Media Issues

Have you seen DearMyrtle's challenge?

When I first saw the challenge, I thought I should be in pretty good shape. After all, I scanned the family photos and attached them in my The Master Genealogist software several years ago. Since I've worked my way thru 5 generations of data review, I figured I should be set.

That was until yesterday when I was verifying descendants for a thru-lines DNA match on Ancestry. As I was working with a known first cousin twice removed, I decided to check FamilySearch to see if there were any additional sources attached to this cousin.

To my surprise, I found a slightly different set of parents than expected. I expected to find John Frederick Mentzer and Anna Wells Mentzer as the parents of a family of 8 children, including Mildred Mabel Mentzer. Instead, I found Fred Mentzer and Anna Wells Mentzer as the parents of one child, Mildred Mentzer. After digging thru my Mentzer records to verify that John and Anna did have a daughter named Mildred and that said daughter was married to a VanValkenburg, I merged Mildred and the two sets of parents.

Knowing that someone could object to this merger and undo the merge, I wanted to add supporting documentation to support the merge. Thus, I (thought I) added an image of the obituary for Fred Mentzer. The obituary clearly indicated that Fred Mentzer was also known as John Frederick Mentzer. It also listed the children and their residency at the time of Fred's death. I also added a page from a Woodson County Historical Society publication that included a picture of the family when the children were young and a list of the children and their spouses.

Since my attempt to create an image of the obituary from a PDF file, did not include the entire obituary that attempt was a failure. Thankfully, I discovered the problem and have since uploaded an image showing the entire obituary.

Besides the images, I transferred 9 source records from my RootsMagic program to FamilySearch for John F. Mentzer. However, it is the images that connect the John F. Mentzer of Woodson County, Kansas to Mabel VanValkenburg of California.

Thus, I've been thinking about DearMyrtle's challenge and this experience with FamilySearch. Although I do some work with the FamilySearch tree, I primarily share my work via my Ancestry tree, Heartland Genealogy, and via my RootsMagic site. Thus, I was curious whether the images I have tagged in my RM database transferred to my Ancestry tree and/or my RootsMagic site.

What I discovered is that some but nowhere near all images have been uploaded to either location. I've also discovered that if I have already uploaded a source to Ancestry, any changes to that source are not uploaded to Ancestry. In other words, if I go back and add an image to a source, that isn't seen as a change. Thus, the option to update the source is not present.

IN addition, I discovered that I have been lax in working with images in RootsMagic. I have tried to add an image or pdf file to my sources. For some reason, I was apparently assuming that the image was also being attached to the event and person. The lack of green check marks in the camera column proves that I was making an incorrect assumption.

Knowing that I obviously needed help with images, I'm re-watching the video: Pictures and Media in RootsMagic.

So, I obviously have work to do!

My plan of action is slightly different from DearMyrtle's.

• Work with one ancestral couple at a time
• Verify that I have images attached to sources
• When appropriate, attach an image to an event
• Verify that I have photographs (already scanned and on my computer) attached to the individual with one photo selected as the primary image
• Verify 'Scrapbook' report contents
• Run RootsMagic's TreeShare to update my Ancestry Tree
• Download any photographs I've saved on Ancestry and attach to RM tree
• Use RM's ability to connect to the FamilySearch tree to upload sources to FS
• Upload images to the 'Memories' section of FamilySearch
• Verify that notes exist for an event and copy/paste into the NOTES on Ancestry.
• Work thru the children of the ancestral couple, repeating the above steps

Thanks to Cary Bright who shared a checklist on DearMyrtle's challenge, I can follow her lead and create my own checklist.

So, why am I going back over work I've already done (again)?

• Improve accuracy of the data in my tree
• Improve ability to connect with DNA matches
• Improve quality of FamilySearch tree by sharing sources and images
• Preserve images by having them on Ancestry and FamilySearch
• Connect with other researchers

Join me and others in this challenge to update images! 

Another example of why a genealogists work is never done!