Merriman / Merryman => Family Tree S/W advice ?? (Parish Records)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Friday, July 29, 2016, 18:33 (3031 days ago) @ Debbielakin

Thankyou so much for your reply whch is much appreciated and very helpful, i dont know the forest of dean and surrounding area at all but will plan to visit when i have more information that hopefully will help. ( i live in West Sussex) anything i can gleam from you all is wonderful !
as i have said im very new to this but have started my family tree on Ancestry, can someone explain how to use/buy/ the benefits of a family tree maker programme ? at the moment i am just using ancestry but feel that i should back this up but not sure the best way to do it.

No probs Debbie, we have visitors from all around the world, our Vurrister ancestors travelled far afield in search of work. In fact I have a link to West Sussex in my own tree, my Uncle (Richardson) was born in the FoD in Longhope, but his father was from Lewes before WW1, Longhope has a few old families with links to Sussex and Kent.

This site has plenty of useful pages to help you learn about the Forest's history, geography etc. Goto the "The Forest of Dean" heading within the blue banner across the top of the homepage and it gives a dropdown menu. Of particular help can be the maps section, particularly the Parishes Map,
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/joomla/forest-of-dean-parish-map

Regarding choosing software for your tree, it maybe worth looking on Amazon etc, and reading the various reviews written by buyers of the offerings on there. Also of course you get an idea of choice, cost, etc. Until fairly recently Ancestry had their own "Family Tree Maker" software, which may be what you're referring to, but they've dropped that now, altho it's still available under new ownership.
https://www.mackiev.com/familytreemaker/ftm3/faq.html

As suggested earlier, searching this forum can help you, these posts may help you;
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?mode=thread&id=43104
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=17953

This recent article may help you, from the "Who Do You Think You Are ?" monthly magazine
http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/news/find-out-which-family-tree-builder-best...

I must say it's interesting that you've just started using Ancestry; many of us have been using it for years, and some are rather unimpressed with their current "new improved look" of their trees etc and are also looking to move them, but trickier as we have huge trees already on the Ancestry site which, potentially, could possibly be "lost" at any moment (I've learnt thro bitter experience to never trust electrickery !, ALWAYS have a back-up).
If you look on Ancestry they tell you how to download your tree onto your pc etc, which you can then keep as a security back-up, or transfer to other tree softwares or websites. It's quite easy to do and uses a dedicated FH system called GEDCOM.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEDCOM
I see it was created by "LDS" aka the "FamilySearch" website, I believe they've recently introduced their own online tree service ?

Hope this helps, J