More on RootsMagic and MyHeritage Links

I wrote RootsMagic Adds MyHeritage Matching Technologies for Powerful Automatic Research Capabilities on 25 November 2014 and  RootsMagic 7 is Now Available - with WebHints (FamilySearch and MyHeritage) on 26 November 2014.

I received an email from Mark Olsen of MyHeritage on the day I left on the Heritage Books cruise with additional information about the MyHeritage part of the collaboration and want to publish it here so that I have the right information:

His note concerned this paragraph in my blog post:

"Note that you need to have a MyHeritage data subscription and a MyHeritage tree (and a tree subscription also if you have a large tree), and be registered with FamilySearch (free) in order to use the RootsMagic WebHints effectively.  You will have to be logged into the two sites in order to obtain the WebHints."

Mark's comments:

"A MyHeritage tree, plan or being logged in is not required to view the webhints.  Also the Data Plan is only required to enable full access to all matches. For example you can still view partial details from the record for a match, but to drill down and see the full record, you'll need the subscription.  

"Some of our collections are free in which case the only thing required is a RootsMagic Tree with some webhints. In order to gain full access to all Record and Smart matches from MyHeritage a Data Subscription is required, but not a MyHeritage tree.

"Also, extracting information from records automatically is something we're working on, but in the meantime people should extract manually. Confirming the match won't add the information to the tree profile."

Apparently, if I have a person in my RootsMagic database ("tree"), who is not in my MyHeritage online tree, that I can still see WebHints for that person because the program sends the information for the person in my RootsMagic database to MyHeritage and MyHeritage searches for records for the person.

I tried this out with a person recently added to my RootsMagic database who is not in my MyHeritage tree.  Here is the result:

1)  I recently added Catherine Redden (1904-1986) to my RootsMagic database.  She is NOT in my MyHeritage online family tree (I checked!).

Here she is in my database, and I clicked on the WebHints icon (the yellow light bulb) to see:

As you can see, there is one WebHint for Catherine Redden.

2)  I clicked on the "Pending" link in the WebHints window and saw the Search results on MyHeritage (where I do have a Data and a Tree subscription):

Even though Catherine Redden was not in my MyHeritage family tree, the program quickly searched the available databases for her and found the Social Security Death Index.  The information on the left-hand side of the screen above came from the RootsMagic database.

3)  Note that there is not yet a link to add Catherine Redden as a new person to my MyHeritage database - I hope that MyHeritage will consider adding that capability to their website soon.  It would be an excellent way to enable users to add information to their MyHeritage tree without entering the information manually.

4)  I have a problem with RootsMagic taking a long time to respond when the WebHints are turned on.  It often takes 10 to 20 seconds for the RootsMagic screen to become active again after I've worked on WebHints.  I hope that RootsMagic will improve that issue.  With WebHints turned off, I can switch to another view or person very quickly in my database.

5)  Thank you to Mark Olsen of MyHeritage for clarifying the need for a data subscription and/or a MyHeritage tree subscription.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/12/more-on-rootsmagic-and-myheritage-links.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver