Moving from AGES to FamilyTree

Using AGES and looking for a program that is still maintained? FamilyTree opens your GEDCOM file as it is, keeps everything it does not understand, and only removes something when you ask it to.

FamilyTree has been tested on a real family tree of more than 3,200 people kept in AGES for years: after converting to GEDCOM 7 and opening it again, every person, family, photograph, note and identifier is still there, and two validators accept the file. The application speaks English and Dutch.

Four steps

Make a copy of your .ged file and the photo folder next to it. FamilyTree also keeps a .bak on every save, but a copy of your own first never hurts.
Install FamilyTree (download) and choose Openen… (Open) in the toolbar. If your version of AGES keeps its own database, export to GEDCOM first.
AGES leftovers: a banner at the top says how many there are. Choose Weghalen (remove) or Laten staan (keep) — see below.
Save. From then on the file is GEDCOM 7 (UTF-8). Just before that, FamilyTree puts a copy of your 5.5.1 file next to it, with -voor-gedcom7- and a timestamp in the name.

What happens to your file

In the AGES file	In FamilyTree
GEDCOM 5.5.1 in `ANSI` (Windows-1252)	Read as such; saved as GEDCOM 7, always UTF-8, so characters outside that set survive too.
`_TASK` records (to-do list)	These are validation warnings AGES generated itself, not your research. They are removed only if you ask. The Controle tab does the same job on your current data.
Empty `_MREL`/`_FREL` under children	Also removed only on request, together with the to-do list.
`_UID` per person	Kept (called `UID` in GEDCOM 7), and used as the key when merging two files.
`_STAT` on families	Kept.
Lines that break the grammar (a line break inside a source abbreviation, a leading space in a name, empty fields)	Put right when converting to GEDCOM 7: the line break becomes a line of its own, the leading space and the empty field go.
Every other tag FamilyTree does not know	Kept unchanged.
Paths to photographs	Absolute paths keep working. New photographs go into `images/` next to the file, with relative paths.

Then: tidy up

Places: the Plaatsen tab turns every spelling into one form, 8860 Lendelede, West-Vlaanderen, BELGIUM, with suggestions from a built-in gazetteer. After that they appear on the offline map.
Photographs: attach portraits, memorial cards and gravestones to people; on family photographs FamilyTree finds the faces.
Validation: children born before their parents, impossible ages, broken references.

Checking an old backup

Still have old AGES backups? Put one next to your current file on the Samenvoegen (merge) tab. The top of the page says straight away how many people are identical, how many differ and how many exist only in the backup — ancestors who once went missing by accident, for instance. Verslag bewaren en openen writes the whole overview to a text file without changing anything. If you do want to take something over, you tick it field by field.

Back to AGES?

FamilyTree saves in GEDCOM 7, which AGES does not read. The Export tab does make a GEDCOM 5.5.1 file; whether AGES reads it correctly is not something we test: the aim is to move on, not to run two programs side by side. The -voor-gedcom7- copy and your own copy always remain the original.

Download FamilyTree Manual