Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Dear Randy: Will the Ancestry Member Tree "New Sync" Be Like the Current Matching with FamilySearch Family Tree?

A Genea-Musings reader asked that question in email recently, and I had to admit that I was not aware of the process used by LDS church members to match persons, and transfer events, to or from an Ancestry Member Tree and the FamilySearch Family Tree.

I went looking for resources, and quickly found that geneablogger James L. Tanner, and several others, have posted videos on YouTube showing the process.  James's video is the most recent and uses the "New Ancestry" screens, so I will share that here:


It is only 11 minutes long and is well worth the time to watch it and learn from it.  I watched it full screen so I could see the fine details.

At present, this capability is limited to LDS church members with an LDS account on FamilySearch and an LDS Partner account on Ancestry.com.  

The key is to start from the user's Ancestry Member Tree, use the FamilySearch tree icon on the Profile page to activate the FamilySearch options, and go from there.  Names, events, dates, places, and sources can be transferred from Ancestry to Family Tree and vice versa.  Here is one of the slides in the James Tanner video showing the icon and the options:



So now I know something about the data transfer process.  Now to answer the question from my reader:

I think the answer is "Maybe."  

Ancestry has said they have not yet created the API (computer process) needed to transfer information to and from Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic starting in 2017 (the "New Sync" process - that's my term!).  Ancestry has indicated that the current TreeSync with Family Tree Maker will be discontinued at the end of 2016.

I think it is possible that the same process used to transfer information from Ancestry to or from FamilySearch Family Tree, as described in the James Tanner video above, will be used to transfer information to and from genealogy software programs like Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic.

We will have to wait until Ancestry.com configures their API and RootsMagic and Family Tree Maker work out their programming to accomplish whatever Ancestry comes up with.

Will Ancestry.com will make this process available to all subscribers with a FamilySearch account in order for it to happen for those of us who are not members of the LDS church?  I don't know, but I hope they do it soon!

Thank you to my reader, who wishes to be anonymous, for the intriguing question.  I learned something today!

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2 comments:

Geolover said...

Ancestry Member Trees are a constant source of erroneous material's being added to FS-Family Tree, including overwriting the accurate with wrong treestuff with no reason, documentation, source, or evidence given except maybe "Ancestry.com" or "my tree."

Tree owners on any site are not necessarily transferring accurate material. FamilySearch.org would prefer to have a gloss of accuracy, but it will be no better than other trees. Ability to proliferate treestuff even more widely is not to be considered an intrinsically good thing, genealogically speaking.

There could be even more data conflicts where tree owners disagree and do the back-and-forth not backed up by any evidence in particular, or based on the usual basic genealogical mistakes such as "same name = same person."

I recently cleaned up some treestuff that had been partially copied from a tree into FS-FT. The "same name" person had 3 children before the age of 5, and survived her ostensible spouse by 9 years (never mind that there is no evidence as to identity of his wife or wives, and he died testate without leaving a widow). I don't think I am going to do this cleanup much more.


T said...

If you think ancestry trees are the worst, check out the familysearch trees!! I do NOT want my ancestry tree information exported to familysearch trees and then "fixed" to fit their idea of related. I don't know how much time and how much money I have invested in my tree but I sure don't want someone else to change it because "Gramma said".