Using Ancestry with other software

I use family tree maker, I really like it and have been using it for years, I actually use it for my main tree storage and organization. It also has a tree sync feature with ancestry as of ftm2010 or abouts. I have also just recently bought TNG, it is similar to gramps in that it used a database to store you info.

I do something similar, except that I use TMG, and have since the DOS days. I have half a dozen different projects under way and I maintain skeletal information at Ancestry (which I have subscribed to for years) to aid in doing research, mostly census stuff.

But I have a great deal of other info in TMG, stuff gleaned from local histories, courthouse documents I've copied in person, and other sources that aren't available at Ancestry.

I have probably 100 lbs of photocopies filed away at home (been doing this a long time . . .), but over the past few years, all of that has been scanned and copied to my laptop. Absolutely everything in the way of genealogical information in my possession is on that laptop -- and backed up to the cloud via Carbonite. No matter what I'm working on, no matter where I'm headed, I can grab my laptop and know that everything I know is on there.

I use Gramps as my primary database (and I love it!) and I keep a skeleton in Ancestry like you do.

And like you too, I do keep incorrect branches and information in my tree (at least in Gramps) and actually, I do keep them connected. I just note that they're wrong. In the past there have been more than one occasion when I painstakingly reevaluated the same wrong information because I didn't keep proper notes about individuals or facts that I had ruled out and in some cases completely forgot that I had ruled it out before until some trail led me back somewhere I remembered.

So my philosophy is keep everything and source everything. Eventually, sometimes you'll even track down the original source of misinformation that has propagated through other sources.

In Ancestry, generally I keep my best guess as to what is correct so that I don't have hints for people I know I'm not connected to. I never copy stuff from other people's trees directly into mine. I only link them when I have otherwise completely processed the sources they have cited.

And actually, the way that I work, I think is different than a lot of people's... I think a lot of genealogists tend to work on individuals -- i.e. trying to fill out at least the basics of individuals before moving on to others. My work is completely source driven. I'll take a source (like a census page say) and enter all the details from that source into my tree regardless of perceived accuracy or detail. If it matches other facts I already have, I add it to that fact as a source. And then I move on to the next source. Which means, for instance, there are lots of people in my tree with just a single fact like "birth country" and nothing else. A year down the road, I might add another bit of information to them.

I think it frustrates people that look at my tree, but at least I'm confident that everything in it has a source that I can track back to and I know that once I've processed a source/document I won't ever need to go back to it for another tidbit. It's done, it can be file and then just pulled up when necessary.

I use ancestry and roots freeware

Family Tree Maker (FTM) is fantastic. Sure, it has it's annoying quirks, but I've tried a LOT of other software and I keep coming back to FTM.

If don't want to be tied to Ancestry, you should download all your media (images, scans etc.) and backup you GEDCOM after every session.