From: G6JPG-255@255soft.uk   
      
   In message , Ruth Wilson   
    writes:   
   >   
   >snipped.   
   >   
   >> It is perfectly possible to have all your family trees on the one   
   >>database system.  But you must choose a system that allows you to   
   >>identify each tree (selections queries, flags, etc).  Then you must   
   >>get  the hang of creating reports for selections from you sole main   
   >>database.    And you probably also need a flag to show those with good   
   >>data and  those with speculative guesses: a score out of 5 would do   
   >>and you should  include the score needed for inclusion in each report   
   >>you are going to  make and send to others.   
   >>  I suppose I could go on for a long while on this but I have been   
   >>using  one program now for over twenty years.  It started as Reunion   
   >>on a PC  then became Generations on a PC then the owners abandoned it   
   >>but I could  still migrate the files to Reunion on a Mac and, with   
   >>continual support  and development, the program does virtually all   
   >>that I need and a bit  more besides.  I've tried other programs but   
   >>have never concluded that I  ought to migrate.   
   >>   
   >   
   >Thanks for the advice Tim. I have also been using one program (Brothers   
   >Keeper in my case, since the days when it ran on dos from floppy disks)   
   >for well over twenty years and wouldn't dream of using Ancestry or any   
   >other online commercial service as my main or one and only tree! This   
   >is one database for all the information on my own tree and now my   
   >husband's too. I don't know why I put it on Ancestry as split up -   
   >maybe privacy concerns?   
   >Ruth   
      
   Snap! I'm another BK user since floppy days. Incidentally, other poster   
   (Ruth: when you snip - snipping is good! - it's usually a good idea to   
   _not_ snip the "Fred said" lines): BK does have a quality rating for   
   sources of each bit of information: you can ascribe a value from 0   
   (unreliable) to 3 (primary). I presume _some_ other genealogy softwares   
   have a similar function. (BK's one has slight shortcoming - certain   
   events have more than one fact, for example "Born" has a date and a   
   place, and without creating two Born events, you can't show which source   
   gave which fact, if the facts came from different sources. Similarly if   
   forename and surname came from different sources. And thus ascribing   
   quality to the sources is also compromised. But it's a lot better than   
   nothing.)   
      
   I too wouldn't use Ancestry - or any other cloud site, commercial or   
   otherwise - as my main (let alone only!) repository for my data; it's   
   this computer, backed up on an external hard drive (and copied to my   
   brother's computer in another county, occasionally). If you've got over   
   whatever concerns - privacy or otherwise - that made you upload it to   
   Ancestry as two trees, just upload it again as one, and delete the other   
   two - or, especially if you've linked things to them (Ancestry's hints,   
   documents, yours or other people's photos), just leave them as   
   fixed-but-won't-update.   
      
   There's no way to transfer linked informations from one Ancestry tree -   
   created from an uploaded GeDCom - to another such, even if both were   
   created from the same dataset and thus have the same reference numbers.   
   If you persist in asking them how (and get a support person who dimly   
   understands what you are trying to do, and get the same person more than   
   once), they will eventually say you can start accepting hints for the   
   new tree. Yes, all hints for each of several events for thousands of   
   people, accepted one at a time - no, I don't think so.   
      
   Basically, if you want to develop your tree(s) on Ancestry, you've got   
   to drink their Kool-aid and do it online. Or, at the very least, use   
   _their_ software (Family Tree Maker I think it's called), which can   
   sync. with one of their online trees - but their commitment to that   
   software is negligible (they stopped developing it a year or more ago   
   for Windows, longer for Mac, with another company taking the Mac over;   
   that company finally took over the Windows version too, and Ancestry do   
   work with them at the moment, but would you rely on such a shaky   
   commitment?).   
   --   
   J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf   
      
   Reality television. It's eroding the ability of good scripted television to   
   survive. - Patrick Duffy in Radio Times 2-8 February 2013   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)