Have you had trouble installing FamilyTreeMaker?  I have really spent tons of hours with cable company, anti-virus company, server and software company to no avail.  I have been able to install and the Family Tree Maker people helped me transfer my tree from ancestry to fam tree mkr but I keep getting an error message "Authentication with Server Failed".  I can't register the software and get the free version of ancestry.com.  Any ideas?

As is the case with most of the others I use Family Tree Maker as my 'background framework'.  I want to caution you about sharing your personal info as you go along.  Sharing names of deceased ancestors is one thing but giving too much info on people that are living could put them in a position to be victims of identity theft.  If the aunts and uncles are gone and you know how to contact cousins ask if they remember anything about the family that the parents might have said.  My best info came from informal talks with my elders as I took notes.  I've done this since I was 10 yrs. old. I am 75 now.  I have used most of the sites referred to you and intend to check out the ones I haven't heard of before.  A lot of counties have a place either in the public library or at the county clerk's office where you can get a lot of info.  Some larger cities have one of their libraries that has most of the genealogy info.  Tax offices at the court house often have records of ownership of property.  You can get a lot of info from churches and county or city public education departments or they can tell you where to find the old records.  Some of the sites mentioned have copies of forms on their sites that you can copy or download.  If no form use sheets of lined paper.  Start with mother and father at the top and as you list the children leave space for their marriage info.  The county clerks office or church records will have birth (also hospitals) info. death, marriage and often where buried.  Also if the local newspaper has been there for a long time they will have obituaries which usually mention family members.  I have found it very interesting.  Actually some of these sites give you leads as to where to get info from the country of origin and often at none or very little cost.  Lobby Lady

Anoother port of entry site with passenger lists is Castle Garden.   You can find passengers here that didn't come through Ellis Island.   My grandmother came through Ellis Island, but my grandfather came through Canada from Norway so he wouldn't have shown in Ellis Island.

If you use ancestry.com you can scan the documents as pictures and upload them as pictures and attach them to a person in your tree.  That is if you have entered your data into ancestry.com first.  What I do is keep the documents with my people on Family tree maker.  I don't upload documents, only pictures. 

My difficulty is trying to keep Family Tree Maker and Ancestry in sync.  Generally I only use Ancestry to share my tree rather than for storage.  I just prefer to keep that on my computer which is my master.

Trudy

When posting to these various sites, example geneology or ancestory.com can you scan into them various documents to verify your records. I have birth, death, adoptions, naturalization papers, etc. to put with my records.  Enjoyed reading your informative article. Thank you Rita

Hello, I enjoyed reading your post and wrote down several of the geneology sites you are using, There is also Ellis Island, national archives and Find a Grave and Public Records Free Directory.  With Ellis Island there is a record of who came through there into this country as well as ships list. My Greatparents came from Austria and they are on one the ships list when signing on  to come to this country.  Mormon Church site also offers a great deal of info. I love doing geneology, it is fun and so addicting. Thank you.  Rita

Just putting in my 2 cents.  I've been using Family Tree Maker for many years and have the latest version.  I have mine integrated with Ancestry.com.  What this means is that Family Tree Maker will check Ancestry to see if there might be any records related to your relative.  This is indicated by a leaf on your relatives record on Family Tree Maker.

I also have posted my gedcom to both geneology.com and ancestry.com.  This helps to share with other people and gain more information.  One might even find a cousin.

The trouble I have is keeping Family Tree Maker and Ancestry in sync.  Right now I consider Family Tree Maker the master source.  I really don't like updating two sources.  However, in the past I have used Ancestry for their book publishing functionality. 

Trudy

Thank you all for your help!