What I was wondering, is I found another person's tree in here that has all the information about a branch of my family back into the 1400s and then down. Do I have to personally go through and copy each person to my family tree as I have been doing right now, or is there a faster way and then I can look through everyone. It would save me a boatload of time if there was an option either on FTM 2009 or on the website.

Also, is there a way to update my family tree on Ancestry.com with Family Tree Maker 2009, rather than uploading a totally new tree and then deleteing the old and inviting everyone from the old tree to the new tree? Any help with these two questions are appreciated. Thanks!

My advice would be that you shouldn't copy anything at all into you tree until you have personally checked the sources cited- assuming there are any sources.

Once you have verified that the particular person belongs in your tree then- and only then-should they be added to your tree citing the sources *you* saw.

Never-EVER- take what any tree shows as truth until you have researched each individual yourself.

Any other method only leads to a junkology tree filled with duplicates.

Genealogy is *much* more than just adding names to a tree- it includes actual research BEFORE adding anyone to anything.

Oh, I agree with Andy on this. I guess it depends on whether you want quantity or quality. You can merge lots and lots of people with similar surnames and have lots and lots of names but you won't have any quality there or any legitimacy. As far as the tree going back to the 1400's, how do you know that tree is correct? If you have done no research at all, you are just taking info from someone else who very likely just merged that info from someone else who also got it from someone else and so on and on but very little if any sources or verification. Proving info back into the 1400's is very difficult and extremely iffy to say the least. Even manually copying that info without doing research is not at all good. My advice is to take it very, very slowly. Do your due diligence and do not add names and dates that you cannot do some sort of research on. You will be glad in the long run that you created a genealogy tree to be proud of. Good luck.

If you care at all about genealogical accuracy, do not download a gedcom from WorldConnect or whatever site to merge with your tree.

Know that practically no vital English records exist before 1583, and material purporting to be back to 1400s or earlier, from whatever country, are very suspect.

The advice to not add it unless the site gives 'source' was rather hastily stated. Anyone can circulate falsehoods in trees, gedcom files, emails, web sites of many types. Many books have been published with **totally fictional** genealogies that have been endlessly copied into trees on the web.

No genealogical program, incuding FTM 2009 will allow just partial over-writing of your tree. It is total replacement or add a newly-named tree. For more on what FTM will do, including details on differences between various versions, do internet search for reviews & discussion, especially by some well-known genealogical bloggers, and check the discussions under topics/genealogical software on these message boards.