Need your help with a file conversion

April 11, 2010 12:42 AM

Need help converting very old Family Tree Maker .ftm file to gedcom.

I guess by "help" I mean "can you do this for me?" My grandfather has done a lot of work using FTM 1.0 for DOS. I tried using the FTM free viewer (based on version 6) but it choked on the file size. I would like to have it in gedcom format so I can look at the various open source program options. So I was wondering if anyone with the newer versions (I think 9+) could run it through the conversion process for me? Thanks!

posted by cgk to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

See if a trial version of RootsMagic will read it.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:45 AM on April 11, 2010

Also, I'd email Ancestry.com support (I think they make Family Tree Maker?) and ask if they have any advice on converting data into gedcom format. You never know, they might surprise you with good help / advice.
posted by planetthoughtful at 5:17 AM on April 11, 2010

Best answer: Ancestry.com specifically addresses your question in this FAQ article - they suggest you download the free FTM 2005 starter edition (linked from the article) and use that to convert it to FTM 2005. I'm not sure if the starter edition can convert to gedcom or other formats, but that will at least get you a lot more recent version to start from with open-source tools that may read recent FTM files.
posted by pocams at 1:54 PM on April 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone. Pocams' suggestion worked smoothly, it read the FTM file and let me save in both the newer FTW format and GED as well. Hurray! I tried RootsMagic Joe, but no luck opening the file. Now to find a good free program to use with it (I opened the file in Genealogy J). Thanks again!
posted by cgk at 4:08 PM on April 11, 2010