Ancestral Quest - starting from scratch

So you have decided to get a copy (free or paid) of Ancestral Quest and now where do you start? Or how do you even go about starting. Here are some tips.

For those who may not know, Ancestral Quest is an application for your desktop/laptop windows or applemac computer. It will keep a copy of your own personal tree where-ever you tell it to store it. Either in a folder on your computer or on a folder in some cloud. Up to you although if you go cloud it may pay you to backup on your desktop.

It comes with both a free and a paid version. The free, basic, version does everything most people need with a few extras that you only get when you buy a copy. As it is easy to convert from free to paid I suggest start with a free version and then upgrade when / if the need arises.

1. Download a copy of Ancestral Quest and install it on your computer.

https://www.ancquest.com/index.htm

2. Once installed, run the application and create a new family file. You will need to decide on a name and a place where to store it.

3. Open the new file and import the gedcom file which you would have created either via another application you may have - such as PAV or via Ancestry or via FamilySearch - where ever you have been storing your family tree up until now. If it is a paper tree then skip this step and simply start adding your family to Ancestral Quest.

4. Whichever way you choose to go ... it is now important to make sure you keep this new tree in sync with the tree you store online, especially FamilySearch.

If the gedcom file you used to create your tree is quite a lot different to what you already have on FamilySearch then you will need to get them in sync. This is a slow process and has to done one family at a time. I will create another blog entry on how I sync across my trees.

Some people prefer RootsMagic. I personally like Ancestral Quest. If you are on an apple mac then Reunion is another option. Research I carried out between Rootsmagic and Ancestral Quest had Acenstral quest come slightly ahead. As this is mainly a blog about how I either helped others or myself to get unstuck I am starting with the tools I had to use to achieve this and no doubt will add other software options as I come across them.