Tuesday, February 8, 2011

FTM 2011 Citations Uploaded Directly to Ancestry.com

One of the issues I was concerned about in the ongoing Seaver Source Citation Saga is "Will Template Sources be mangled when uploaded to Ancestry.com Member Trees?"   The question really needs to be separated into two parts - with a direct upload from Family Tree Maker 2011, and from a GEDCOM file from, say, RootsMagic 4.

To answer the first question:  In Family Tree Maker 2011, I already had a "clean" "Free-form" source for Isaac Seaver's birth record (from the Westminster, Massachusetts Vital Record book. I also created a Template Source citation for Isaac Seaver's birth record in a Basic Book format. 

From Family Tree Maker 2011, I clicked on the "Share" button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.  The first option is to "Upload to Ancestry."  I clicked on that and saw:


I checked the right boxes, and clicked on "OK."  Ancestry.com opened with:


I added the database name, unclicked the Public Member Tree option, and clicked on the terms acceptance box, and clicked on  the orange "Upload" button.

The one-person file uploaded very quickly!  I opened the new Family Tree, navigated to Isaac Seaver's page, and saw:



All of the Facts and Media in the file are there.  The Birth Fact above has two sources noted, so I clicked on the "Facts and Sources" tab and saw:


I then clicked on each of the two Source citation links for the Birth Fact.  Here is the so-called Template Source citation screen (after clicking on the "View Source Details" link):


On this screen, the entries in the fields are:

* Title:  Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 [template]
*  Author: [empty]
*  Publisher: [empty]
*  Publisher Location: [empty]
*  Publisher Date: [empty]
*  Call Number: [empty]
*  Notes:  Systematic History Fund. Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849. Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908.

The "Title" field shows the title of the Source, which includes author and title and the word "[Template]" which I added to distinguish it from the Free-form source).  The Author, Publisher, Publisher Location, Publication Date, and Call Number fields are empty, even though I had entries in all of the fields except the Call Number.  A Footnote-style citation is in the "Notes" section, and reflects the Footnote created by the Basic Book format template in Family Tree Maker 2011. 

The Family Tree Maker 2011 Template Source citation has the book title italicized. In the Notes section, the corresponding  Ancestry Member Tree citation above does not include the italicized information.  In the "Notes" field, which I assume is the entire "Footnote," the Publication data is not enclosed in parentheses.  Therefore, it doesn't conform to Evidence! Explained models for Book citation.
Here is the "Free-form" Source screen in ancestry for the same reference book source (but without the word "[Template]" in the title):


On this screen, the entries in the fields are:

* Title:  Systematic History Fund, Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849
*  Author: Systematic History Fund
*  Publisher: Name: Name: Worcester, Mass., F.P. Rice, 1908;;
*  Publisher Location: [empty]
*  Publisher Date: [empty]
*  Call Number: [empty]
*  Notes:  Systematic History Fund. Vital Records of Westminster, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849. Worcester, Mass.: F.P. Rice, 1908.

The Free-form Source citation in Ancestry.com actually puts information into the correct fields (note - I had all of the publication information in the Publisher's Name field in the FTM 2011 citation template).  However, the extraneous "Name: Name:" words and the ";;" punctuation at the end of the Publisher are included, but are not in the Free-form Source citation in Family Tree Maker 2011. 

The final Source Citation in Ancestry.com for the Free-form citation has the same problem with the Publication data in the "Notes" field - it should have parentheses around that information.  It has no extraneous information, but it does not have the italicized title.

It looks like the answer to my question posed at the top of this post is:

"NO.  The Template Source citation created in Family Tree Maker 2011 do not translate directly into Sources in Ancestry Member Trees, but they are not "mangled."  The information does not enter the Ancestry.com Source fields, the Title is not italicized, the Publication information is not in parentheses, but the Footnote comes out fairly well."

What will RootsMagic 4 Template and Free-form Source citations look like in an Ancestry Member Tree?  I'll have to use a GEDCOM for that.

Updated 9 February:  edited text to add content about the parentheses and to be more accurate.

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