General Chat

I am a complete idiot with all things 'computer' and OH has just told me I should save / back up my tree as I would be devastated to lose so much work. I haven't got a clue how to do this (and neither does OH) but I am hoping some clever person on here can explain in very SIMPLE terms how I go about doing this.

If you mean your tree on here, then you can download your tree, though you will need a programme that can read Gedcom files (a type of file that trees are saved on).
To do this, go into your account, on the left click on export Gedcom, and GR will send the file in an email within a day or so. You can save this file (I'd suggest keeping the email too) even if you can' t read it, and you can also import it to this site should your tree be lost for any reason, using the same method.

TeresaW,
I did mean my tree on here. Thanks for your help I will have a go at what you suggested but am a novice with computers.

Well you dont have to save your tree from here because its not stored on your computer.You access it via genes site. It you decide not renew your subs then yes you cant access it so you can save it to your PC as a PDF as Teresa has stated ,However it will only have the info as at the time you export that file.so you would need to redo it from time to time as you add new info onto Genes tree

Why dont you have another file like FTM you can then download your tree to that. on your PC
Family Tree Maker is very easy to use and not dear to buy,
I run both. and back up my FTM onto a memory stick every so often

I also have my tree on a free online programme called Tribal Pages which is the best back-up of my tree I've got. In fact I've got more people on that than I do on here, I've only got direct lines back here, on TP I have their siblings and marriages too.

Sadly my hard drive died so my FTM tree was lost, (silly me didn't back it up on an external drive). So I've got to start again with that.

Cath, Shirley is quite right, this is a web based program so your tree is not actually stored on your PC, there's really no need to back it up, GR do that themselves, so if anything should go wrong they will have the information there to restore. But...if you start ysing a program like FTM, then it's useful to download the gedcom onto that...will save you hours of work!

Like Teresa I have more too on my FTM program with siblings and their marriages etc. i have gone off tangent with branches when contacted by distant relations and "done" their tree too from a common ancestor ,
For instance i was contacted through another site by the son of a Canadian Home child who father although now passed didnt have much info on his family. His grandfather and my grt grt grandfather were brothers born in the 1850/60s mine was the elder by 20 years so almost another generation. I researched his grandfathers marriage and his wife's family etc and attached it to my FTM and then sent it to Canada as print out from our common ancestor born c 1722!.
I wouldn't put all that info on my Genes tree!. only have the bare bones on here.

Thank you both for your help. I'm very grateful. :-D
Will try and use FTM.