Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Importing a FamilySearch Family Tree Source Into RootsMagic

At the SDGS RootsMagic User Group on Saturday, 25 June, one of the attendees noted that when she imports a source citation from FamilySearch using the RootsMagic FamilySearch Person Tools it creates a unique citation.  We tried it, and she was right.

Here is the process I used to investigate this (using my 2nd great-grandfather Isaac Seaver's profile):

1)  In the RootsMagic 7 "FamilySearch Person Tools" screen, I clicked on the "Sources" button, and saw the list of Sources in RootsMagic (on the left side of the screen) and in FamilySearch Family Tree (on the right side of the screen):

 On the right side of the screen, there are several sources that I attached to this person using a FamilySearch Record Match.

2)  I picked one of them - the second from the bottom of the screen above - and the "What do you want to do with this FamilySearch source?" screen opened:


I selected the choice to "Add this source to RootsMagic (select records to attach this source to)".  I checked the person's name to attach the source to.

3)  I clicked on "OK" and the FamilySearch source was added to the RootsMagic source list.

I opened the RootsMagic "Edit Person" screen and clicked on the "Sources" button for the Name of the person, and saw the list of sources.  The source I added was at the bottom of the list:


The source citation that was transferred from FamilySearch to RootsMagic is:

"Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F4J5-135 : 27 April 2016), Isaac Seaver in entry for Frank Walton Seaver, 05 Jun 1852; citing Birth, Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States, , town clerk offices, Massachusetts; FHL microfilm 721,179.

4)  I wondered how the source was split between the "Master Source" elements and the "Source Detail" element.  I highlighted the source on the screen above and clicked on the "Edit" button and saw:


This uses a "Free-form" source template.

The Master Source title is "Isaac Seaver in entry for Frank Walton Seaver, "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001."

The full source citation is in the Footnote, Short Footnote and Bibliography fields for the Master Source.

There is no entry in the Source Details field.

5)  The problem I have with this source citation is that a separate, unique, source is created for every source for this record collection that is imported from the FamilySearch Family Tree.  

I have hundreds of source citations in my database already for this specific collection, the  "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001" record collection.  The free-form source template I use has these entries:

*  Master Source title:

 Massachusetts Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001 (FamilySearch)

*  Master Source Footnote field:

"Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org :

*  Source Details field:

27 April 2016), Isaac Seaver in entry for Frank Walton Seaver, 05 Jun 1852; citing Birth, Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States, town clerk offices, Massachusetts; FHL microfilm 721,179

*  The source citation Footnote is thus:

"Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : 27 April 2016), Isaac Seaver in entry for Frank Walton Seaver, 05 Jun 1852; citing Birth, Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States, town clerk offices, Massachusetts; FHL microfilm 721,179.

*  I could add the FamilySearch URL for the specific record summary in the "Web tag" field for the Name entry:

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F4J5-135

6)  I will not be importing FamilySearch Family Tree source citations into RootsMagic since it will be more work fixing them after importing, and then having hundreds of unique master sources for one record collection.  Instead, I will continue to create them myself with one Master Source with many source citations for the different source details entries.

7)  I really like the way that RootsMagic has implemented transferring data between the RootsMagic program and the FamilySearch Family Tree.  (Legacy Family Tree and Ancestral Quest have a similar process).  The user can transfer name, relationship, date, and place information from one to the other, and can also transfer Sources and Notes.

I have matched over 12,000 persons in my RootsMagic database to profiles in the FamilySearch Family Tree to date.  I have high hopes that the FamilySearch Family Tree will be the best opportunity to share data to or from a desktop genealogy computer program (and potentially other online family trees).

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Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

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2 comments:

Enno Borgsteede said...

Hi Randy, I have the same problem here, and create my own citations, just like you. And I really hope that some time, maybe with the help of FHISO, FamilySearch and software authors like RootsMagic can agree on a format where for instance the collection title becomes the master source title, or simply the source title, as we call it in Gramps, and references to the person, page number, whatever is there, are sent to source details, of citation fields in Gramps.

Geolover said...

Randy, you usefully point up the faulty and non-standard source-citation structure in FamilySearch and the Family Tree. There is no provision for Master Source or repository, and often the FS citation omits specific data for citations (such as volume and page numbers for records).

Thus there will be lack of real integration of source citations between FS-FT and genealogy software that does have a standard citation structure.

This is just one of the limitations of some web-hosted trees.