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Thursday, August 28, 2014

Use Descendancy View to See Record Hints, Research Suggestions and Data Problems on FamilySearch Family Tree

FamilySearch announced on 19 August that more Record Hints are available for persons in the Family Tree - see Additional Record Hints Released by Robert Kehrer.  There are three kinds of Hints:

*  Orange icon - Record Hints (from Indexed record collections)

*  Blue icon - Research Suggestions (things to check for)

*  Red icon - Data Problems (e.g., married before 13, mother had child after 50, birth after mother's death, etc.)

The icons appear on the "Descendancy" Tree View, as shown below (two screens, with 4 Generations checked):



As you can see on the screens above, Isaac Seaver has an Orange icon in the right-hand column, while others have both Orange and Blue icons.

If I click on the Orange icon for Isaac Seaver, I can see the Record Hints available for him:


If I click on the first Record Hint (a Marriage record), then I can see the Historical Record (on the left of the screen) alongside the Family Tree person (on the right of the screen) (two screens shown):



I entered a Reason to Attach on the screen above, and then clicked the blue "Attach" button.  I did the same thing for his spouse, Alvina (Lewis) Bradley.  The result is that the marriage record was attached to both of them:


I went back to the "Descendancy" Tree View, and the Marriage "Record Hint" is no longer there:


If I click on Isaac's name, and select "Profile," I can see the "Sources" attached for him.  They include the marriage record I just attached:


I wondered what "Research Suggestions" there might be for his daughter Juliette Seaver (1847-1910).  I clicked on her blue icon on the "Descendancy" View and saw:

Helpfully, it told me that:

*  I had no Sources Attached.  I need to work through the "Record Hints" for her.
*  Person may have had children (and/or a spouse).  She had a spouse, but no children.  I need to add the spouse to the Tree.

Other "Research Suggestions" I've seen so far include:

*  Possible Missing Children (when there's a gap between children)
*  Couple May Have Had Children

There may be others that I have not seen yet.

These icons are very helpful.  I don't see them on any of the other Tree views - just the "Descendancy" View.  I guess they figure that they are all in one place and folks can work from the "Descendancy" View to attach records and add Sources to the Tree.  Of course, the "Record Hints" do appear on the person "Profile" page also.

I read that Robert Kehrer said at an FGS conference function in San Antonio that there is a 98% accuracy rate for the Record Hints, mainly because of the search and match algorithms used that consider relationships in addition to event information.  That's great, and I hope it stays that high.

Of course, the "Record Hints" only access the indexed FamilySearch historical record collections.  They don't provide a Hint for an entry in a "Browse-only" collection, or for a record in another record provider's collection.

A good goal might be to use the "Descendancy" View icons to systematically attach records and sources to persons in the Family Tree - one person and one record at a time.  I could start with, say, each 2nd great-grandparent, and add the Record Hints to the Tree.  Then check back on a regular basis and try to keep the "Descendancy" View free of O range icons ("Record Hints").

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/08/use-descendancy-view-to-see-record.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver


2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tip. I am getting record hints on profile pages and on the descendancy view for records that have already been attached.

    An example is
    John Martin Christman
    1878-1977
    K46D-G88
    1920, 1930, and 1940 census records attached before today.

    Is anyone else seeing this?

    Ric Tobin

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  2. Trying to find a better post to let folks know of another issue I am having with FamilySearch Family Tree using Roots Magic to transfer sources from Family Tree to my Roots Magic database. In the past accessing the Family Search Person Tools by clicking on the blue tree next to a matched persons name, selecting the sources tab, I was able to transfer sources attached to persons in FamilySearch to my Roots Magic database. Within the last couple weeks instead of transferring the source information only the title is transferred and the source information is not. I have contacted Roots Magic who looked at the issue and a copy of my database. They were able to duplicate the issue for another client and it appears to be an issue with FamilySearch Family Tree. Roots Magic in working with FamilySearch Family Tree could not fix the issue. Transferring sources from Roots Magic to FamilySearch Family Tree is still working.

    ReplyDelete