Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Ancestry / RootsMagic - Tree not Searchable

I work from RootsMagic.
I click on the lightbulb and accept the hints.
I write the citations within RootsMagic.
I then use TreeShare to upload my changes to Ancestry.

All of my citations transfer to citations -- but -- are listed in the 'other citations' area. Even though they are based on those accepted hints, they are not listed as Ancestry citations. Below is a link to Judson Foster Crawford on my tree:

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/115166653/person/270137689801/facts

My tree (Crawford-Briles) has lots of sources attached.

Ancestry views my tree as having NO sources. Thus, it doesn't show in a search. [Try searching for Judson Foster Crawford died 1949 and look for the Crawford-Briles tree.]

Yes, this and the member connect issue are Ancestry issues.

BUT -- they wouldn't be occurring IF I didn't use the lightbulb to accept the hints.

Yes, I could avoid this issue by accepting the hints on the Ancestry side -- BUT
  • I lose control of the citation format
  • I lose control of where the media is stored
  • I lose control of how the media is named
Right now, I don't like my choices:
  • Continue my workflow realizing that my tree won't be searchable
  • Switch to accepting hints on Ancestry and lose control over citations and images
  • Quit using TreeShare so that I can have a searchable tree and control where the downloaded images go
I don't like any of those choices and am hoping that RootsMagic will work with Ancestry to resolve this.

7 comments:

  1. Hi Marcia,

    I know you commented on my post recently, but I tried to duplicate what you did, and mt RootsMagic source citations showed up on my Ancestry Tree. I didn't understand that the "Other Sources" do not trigger the search by other users on my AMT.

    You could use the RM WebHints for Ancestry and just "Accept" the ones that apply without adding the source and media to RM. But that's a pain to do for everyone.

    I agree with you that this is a problem for researchers like you and me, and perhaps RM can work with Ancestry somehow to fix it.

    Good find -- Randy

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  3. I think your problem is using your own citation and not the WebHint source citation with the embedded internal id. Without it Ancestry has no way of recognizing it as their own source.

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    1. Renee, Could you please explain that in MORE words. Thanks.

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  4. I finally figured out what Renee is referring to. When working hints from within RM, I have to check one of the boxes on the Ancestry side of the hint (date, place, etc.). Since I already had that information in my file, I wasn't checking those boxes.

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    1. But if I check a box on the Ancestry side, won't that cause some poorly-written Ancestry-style citation to be uploaded into my RM data?

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    2. Yes, Jim it will.

      Someone else pointed out a solution:

      Use Ancestry to locate sources
      Manually add the source to RM
      ON THE ANCESTRY side - click to accept the hint
      TreeShare -- Don't try to sync that event

      This method will not keep the two trees in 'sync'. However, it will allow the use of the lightbulb to see potential hints.

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