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A short time ago, during RootsTech 2018, MyHeritage.com announced a BETA test of their new Tree Sync program. See "New FamilySearch Tree Sync (beta) allows FamilySearch users to synchronize their family trees with MyHeritage." You can find a link to ask for a code to get a copy downloaded, but you need to signup for MyHeritage and have an LDS account.
I created a new Tree Sync family tree on MyHeritage.com and abandoned my old one. All I can say is "Wow." I already have over 6400 Record Matches for my "new" family tree. I have synchronized the MyHeritage.com family tree with the FamilySearch.org Family Tree one time now and I am working through adding sources to the MyHeritage.com family tree as fast as I can click. I am overwhelmed with the variety of the sources. My wife also set up a Tree Sync family tree and is equally absorbed in gathering new information about her family lines.
Granted, I have been adding sources to the FamilySearch.org Family Tree for a long time and have just about everything I can imagine but I am still making sure the sources are on my MyHeritage.com family tree. Here is a screenshot of a few of the categories of sources I am finding on MyHeritage.
I cannot imagine how much time it would take me to look up all these sources one at a time, even if I could ever imagine doing that. I decided to start adding them into the lines I am currently working on as far as that will go. I will continue working. Basically, I had stopped trying to keep up with MyHeritage because I knew that synchronization was likely coming. Now that it is here, I am very pleased with the opportunity to work all these sources and add them to the Family Tree.
What concerns me is that there is no chance to review what changes MyHeritage is going to make to FamilyTree before the synch happens. The synch is apparently automatic and you only get a report of what was changed after the synch is complete. It seems to me it would be much better to require users to individually approve each change to FT before the synch occurs. I have nightmares of MyHeritage making all kinds of changes to FT, many of which users may not have actually intended to make. Then, it's left up to all us FT users to try and fix the mess.
ReplyDeleteI will answer this comment in another blog post.
DeleteThere is a huge problem with this currently. People are syncing trees and hundreds of sources and information are lost in a single click and it can't be undone: https://getsatisfaction.com/familysearch/topics/myheritage-destructive-sync-feature
ReplyDeleteI have reviewed the comments and made my own comment. I find the comments full of misinformation and not based on any real use of MyHeritage or the Tree Sync Feature. I just wrote another blog post on the subject and will keep writing. I think my blog post addresses many of the concerns.
DeleteBy the way, there isn't a huge problem. As far as I can tell from using the Tree Sync feature for some time now, the only changes are those I myself make to my personal Tree Sync family tree on MyHeritage. If there are changes happening don't blame them on MyHeritage.
DeleteI did overstate the problem, however I am seeing problems with the tree sync. Look at record LR99-VW7. It used to be that this record had FamilySearch sources and now they are only online ones, which means that all of the record hints from FamilySearch have to be re-attached one at a time.
DeleteIn looking at this person on the FamilySearch Family Tree, apparently the user deleted all of the sources on his MyHeritage Family Tree and then must have synced his tree. I have people delete all my sources on the Family Tree from time to time, that is why I keep a copy of everything in another program, i.e. Ancestry, RootsMagic, Ancestral Quest, and now MyHeritage.
DeleteI will have more to say in posts on this blog as soon as I can get some time to write.
DeleteAt least that's how it appears to me on changing sources, it modifies them from how they were before so you lose the reasons for attaching the source. I use MyHeritage a lot for Danish research and have several trees there. I'm not sure how I feel about this syncing though if it can change the original sourcing so easily.
ReplyDeleteIn the example I listed, the source was removed by the user so that the record hint needs to be attached again. I don't see this as a big problem.
ReplyDeleteHowever the sync with MyHeritage does remove source citations and reasons for attaching a record from the sources, and it leaves only the title and URL. That is definitely a problem, especially in cases where URLs change, there will be no information available to track down the original source. They are working on fixing that part it sounds like. So I wouldn't encourage anyone to sync all of their ancestors from MyHeritage to the tree just yet until the sources are working properly lest information is lost in the sync that may be needed.
Sorry for all of my comments, just don't want false information to be out there since I made a mistake in what I said. Feel free to remove my comments if you like. The bug has been identified and syncing should be fine. Thanks!
ReplyDelete