About us
Independent help for Family Tree Maker users
Ancient Family Roots is a small, independent support service for people who use Family Tree Maker. We write free troubleshooting guides, and when a guide isn't enough we fix the problem with you on a screen-share. We are not Family Tree Maker's publisher, we don't pretend to be, and we'll tell you plainly when your problem belongs to them rather than to us.
Why this site exists
Genealogy software problems have a particular quality to them. When a spreadsheet won't open it's annoying. When a tree file won't open, thirty years of research is on the other side of that error message — letters written to distant relatives, afternoons in record offices, photographs nobody else in the family has a copy of. It isn't replaceable, and people know it.
What's available when that happens is thin. The publisher's support centre is genuinely useful but documents the software rather than your situation. General computer repair shops don't know Family Tree Maker. And a search for help surfaces a row of sites with names almost identical to the product's, no named author, no disclosure of who runs them, and a phone number pushed at you before you've read a sentence.
This site is the alternative: guides detailed enough to actually work, written by people who repair these files regularly, with the commercial part kept honest and out of the way.
Who writes these guides
[TO ADD — real details go here.] This section should name the lead technician, state genuine years of experience, list any genealogical society membership or technical qualifications, and carry a real photograph. Do not invent any of it. A named human with a verifiable background is the single strongest trust signal this site can carry, and the main thing separating it from the brand-squat sites.
What we help with
Our work is the software, not the genealogy. We won't research your ancestors for you — there are professional genealogists who do that well, and we're not them. What we do is get the program working and your data safe.
| We help with | We don't |
|---|---|
| Damaged and unopenable tree files | Researching your family history for you |
| Sync failures between Family Tree Maker and Ancestry | Anything about your Ancestry subscription or billing |
| Missing media and broken photo links | Licence keys, purchases and refunds |
| Installation and startup failures | Pirated or unlicensed copies of the software |
| Duplicate people and messy trees | General computer repair unrelated to genealogy |
| Moving your tree between programs or computers | Work we can't do well — we'll say so and refer you on |
| Learning the software properly, at your pace | Anything requiring your account password |
Anything in the right-hand column that belongs to the publisher, we'll point you to the publisher's support centre — every time, without trying to keep you here first.
What we will never do
Third-party support for well-known software has a bad reputation, and it was earned. So here are our limits in writing, on a page you can point back at.
We will never ask for your Ancestry password. Not by email, not on the phone, not during a session. Sessions are screen-share only — you stay signed in at your own computer and type any password yourself, out of view. You can end the session at any moment, and nothing continues running afterwards.
- We won't claim to be the publisher. Family Tree Maker is the publisher's product. We're independent, and every page on this site says so above the fold.
- We won't manufacture urgency. No countdown timers, no warnings that your data is about to be destroyed, no flashing phone banners. If your situation genuinely is urgent — a failing drive, say — we'll tell you calmly and explain why.
- We won't spring a price on you. Every job is quoted before it starts, in writing, and you can walk away at that point owing nothing. There is never a charge for asking.
- We won't take payment for work we can't do. If we can't solve it, you don't pay.
- We won't handle your billing or licensing. Those go to the publisher, with a real link, every time.
- We won't touch anything without a backup first. The first step of every repair session is securing a copy of your file.
This is a remote-only service
We work with people all over the United States and beyond, entirely by screen-share. Nobody visits your home. There's no local branch, no van, and no engineer at your door — and we'd rather say that here than let you discover it after booking.
In practice remote work suits this problem well. Almost everything that goes wrong with Family Tree Maker is fixable on the screen in front of you, and a session that could have been a two-hour round trip becomes thirty minutes at a time that suits you.
[TO ADD — operational facts go here.] State the country the business operates from, the support hours in US time zones, and the reply window you can actually meet. Disclosing where you're based is a trust signal, not a liability; concealing it and being found out is the liability.
How a session works
Three steps, no software to install, and you're in control throughout.
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Tell us what's wrong. Describe the problem in a sentence or two and pick a time. If we don't think we can help, we'll say so before you pay anything.
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Share your screen. You'll get a link that opens in your browser — nothing to download. You share your screen, we talk you through it, and you can stop at any moment.
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Leave with it working. We fix the problem, show you what caused it, and set up a backup so it doesn't happen again. You get a written summary afterwards.
Got a problem right now?
Start with the free guides — most people find their answer there. If not, we're here.
Frequently asked questions
Are you Family Tree Maker's official support team?
No. Family Tree Maker is published by its own software company, who run their own free support centre. Ancient Family Roots is entirely independent, with no affiliation, endorsement or sponsorship from Software MacKiev, Ancestry.com or Broderbund. Licence, purchase, subscription and billing questions should go to the publisher directly.
Will you ever ask for my Ancestry password?
No — and no legitimate support service will. Sessions are screen-share only: you stay signed in at your own computer and type any password yourself, out of view. We never ask for credentials by email, by phone, or during a session, and you can end the session whenever you like.
Do you visit customers in person?
No. This is a remote-only service delivered by screen-share. We state that plainly rather than hiding it, because a service that implies it might turn up at your door and then doesn't is worse than one that was clear from the start.
Why are your troubleshooting guides free?
Because most Family Tree Maker problems are genuinely solvable at home once somebody explains the right steps in the right order. The guides carry no advertising and are meant to be useful on their own. If a guide isn't enough, a paid session is there — and if it is enough, that's a good outcome too.
What happens if you cannot fix my problem?
You don't pay. If the problem turns out to be a fault in the software itself, or something only the publisher can resolve such as a licence or subscription, we'll tell you and point you to the right place rather than charging for time that can't help you.