TreeShare and Sources

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to handle Ancestry hints, TreeShare and sources.

I have a fairly well sourced database that includes a lot of census research. Some of that census research dates back to the microfilm days. I tried to use the standards of the time to write citations for the data. My original citations would have been written in PAF as a NOTE. Some of those citations still exist in my current data. When I transferred from PAF to The Master Genealogist, I tried to go back thru my file and convert those NOTEs to facts. In the process, I also started using one of the citations templates provided by TMG: Richard Lackey's Cite Your Sources (c1980). Since the Master Genealogist community promoted the use of Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence! Citation Analysis for the Family Historian, I switched to that set of templates for my sources.

When my data was transferred from TMG to RootsMagic, I also participated in Thomas McEntee's Genealogy Do-Over. In the process, I soon realized that my source citations were not detailed enough and definitely short of the current standards. I also realized that when possible, I needed to add images of the source to the citation. Thus, I started working my way back thru my tree to update those older citations using Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained.

I was thrilled when RootsMagic announced they would develop the ability to sync my data between my RootsMagic database and Ancestry. Thus, I volunteered as a beta tester. From my experiences as a beta tester, I knew that I had to select either my Ancestry tree or my RM database. I also knew that there was an issue with at least one image in my database since uploading my entire database with images never completed. Thus, when TreeShare was released, I uploaded my RM database without images to Ancestry.

I recently discovered an issue with the way I was using TreeShare to accept the hints -- especially in regards to the sourcing of the events. Unfortunately, this issue affects the way my tree is handled by Ancestry.

To explain what is going on, I'm going to use the 1900 census event for Paul Emory Mentzer in my Crawford-Briles tree on Ancestry. All of my RootsMagic sources transferred to Ancestry but are listed under 'Other Sources'.

UPDATE - Tree Not Searchable (Ancestry / RootsMagic)

The verdict is in! 

 I need to accept hints on Ancestry in order for my tree to become searchable.

Ironically, my DNA 'shared matches' list was working even though I was accepting the hints on RootsMagic and not on Ancestry!

Not only do I have shared Ancestry hints and circles but the list of hints and circles has been growing.

Thus, I didn't think there was an issue with the way I was using RootsMagic!



Now, that I'm aware of the issue, I'm going to change my workflow.

• Accept valid hint on Ancestry
• Use RootsMagic to source that hint and manually add the image (as I was doing prior to TreeShare)
• Ignore pink sources and media on TreeShare

 In the meantime, I'm going back thru my 5 generation pedigree and

• Clicking confirmed sources and changing them to undecided within RootsMagic
• Accepting those sources on Ancestry

 Now, I wait for Ancestry indexing to pick up my tree.

I would like to thank the RootsMagic community (both Facebook and RootsMagic Forums) for helping me work thru this issue.

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.

Land on Sugar Creek / Mary Crawford

Mary Crawford purchased land from Richard Cave in 1791. Below is a transcription of that deed.

Crawford Research: Which James Is Which?

My ancestor, James Crawford, died in Preble County, Ohio in 1854. In 1821, he sold a piece of land to Wm Sellers. This Preble County Deed (Book 5, page 87), identifies the seller as James Crawford Junr and indicates that James was from Preble County, Ohio. The deed is signed by James Crawford and Sally Crawford. Sally's signature is significant since it identifies my James Crawford and not another James Crawford living in Preble County at the time.

DNA and NodeXL

The Facebook group, Genetic Genealogy Tips and Techniques, has provided lots of opportunities to learn how to use my DNA results to support my research -- and to break thru brick walls. Recently, Shelley Crawford has been posting links to her blog posts detailing how to use NodeXL and Microsoft Excel to find DNA connections. Yesterday, I followed the steps in her post, Visualizing Ancestry DNA Part 2 - Loading the Files. With my first attempt, I downloaded all of my matches and worked my way thru the instructions to get a 'blob'. I went back and rechecked my 'alternate' file to make sure I was skipping my siblings, my mother and 1st cousins (once removed). It took a while for the graph to appear but it was still a blob.

So, I started over and downloaded my matches for 4th cousins or closer. After creating a new file and again making sure the 'skip' information was included, I still had a blob -- just less dense.

Knowing this wasn't what it was supposed to look like, I dug thru her posts and the comments to discover that this whole process is more difficult with lots of data. One suggestion was to change the way the data was grouped. So I decided to try 'grouping by cluster'. That seemed to help since it separated the 'blobs'.

Even though it was still hard to visualize a DNA circle with the above graph, it was possible to click on a dot and see how that one dot was related to other dots (red lines). After some playing around, I figured out that the dark blue dots in the upper left contained a lot of my BRILES matches. So I'm wondering whether I can isolate certain branches of my tree by 'skipping' known matches from other branches of my tree.

Experiment #1: Isolating CRAWFORD line

• Sort Vertices by shared CM from largest to smallest
• Using data in 'notes', enter 'skip' in visibility field for known matches to other lines thru 150 matches
• Save file different name
• Refresh graph

 Group by Cluster

Unfortunately, that didn't clear out enough data to make it easy to see the 'circles'.

Since my experimentation (playing around) didn't produce a graph anything close to the example, I'm going to give up for now and wait for the next blog post of suggestions.