Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Using RootsMagic 6 to Update FamilySearch Family Tree Families - Post 1: the "Before" Tree Person Profiles

I'm writing a new "how to" for updating the FamilySearch Family Tree (a unified tree, intended to include everyone in one tree, freely editable and modified by any registered FamilySearch registered user) using the RootsMagic 6 genealogy software program.  At this time, RootsMagic 6 is the only FamilySearch certified software program that can add, edit or delete content on the FamilySearch Family Tree, but that should change very soon (i.e., more software programs will have this capability).

In this post, I want to show what an existing Person Profile for one of my ancestors looks like on the FamilySearch Family Tree, and in my RootsMagic 6 software program.  I will also highlight the obvious errors, duplications, and inconsistencies found in the Tree profile.  In succeeding posts, I'll show how to add, edit and delete information on the Tree using RootsMagic.  Finally, in a later post, I'll show the corrected Person Profile in the FamilySearch Family Tree.

1)  Here is what the FamilySearch Family Tree Person Profile for Mary Metcalf (1776-1850/1860) looks like (4 screens, some overlap):





There are these main sections of the Person Profile above:

*  Vital Information - name, gender, birth, christening, death, burial
*  Other Information - alternate names, custom events, etc.
*  Family - spouses and children - spouse's name, marriage date, children names - for each marriage
*  Family - parents and siblings - parents names, siblings names - for each set of parents
*  Sources
*  Discussions

2)  RootsMagic 6 can access the FamilySearch Family Tree data by using the FamilySearch icon on the Pedigree View, Family View, or Descendants View.  The Family View is shown below:


The FamilySearch icon is circled in red on the Family View above.  For children in a family, the icon is at the far right of the screen above (scroll right to find it).

3)  After clicking the icon, the FamilySearch Person Tools screen appeared (two screens below, some overlap):



As you can see, the RootsMagic screens above show the RootsMagic data for my person in the column on the left, and the FamilySearch data for my person in the right column.

Lines that agree between the two databases are in green background, lines that are similar are in yellow background, and lines that are not in one or the other columns are in white background.

A close comparison between the information in the Person Profile in the FamilySearch Family Tree and the "My FamilySearch Person" column (the right column) shows that they are identical.

A close comparison between my RootsMagic person and My FamilySearch Person columns show significant differences between the two lists.

4)  My goal in this blog post series is to show how to make the two lists the same, as accurate as possible, and consistent.  That means deleting extraneous or duplicate information (some alternate names), standardizing dates and place names, reconciling differences between data entries (death date, place), and eliminating wrong relationships (e.g., Mary Metcalf did not marry her son, James P. Underhill!). I will try to add Sources and Discussions also.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/06/using-rootsmagic-6-to-update.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

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