ as a supplemental program to provide additional functionality, including the ability to share data between their personal file and FamilySearch’s Family Tree, wonderful new charts and reports, and access to scores of additional tools such as AQ’s To-Do Lists and new Research Timeline. Because AQ is able to read a PAF file in exactly the same way as PAF itself does, users can go back and forth between using PAF and AQ while using the same database. No conversions, importing or exporting are necessary to do this. Ancestral Quest is the ONLY¹ Family Tree certified product that can share data between Family Tree and a PAF database.

Ongoing Support for PAF

PAF users who use the registered version of AQ in conjunction with PAF, will continue to receive support for PAF from Incline Software by calling 801.280.4434.

Continued Access to New.FamilySearch (nFS)

Ancestral Quest is the ONLY¹ personal family tree software product that can both share data with Family Tree and also allow users to continue to see the extra opinions stored in nFS for the birth, christening, death and burial events of a record. Users can choose to see only data from their own personal database and the data of Family Tree, or they can choose to see data from three databases simultaneously in an easy to read format: their personal database, the data of the matching record of Family Tree, and the additional opinions from nFS. FamilySearch has announced that this access to nFS data will continue through the end of this year.

When FamilySearch selected data from New.FamilySearch to create the data in Family Tree, sometimes the best data was transferred. However, all too often, erroneous data for records was selected, leaving the better data in nFS where it would no longer be seen. By seeing the data from nFS, as well as the data from Family Tree in AQ, users can review all of the data gathered by FamilySearch, to make sure that the best data is moved to Family Tree, or into their personal files. Importantly, it is only when the extra opinions of nFS are visible that a user can tell that a current record in Family Tree is a combination of the records of several different people. This allows users to make better decisions 1) about whether to link their personal record with the Family Tree record, or 2) about which records were lost to Family Tree and need to be recreated. Only Ancestral Quest provides this view of all three databases.

Background

Incline Software™ developed Ancestral Quest in 1994, and has been enhancing it ever since. AQ is a powerful yet easy to use, full-featured genealogy records manager, used by both beginners and professionals. Its reporting and sourcing capabilities are excellent. AQ has scrapbooking capabilities that allow users to preserve their precious photos, video clips, audio clips and other documents for posterity, keeping the memory of ancestors alive for generations to come. AQ can also generate a web page with not only the data, but the scrapbook items as well, so this information can be easily shared with family across the world on the Internet, or placed on a palm or tablet device to be taken on the go.

Genealogy enthusiasts can acquire Ancestral Quest 14 in four ways:

1) For someone just getting started, Ancestral Quest Basics is a free personal family tree product that can be downloaded and used without cost – it contains all of the essential features of a genealogy record keeping program. This is not a “trial” version of AQ that will expire. It is a complete desktop family tree software product that can be used for free as long as the user wishes to work with it.

2) The registered version of Ancestral Quest contains all of the essential features of Ancestral Quest Basics, but unlocks all of the additional features, for a download price of $29.95.

3) Users of earlier standard versions of AQ, who have not already done so, can upgrade to Ancestral Quest 14 at the discounted price of $19.95.

4) With the introduction of Ancestral Quest 14, Incline Software has implemented a new concept in upgrades that might be unique in the industry. Users of earlier versions of the software will be able to download and use the newer version, thus taking advantage of improvements to the features for which they are licensed, without paying an upgrade fee. However they would not have access to major new features introduced in the new version unless a new key is purchased. For example, if the user had purchased version 12.0 or 12.1, and then downloaded version 14, all of the features of AQ 12.1 would be available to that user in version 14, including improvements to those features, even if a new version 14 key is not purchased. The user would only need to purchase a version 14 key to be able to use the new major features of AQ 14. All users of AQ 12.0 and 12.1 are therefore encouraged to download the latest build of version 14, as their old version will no longer sync with FamilySearch's databases, but they will only need to purchase a key if they wish to use the new features introduced with version 14.

In addition to English, Ancestral Quest is also available in German, French, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. You can learn more about Incline Software, Ancestral Quest, and Ancestral Quest Basics, by visiting www.ancquest.com or calling Incline Software at 1-800-825-8864.

Ancestral Quest Begins Family Tree Sync Beta Testing

Last week Gaylon Findlay told the members of UVTAGG that Ancestral Quest would be certified to sync with FamilySearch Family Tree this coming week.  I've been waiting all week for the announcement.  Seems like it's still just around the corner.  I just saw on the Ancestral Quest Mailing List a call for beta testers. So if you're interested drop Gaylon a line and help out.

All: 

I am expecting to release a beta version of AQ within the next couple of hours. 

Most of the functionality that deals with the FamilySearch databases has been moved from working directly with nFS to working directly with Family Tree. 

If all goes well, we hope to release a new build by the middle of next week. 

If you are interested in giving this Beta version a test run over the next 3-4 days, please e-mail me directly: 

gfindlay@ancquest.com 

I'll send you further instructions and a link to download the beta version. 

Thank you so much! 

Gaylon Findlay 
Incline Software 

Update Made on: Family Tree API Officially Released - Dates for Shutting Down NFS API Announced

I have received some new information and clarification on my previous article "Family Tree API Officially Released - Dates for Shutting Down NFS API Announced". The updates are marked in read on the original article.

http://rzamor1.blogspot.com/2013/06/family-tree-api-officially-released.html

Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch API Program Manager,  sent me the following: 

Here’s a concise statement about certification that will be posted to FSDN very soon.

““Now that the FamilySearch Family Tree API is finalized and all unrestricted deceased data has been transferred from new.Familysearch.org (NFS) to FamilySearch.org Family Tree (FT) all certification of 3rd Party Products reading or writing to NFS has ended. Members of FamilySearch developer network have been asked to stop any development using familytree/v2 API.

All technical support for 3rd Party Products writing or reading NFS data will end June 30^th. 

All reference to 3rd Party Products that were previously certified on the NFS API will end September 15^th.”

Family Tree API Officially Released - Dates for Shutting Down NFS API Announced

The following was announced on the FamilySearch Developer's List this morning. My comments follow after the announcement.

FamilySearch is pleased to announce the official release of the FamilySearch API.  Thank you to all who participated during the beta and pilot phases. This release will replace the familytree/v2 API (targeting new.familysearch.org) for all tree reads and writes.  With the release of the latest FamilySearch API the following dates are also announced:

June 30 – Write capability for the familytree/v2  API will be turned off.  Partners can no longer use this API to write to the tree.  This functionality is replaced with the release of the latest FamilySearch API.

The collaboration toolkit (a feature of the FamilySearch API), which includes sources, discussions, and the change log, has moved from beta to pilot.  With the collaboration toolkit in pilot, partners should feel confident the code is stable and start implementing the features.

Sept 15 – All partners who write to the FamilySearch Family Tree will need to implement the features of the collaboration toolkit by Sept 15 in order to maintain their certification.  They will be able to re-certify after the collaborative features are added.

End of year – Partners will be able to continue to use the read functionality of the familytree/v2 API until the end of the year.

This means if you are using a 3rd Party Product that still works with NFS then you will no longer be able to send information between NFS and your program come June 30th. (3 May 2013 combine/separate was turned off in the NFS API.) This is putting the pinch on some developers that have not already become certified to Tree Share with Family Tree.  They now have a deadline to do so.

You can see the status of the 3rd Party Products and their certification by going to https://familysearch.org/products . Look for the check mark to the left of their name to determine which programs work directly with Family Tree. On the right also check that they have Tree Share certification. Meaning they are products that will allow you to read and write to the Family Tree. They need both icons. All reference to 3rd Party Products that were previously certified on the NFS API will end September 15^th.

After the ability to write to NFS is turned off you will still be able to read data in NFS until the end of the year. All technical support for 3rd Party Products reading NFS data will end June 30^th.  All reference to 3rd Party Products that were certified on the NFS API will end September 15^th.

My understanding from this timeline is that all data from NFS should be moved over to Family Tree before the end of the year or possibly sooner. Once that happens the connection from NFS to FT will be severed. Which would allow us to merge the duplicates in FT that we were prevented from doing so because they were IOUS in NFS. That will be a happy day for many of us. The transfer of all unrestricted deceased data from NFS to FT has been completed.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

Update 6/04/2013: I received clarification from Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch API Program Manager, on the shutting down of NFS API and Certification.  The changes are marked in red.

“Now that the FamilySearch Family Tree API is finalized and all unrestricted deceased data has been transferred from new.Familysearch.org (NFS) to FamilySearch.org Family Tree (FT) all certification of 3rd Party Products reading or writing to NFS has ended. Members of FamilySearch developer network have been asked to stop any development using familytree/v2 API.  

All technical support for 3rd Party Products writing or reading NFS data will end June 30^th. 

All reference to 3rd Party Products that were previously certified on the NFS API will end September 15^th.”

Do I Still Need a Desktop Genealogy Program or is Family Tree Enough?

If you're a family history consultant then you have probably came across this question. "Why do we need a desktop program?  Can't we just use the FamilySearch Family Tree instead?" At RootsTech 2013 I attended an Unconferencing session hosted by Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch API Program Manager. This same question was asked of the Tree Share Panelists: Bruce Buzbee (RootsMagic), Luc Comeau (Legacy Family Tree), Gaylon Findlay (Ancestral Quest), and Dovy Pukstys (RealTime Collaboration/AncestorSync)

I am going to try and recap their thoughts and my own as to why we still need a desktop program.

1. In theory it would be lovely to work only on the web, but Family Tree does not have the power that a desktop program can give you. The same features in a desktop program would be too costly to recreate on the web. 

2. People want to keep some things private, especially if it can be embarrassing or hurtful to other family members. They don't want to share certain things until they are ready to do so. Information that is private can be vital in how you come to conclusions in your research. There is more security having your database under your total control on the desktop than the web will ever be. The Family Tree is also not intended as a place to record information on living individuals. Being able to have both the living and the dead in one family database seems to eliminate a potential hassle and security concerns.

3. Custom reporting is a big reason for maintaining your own database with a desktop program. Analytical reporting and queries on the desktop would be very expensive in a web application. The bandwidth needed would be very costly. Online applications will not have the processing power that is available on a PC. They just cannot compete with your computer resources. The reports from a desktop program look more professional than the website versions. You can also save reports made on the desktop as RTF files and massage them exactly the way you want in Word. This gives you a lot of control and a great advantage.

4. In a desktop program you can have more than one database. You can have a database with proven research and another with those that are not. In the research process you can come across individuals that may be part of a family. In the desktop program you can continue to do more research and prove your conclusions before you add them to the Family Tree. If instead you added your assumptions to Family Tree while building your case, others that have access could change your findings. It's also easier to sift, sort and compare electronically people in your database than online.

5. The web vs. the desktop has two different purposes and usually two different audiences. The web is used to attract people to genealogy, to share with others and get them interested. When people really start researching their family history you will find they start using a desktop. They have to because the web is a box and doesn't fit everyone and doesn't have all the power as the desktop computer. The desktop is where the real success and real concrete evidence is finalized for a real researcher.

6. There are a lot of people that still are not online. When you put your family history online you can only share it with family members that are online. There is a need to be able to share in other ways. You could create Shareable CDs or books with your family history to share with others. These types of options will not be available with online applications. 

7. Desktop programs allow you to organize and analyze your data in a particular way. You can create special groups of people based on specific search criteria.  For example: finding everyone living during the 1940 US Federal Census. Then you can focus your research efforts on those individuals for that data set. 

8. Life gets busy; people tend to work on their family history in little pockets of time. Desktop programs have To-Do Lists and Research Logs that help you manage and track your research efforts. They help you keep records on your thought process and what records you have searched. You can record which records you want to look at in the future as the impressions come to you. These are great tools in breaking down brick walls and furthering your research.  You're not spinning your wheels trying to remember where you left off each time you get back to your family history.  In the long run this makes a person much more productive with the little time they do have to devote on their genealogy.

9. With a desktop program you can get very comfortable knowing its not changing on you. With a website the company can change things really quickly and you have no control over that. Everyone that uses the website is forced to change.  With a desktop program you can stay with an older version if desired and not be forced to change. The desktop programs interface between New FamilySearch and Family Tree is likely to stay very similar to each other. If you were only using the websites you suddenly experienced a whole new learning curve.

10. One great customizing tool in the desktop program is color-coding. You can select a specific person and color his ancestors. If your 2nd cousin color-coded it would be different lines. A community environment doesn't give you that customization. 

11. The desktop program have internal record numbers (RINs). People get used to memorizing people in their file by record numbers. On the web that would be very hard to wrap your head around the numbering systems. 

12. From a web developer KISS is the entire world. Keep it Simple... the most successful websites are the simplest ones. Desktop can go as complex and customizable as desired. The web treats everyone as one person. It's hard to give that customization. The web mimics what the desktop has already done. People will continue to use desktop programs because the developers innovate in the way genealogist care about. Web guys innovate in ways that will bring more users, but not necessarily better research. 

13. If you have your data in a desktop program and something happens to you it's still on your computer and someone can find it. If all your data is sitting up on a company's website and that website disappears you don't have your data. Your data is actually safer in your possession because you can make sure you've got backups.  You make sure that as media type's change you take your data and migrate it and use different formats. So if one of them happens to go down or disappears you still got the data in a format. To keep your data on a website or in a single cloud it's at your own risk. 

14. How many people that only used New FamilySearch have now lost data, with the migration to Family Tree? Not everything has been transferred over. What do they have as a reference to make sure the records are now correct?  Do they need to manually retype all the changes in again? Each time you retype data you add the element of human error while doing so.  In a desktop program you can compare your data with what is on the Family Tree. Then send an exact copy of what is in your database if changes are needed. Are you confident that Family Tree will not be replaced in the future with something else?

15. As a genealogist I have experienced where I needed to go back several years of research to an old backup to see what it was at that period in time. You can't get that picture in a website, because it is always changing. By making backups routinely you have a historical snapshot of what the state was at that point in time. 

16. If you only keep your family history on Family Tree you are missing out on finding potential researchers working on your lines. The more places you share your research on the web the greater potential you have of finding other family members. Desktop programs allow you to create GEDCOMs to share your data on other websites. You can upload your database to Ancestry.com, WorldConnect, Geni, and MyHeritage, to name a few. You can also create your own websites with desktops programs and host them yourself. These in turn can be searchable in Google where other researchers can find you.

17. Maintaining your own database is the only way you can be sure your data or some portion of it has not been lost, corrupted mechanically or merged improperly.  Some temple ordinances have been lost or have choked in the pipeline.  If you have your own records on what has been done previously you can help FamilySearch find the missing ordinances and restore them.  If you are dependent on FamilySearch maintaining those records you have nothing to fall back on.

18. When you use a desktop program to interface with Family Tree you will stay connected as long as you don't close the program. On the Family Tree you will be periodically logged out if you are inactive for even a short period of time.  Anyone that does research will need to step away for a few minutes to consult other resources, their research logs, or just analysis their findings.  Having to continually log back into Family Tree is very time consuming and frustrating and doesn't make for a good experience.

19. In a Desktop program you can choose colors, fonts, display styles for names, dates and places. You can set up your database to show in the way that will best assist you in your tasks.  An online application does not have that ability. 

20. Desktop programs provide a variety of "Dashboard" features for tracking your temple submissions and their progress. It's easier to determine who still needs their ordinances done and which have been completed. You can manage your temple cards and record which family members you have assigned them to. 

21. Desktop programs can help keep you in touch with living family members that are not interested right now in family history. It can be a great tool in planning family reunions.  You can determine very easily all the living descendants of a common ancestor. Most programs include a way to record contact information. You can also generate calendars showing family members birthdays and other special events. 

The Family Tree is a great tool, but it is just not there yet to replace the desktop programs.  Maybe in another 10 years the technology, bandwidth and computing power will evolve enough for it to do so.  For now, there is still a great need for the desktop programs. Family Tree and the desktop programs actually need each other.  The Family Tree helps by getting new people interested in working on their family history.  It's a starting point for them.  The desktop programs in turn receive new customers when the Family Tree users realize they need more features to help them manage their research efforts. This in turns helps them come to better conclusions in their research that then can be added back to the Family Tree. 

FamilySearch is doing a wonderful job by allowing third party affiliates (genealogy software programs) to interact with the Family Tree through their API. It bridges and brings the online experience within the desktop experience. You can have the best of both worlds together.  To learn more about the third party affiliate programs certified to sync with Family Tree check out the following link: https://familysearch.org/products

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day.

New FamilySearch 3rd Party Products Update

This past Friday (3 May 2013) FamilySearch removed the ability to do combines or separate in the NFS API. That means you can no longer combine or separate using a 3rd Party Affiliate Product.  This feature was turned off because of the damage combining and separating was doing to the FamilySearch Family Tree.

If you have the following products and version numbers you will no longer be able to do combines or separate using their New FamilySearch sync features.

Ancestral Quest 14.00.9 build date 20 Mar 2013 - current version
Ancestral Quest had turned off the combine feature when their latest version came out. To get around combining, since AQ doesn't yet sync with Family Tree, they have a unique method of launching your browser so you can do the actual merging instead on the Family Tree website. You still see the NFS results on your compare screens inside the program.  Ancestral Quest has not launched an update yet to work with FamilySearch Family Tree it is still NFS Certified - Tree Share only.  It is working on becoming FT Certified. My guess is this feature will be a free update to version 14. If you don't have the latest build of AQ you will want to update so you can at least launch your browser through the program so you can merge on FT.

Legacy Family Tree 7.5.0.219 build date 15 Feb 2013 - current version

The current version still only works with NFS. My gut tells me that Legacy will wait for version 8 to come out before they add the FT sync feature. Legacy 7 has been around way to long (since 2007) and people might not pay to upgrade if you put FT sync in version 7. At RootsTech I learned that Legacy 8 was coming out, but no clear indication of when. On the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) website they did announce Geoff Rasmussen will be teaching a Legacy 8 class at their annual conference (Jun 7-9, 2013). While at the UGA S. Davis Conference Apr 20th I asked a new guy behind the Legacy booth when version 8 was coming out and he said 3-4 weeks. So we are getting a small window on how soon Legacy 8 should appear.  Of course, what's planned and how beta testing goes on a new version can totally destroy any time frames.

RootsMagic 6.0.0.5 build 21 Feb 2013 - last version with NFS sync (current version 6.1.0.3 has FT sync)

If you have older versions of the software that synced with NFS you will no longer be able to do combines. RootsMagic released version 6.1 at RootsTech and it is FT Certified for Tree Share. It will work directly with FamilySearch Family Tree and you can do merges inside of the program. If you have version 6.0 you need to update to 6.1 it's free. If you have RM 4 or 5 it's time to upgrade to RM 6. RootsMagic 6 Essentials is the free version that will sync with Family Tree.

Real-Time Collaboration, Inc. - FamilyInsight and AncestorSplit

I don't know what the latest version of either program is. The website doesn't mention it either. It's been a long time since I  have seen FamilyInsight at any genealogy conferences. Rumor has it that FamilyInsight was not going to update the program to become Family Tree Certified.  We have to wait to see if that rumor is correct. As long as PAF is around there will be people that want to use FamilyInsight with it.

AncestorSplit was a great program that helped you split people that were combined incorrectly on New FamilySearch.  I used that program all the time. Now that feature is pretty much dead in the water.  I don't know if it can be resurrected to be applicable with Family Tree or not. My guess is that's programs gone now too.

Well that's all the news I have on the New FamilySearch front.  We all know NFS is going away and being replaced with FamilySearch Family Tree. Shutting off the ability to do combines and separate in NFS API has just help make the Family Tree much more stable. Won't we all breath a since of relief when this whole transition period is over.

If you want to follow when a 3rd Party Product becomes FT Certified go to this link: https://familysearch.org/products . The graphics are a little confusing. When the product because FT Certified it will have a small check mark to the left of their name.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!