Today: Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Irish Genealogy SIG Meeting
10:00 AM in the Osceola Room at the Chula Vista Recreation Center
Tomorrow: Thursday, December 10, 2015
German Genealogy SIG Meeting
9:30 AM in the Reliance Room at the Late Miona Recreation CenterAncestry to Retire Family Tree Maker Software:
Ancestry.com
Editor's Note: I have been predicting this for the past several months and today I received the following from Ancestry.com.
"Dear Family Tree Maker™ community,
Ancestry is proud to have made a significant investment this year to bring valuable new content and records to the Ancestry site. In 2015, we’ve made 220 million searchable historical records from Mexico available, more than 170 million pages from the largest collection of U.S. will and probate records, among others. We’ve also introduced new features such as Ancestry Academy, and major advancements for AncestryDNA.
As we strive to provide our customers with the best experience possible, we are constantly evaluating our services and product offerings. True to this focus, we’ve taken a hard look at the declining desktop software market and the impact this has on being able to continue to provide new content, product enhancements and support that our users need. With that, we’ve made the tough decision to stop selling Family Tree Maker as of December 31, 2015.
We will continue to support existing Family Tree Maker owners at least through January 1, 2017. During this time, all features of the software, including TreeSync™ will continue to work. Our Member Services team will also remain available to assist with questions or issues you may have.
These changes are never easy. But by focusing our efforts, we can concentrate on continuing to build great products for our loyal Ancestry community.
You can find additional details about the retirement of Family Tree Maker on our blog.
VGS President Responds to the Ancestry.com Announcement:
VGS
" I share the displeasure expressed by so many people about the end of sales and the planned cessation of tree synching, and support for Family Tree Maker. As the President of The Villages Genealogical Society, with about 1,000 members, and the largest society in Florida, I am confident that all of our members share the concern dismay, and bewilderment of all those who have posted here before me. Although I personally do almost all of my work on Ancestry.com, I rely on Family Tree Maker to function as a backup which can be accessed completely independent of an internet connection. Also, its wide variety of genealogical reports cannot be reproduced on Ancestry, with the possible exception of a family group sheet. I know that Ancestry hasn't been able to "turn" sales of FTM the way they would like. Many of our members are using versions older than the most recent one. But the fact is, it's the utility of the desktop software that appeals to its users' not fancy bells and whistles added to drive upgrades. Remember, this is the same company which stopped marketing Y-DNA and mtDNA testing, subsequently removing the records from access by customers who had paid for the tests, and now says that we must accept the "new Ancestry.com", one that few, if any of us asked for. The overwhelming negative response to these abysmal business decisions speaks volumes. Genealogists, keep expressing your feelings. Ancestry.com needs to really appreciate the seriousness of the mistake they have made."
James R. Lannin Jr.
President
The Villages Genealogical Society
This Day In History: December 9
1863: Major General John G. Foster replaces Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside as Commander of the Department of Ohio.
1867: The capital of Colorado Territory is moved from Golden to Denver.
1908: A child labor bill passes in the German Reichstag, forbidding work for children under age 13.
1809 Birthday: William Barret Travis, commander of the Texas troops at the battle of the Alamo.
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