FTM & Ancestry What is Taking Place

We’re making updates that may impact your Family Tree Maker (FTM) experience. 

Starting in October 2014, Ancestry Web Search within Family Tree Maker software will have reduced functionality or may not be supported by Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista or Internet Explorer 8 or 9. 

Moving forward, Microsoft Windows 7 or 8 will be required for Ancestry Web Search functionality to work properly. 


Currently I use FTM 2010, 2012 and 2014, however I do not use Internet Explorer (I.E.) any version, TOO SLOW

I prefer to use Firefox & Chrome

A Look at The Ancestry Insider

I recently came across the following Blog and wish to share...it is amazing what goes on behind our keyboards as we Search Ancestry.com or on FamilySearch.org

The Ancestry Insider

The unofficial, unauthorized view of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. The Ancestry Insider reports on, defends, and constructively criticizes these two websites and associated topics. The author attempts to fairly and evenly support both.

Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: The Data Center

Ancestry.com Bloggers Day: Data Center Tour (Part 2)

a Blog of mine from Feb 2014 - Granite Mountain Genealogy Records Vault (LDS)

Updates of Ancestry Experience !

Ancestry is making updates that may impact your Ancestry experience.  

Certain features on Ancestry will have reduced functionality or may not be supported when using Internet Explorer 8 or 9.

Ancestry are making updates that may impact your Family Tree Maker experience. 

Starting in October 2014, Ancestry Web Search within Family Tree Maker software will have reduced functionality or may not be supported by Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista or Internet Explorer 8 or 9. Moving forward, Microsoft Windows 7 or 8 will be required for Ancestry Web Search functionality to work properly.

Recommended browsers for more information.

Family Tree Maker 2014 - Program Updates

Family Tree Maker 2014  32-bit and 64-bit editions

Genealogy Research Assistance

Note from Blog Author - If you are still using Windows XP (12 years old no longer supported by Microsoft) and Vista (released Jan 2007), you should look to upgrade to Windows 7 (released Oct 2009) or 8 (released Oct 2012) at the time of this writing, unknown when the support for Windows 7 or Windows 8 will come to a Support End, usefulness played out.

Eventually all Operating Systems will have an end date for Support and their usefulness.  Which leaves the End-User more vulnerable to Security Risks and Incompatibility with Newer Programs and Hardware.   Staying Updated of your Operating System, installed Software & Hardware, as well as Security Protection of your Choice with your Knowledge/Experience in Avoiding Risks is Utmost Beneficial with continued Computing  without Interruption or Downtime inconveniences and possible additional costs or theft of data, personal or otherwise.

911 Computer FirstAid  -  Windows Timeline

Sites Go Down 16 Jun - Ancestry/Rootsweb & Find A Grave

Due to DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack...today 20 Jun is Day 5, with issues continuing for users of FTM.  During this same week Facebook also took a dive and crashed...19 Jun Users lost access to their stored pictures, messages and contact details as they were greeted with the message: "Sorry, something went wrong"

Ancestry.com

June 16

We are currently experiencing some problems with the website. We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. 

UPDATE (3:15pm PST): Our team is still working on this issue that is affecting all of our sites. We will update you when we have more news to share.

UPDATE (4:27pm PST): The service remains unavailable - but please know we are focused on resolving the issue at hand.

UPDATE (5:55pm PST): We are still working on it.

UPDATE (8:05 pm PST): The web service remains unavailable at this time. 

UPDATE (9:40pm PST): Thank you again for your patience - we know how difficult this has been. The site is back online

Ancestry.com

June 17 

Around 1:30 p.m. MT on Monday, June 16, 2014, attackers targeted Ancestry with a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS). During the attack, Ancestry websites along with the Find A Grave website were clogged with massive amounts of bogus traffic that took the sites down.

We want to apologize for the inconvenience this has caused and also thank you for your amazing support, as this may have interrupted some of your family history research. We understand how frustrating this can be for our customers, and please know that it was just as frustrating for us too. We appreciate your patience and support as we dealt with this unfortunate incident against Ancestry.

We have since neutralized the DDoS attack and our services have been up since 11:00 a.m. MT today. You should now be able to access all Ancestry and Find A Grave websites, though you may experience issues intermittently as we continue to work through bringing the sites back up to full capacity.

Your data was not compromised by this attack. This attack overloaded our servers with massive amounts of traffic but did not impact or access the data within those servers. No data was impacted in any way.

I would like to thank the Ancestry Web Operations team for working really hard throughout the night to restore the Ancestry and Find A Grave services and build the defenses necessary to mitigate future attacks of this sort. Our Web Operations team is closely monitoring the situation in case the attacks resume and we’re doing everything in our power to protect our websites from situations like this in the future.

Thank you.

Scott Sorensen
Chief Technology Officer

Ancestry.com

June 18

If you are using Family Tree Maker (FTM), we recommend switching to manual sync until the service is fully restored. 

On the top right, click the sync icon, you will see the options there. This should resolve any instabilities related to it trying to sync with the online trees.

Ancestry.com

Yesterday  - 19 Jun

Post by Ancestry.com.  

Please note the Ancestry websites are still recovering from Monday's DDoS attack. Thank you for your patience as we work to restore them fully. For more info on the attack, please go here: https://www.facebook.com/Ancestry.com/posts/10152191148581630

UPDATE (Friday, 10:15am PST): There are no changes to report at this time. The team continues to work on the Family Tree Maker sync issues and bringing up the rest of our websites (MyFamily, MyCanvas, Rootsweb, etc). We understand how frustrating this is for you all. We expect to have another update this afternoon and will update as soon as any news is available. 

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Currently, the Ancestry websites seem to be performing well, but there may be intermittent issues over the next couple of days. If you are experiencing issues getting in, please try the search page directly at http://search.ancestry.com/ 

FindaGrave.com also seems to be doing well. 

Sync and search features in Family Tree Maker (FTM) have been disabled until we're certain that site stability has been fully restored. In the mean time, we recommend that that you work in 'offline' mode and that you do *not* try syncing your tree. 

Unfortunately, the MyCanvas.com website required additional work and has been taken offline. Our team is working around the clock to bring this site to full functionality along with several others like MyFamily.com and Rootsweb and we will provide updates as they are available.

Genealogy Research, it's value in Life

...for many has no cost in outweighing its individual worth to some researchers. 

We tend to be caught up in its magical powers of the unknown, who are we, were did we come from...really?

All of the hours, months & years of Research, not only by ourselves, but that of others in our Lineage pool, may prove what, to validate stories, add to the unknown, that we are descendants of, and how does it impact our future to know.

What if tomorrow never comes, what have we gained, left behind, for what is to be learned in the future, and if there is no future.

Find Out Who Your Ancestors Were

 I can be of Assistance and have assisted over 675 researchers since 2004 ... About Me

 or you can do it yourself

How to Find Out if Any of Your Ancestors Were Famous – or Infamous

www.howlifeworks.com

To All Genealogy Researchers

I am very glad that Genealogy Research has come as far as it has in the last few years, and to all those involved wanting to know their Lineage, that their Place in Life was because of those they Research, their Sacrifices, Commitment for a better Life and for their Families continues in the Hearts to wanting to know that Cycle of Life of their Ancestors.

May you find the answers you seek, even if they were not questions in the beginning, in your efforts, dedication, and long hours learning of the unknown.

May you find many rewards, sharing with those who follow in your footsteps unbeknownst to you, that they too will learn of and about you.

D.R. "Doc" Young

Genealogy Research & Assistance Joined Pinterest

Genealogy Research & Assistance Joined Pinterest

Granite Mountain Genealogy Records Vault (LDS)

In the News

Almost 50 years billions of pages of genealogical files have been stored in the LDS Church’s Granite Mountain Records Vault in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

The project is part of the church's genealogical work and is an attempt to further preserve and disseminate genealogical records, said Jay Verkler, president and CEO of FamilySearch, the genealogy arm of the LDS Church.

What would have taken more than 40 years if FamilySearch/LDS was to accomplish this task alone, a decade-long effort to convert microfilm rolls to digital files is underway at the huge underground storage facility (Granite Mountain), in a Joint Effort of FamilySearch, Ancestry, Find My Past and My Heritage will digitize, index and publish the records, making them available to the Public.

Mormon News Room

Eventually the vast majority of the collection will be available for online research

Note: this Link http://fsbeta.familysearch.org/ is not active as of 5 Feb 2014

Ancestry Blog - Ancestry.com Expands Groundbreaking Collaboration With FamilySearch

Ancestry and FamilySearch are in cahoots collaborating

Additional 1 Billion Global Records From 67 Countries to be Available on Ancestry.com has a long-term content strategy, which is committed to investing $100 million to digitize and index new content over the next five years.