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Right now, we owe all these new developments to RootsMagic.com and MyHeritage.com for initiating a step that opens the door to a flood of new source information into the FamilySearch.org Family Tree.
Now, here are two blog posts by Susan Maxwell on her Granite Genealogy blog that you absolutely must read:
MyHeritage and RootsMagic Integration - My Experience
Mind you, this is just the start of what will prove to be amazing developments. I might caution the unwary however, this is heavy into file transfer computer stuff and my bewilder those with less developed computer skills. This is not a simple "point and click" solution.
Why is this an important development?
Since the introduction of FamilySearch.org's Family Tree, we have seen the importance of adding sources to our entries in the Family Tree. The main reason for adding sources is to begin the process of cleaning up the Family Tree. Adding sources also may become a deterrent factor to those who would make arbitrary changes to the data. Although this is not the case where the contributors are so inexperienced that they ignore notes, sources and everything else in the Family Tree and make blind changes based on name similarity alone. Of course, that is another issues and will have to be resolved through mentoring the Family Tree and by programming safeguards such as requiring a person to have a published email address and requiring a source for any changes.
This new development coming directly from RootsMagic.com opens a window to a way to more efficiently copy information and sources directly from both Ancestry.com's Public Member Family Trees and MyHeritage.com's Family Tree to the FamilySearch.org Family Tree. I expect that we will shortly see a lot of blog posts explaining and focusing the ways to best do this. I would also expect to see a lot more developments in this area from the developers and programmers.
For more information about adding sources in all of the different programs, see the following:
Joint Announcement Between MyHeritage network and RootsMagic software by Susan Maxwell
Why is this an important development?
Since the introduction of FamilySearch.org's Family Tree, we have seen the importance of adding sources to our entries in the Family Tree. The main reason for adding sources is to begin the process of cleaning up the Family Tree. Adding sources also may become a deterrent factor to those who would make arbitrary changes to the data. Although this is not the case where the contributors are so inexperienced that they ignore notes, sources and everything else in the Family Tree and make blind changes based on name similarity alone. Of course, that is another issues and will have to be resolved through mentoring the Family Tree and by programming safeguards such as requiring a person to have a published email address and requiring a source for any changes.
This new development coming directly from RootsMagic.com opens a window to a way to more efficiently copy information and sources directly from both Ancestry.com's Public Member Family Trees and MyHeritage.com's Family Tree to the FamilySearch.org Family Tree. I expect that we will shortly see a lot of blog posts explaining and focusing the ways to best do this. I would also expect to see a lot more developments in this area from the developers and programmers.
For more information about adding sources in all of the different programs, see the following:
Joint Announcement Between MyHeritage network and RootsMagic software by Susan Maxwell
This seems like an appropriate post to note an interesting observation.
ReplyDeleteI set up my LDS My Heritage account, uploaded a family tree to My Heritage, and let it work through its match process. Over 2000 record matches were found. Then I assigned my mother the job of going through each one, checking the source, and, if really a match, creating a citation for it in Family Tree.
As she e-mailed back progress notes, she reported that what she quickly found, was that the vast majority (dare I say over 90%?) of real matches with high quality sources were from Family Search historical record databases that have been shared with My Heritage. Not only that, but the sources that we had not already attached in Family Tree were almost always present as hints in Family Tree.
So while it sound great, and is something I am definitely going to look into after determining whether the Roots Magic bridge to Mac setup works well enough to be worthwhile, I do hope people realize that finding a Family Search source on My Heritage, transferring it to Roots Magic, then using Roots Magic to transfer it to Family Tree, is never going to as clean or as enduring as linking the source directly from the Family Search historical database record to Family Tree.
In other words, the proper workflow in working with My Heritage Record Matches would be:
I. Check the Record Match source to see if it is really your ancestor.
II. Check the source citation and see it My Heritage got if from Family Search or if a similar database exists in Family Search.
A. If so, find the same source in Family Search and use the source linker to attach it properly in Family Tree.
B. If not, add the source to Roots Magic then use Roots Magic to attach the source in Family Tree.
Very good observation. I would suggest starting with FamilySearch and then synching the sources to RootsMagic. Then you can tell if you already have the same record in FamilySearch.
DeleteThat is exactly what I do ! I have been building my families on FamilySearch as a beta tester for a long time now and I attached all sources up there. Then. sync with Roots Magic. I get the My Heritage Record matches, and when they find one I do not have, I go back to the drawing board at FamilySearch instead to attach them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment.
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