Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Using RootsMagic/Ancestry WebHints - Part 2

In the latest version of RootsMagic (Version 7.5.0.0) released last week, RootsMagic added a Ancestry.com WebHints feature.  

I wrote Using RootsMagic/Ancestry WebHints - Part 1 on 3 July 2017,  and demonstrated how to bring Facts from your Ancestry Member Tree into the "Edit Person" screen in your connected RootsMagic family tree program.  That process adds Facts, a Source and Media (when available on Ancestry.com) to a RootsMagic person.  

There are two more ways to use the WebHints from Ancestry.com.  Here they are:

1)  There are buttons for "Accept," "Reject," or "Undecided"each WebHint  on the "Ancestry WebHints" screen in RootsMagic.

I used my grandmother, Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962) in my example herein.  I clicked on the light bulb in my "FamilyView" and then selected the "Ancestry" pending WebHints and the "Ancestry WebHints" screen opened.  There was a list of the WebHints in the upper part of the screen.  Below that area there are buttons to "Accept," "Reject," or "Undecided" each WebHint.  

If the Hint on Ancestry has not been dealt with previously, they all start off with "Undecided" with a blue "question mark" icon to the left of the Hint.  If the user "Accepts" the Hint, a green "check mark" icon appears next to the Hint, and if the user "Rejects" the Hint, a red X icon appears next to the Hint.

In the screen below, I have "Accepted" the first two Hints - they have the green "check mark" icon next to them:



I highlighted the third Hint on the WebHint list on the screen above, and clicked on the "Accept" button, and saw:


The third WebHint now has the green "Check mark" icon.  I could do the rest of the WebHints, but I didn't do it because I want to demonstrate the third way further below.

Note that by using the "Accept," "Reject," and "Undecided" buttons that I am NOT adding content to my RootsMagic tree, I am only accepting or rejecting the WebHint on Ancestry.  I checked my Ancestry Member Tree, and these Accepted Hints were not added to the person's Facts list but were on the "Accepted" Hints list.

2)  The third way to work with Ancestry WebHints is by clicking on the "Show on Ancestry" button below the top area of the "Ancestry WebHints."  That takes me to my Ancestry Member Tree profile for the person:


I can see all of the Hints ("New," "Ignored," or "Accepted") for the person by clicking the "Hints" link in the gray menu ribbon below the green menu ribbon.

I chose the "New" Hints, and one of them was the 1930 U.S. Census record for this person.  I clicked on that Hint and saw the information from the Hint on the left-side of the screen below and my tree information on the right-hand side of the screen:


At the bottom of the screen above, I clicked on the "Save to My Tree" button and the Hint was added to the person profile on my Ancestry Member Tree with a new "Fact," a source citation, and al ink to the media on Ancestry.com. 

I went back to my RootsMagic "Family view" and clicked on the light bulb, selected Ancestry Hints, and saw that the 1930 U.s. Census had a green check mark next to it:


So I can get the green or red or blue icons on the list of WebHints by working in my Ancestry Member Tree and Accepting, Ignoring or Undeciding on each Hint on the list.  I can do this all in my Ancestry Member Tree without opening RootsMagic, or I can access my tree person from within RootsMagic.

Note that in this process I have not added the 1930 U.S. Census "Residence" Fact and its' associated source and media yet.  I have to go to the RootsMagic TreeShare feature and select the person, and then select the added "Fact," in order to do that.

3)  To summarize, the three Ancestry WebHint procedures are:

a)  I can add content (Fact, Source, Media) to my RootsMagic person using individual WebHints on the WebHint list.  

b)  I can check off the individual WebHints for my RootsMagic person without adding content to my RootsMagic person, but adding content to my Ancestry Member Tree.

c)  I can go to my Ancestry Member Tree from within the RootsMagic "Ancestry WebHints" screen and chose Accept, Ignore or Undecided from the Hint list.  This adds content (Fact, Source, Media) to my Ancestry person but not my RootsMagic person (unless I use TreeShare to bring the Hint into RootsMagic).

4)  In the next post, I will discuss how I am going to use the TreeShare and Ancestry WebHints as I add to and improve my RootsMagic family tree database.


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Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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4 comments:

KSteckelberg said...

Your posts on using Ancestry WebHints in RM have been very helpful. Thanks!

Rita A. said...

A couple of us were talking yesterday about long term storage and the best way to put genealogy on the computer; especially for handing it down to younger family members who might not keep it up. Programs change as do computers. We want to get it saved as much for the long term as possible. Is there an answer?

Peter Staveley said...

I would suggest saving it as a GEDCOM file. That is a text file with no formatting so is most likely to be able to be read by all genealogy software for generations to come.

Obviously save numerous copies of the GEDCOM file and the RootsMagic files to 6 locations in 3 different types media including the Cloud (with instructions on paper on how to access the file) plus on memory sticks plus on a few computers (email the file to relevant people).

However, the best method of archiving files (in addition to above) is to leave it on several hard disks and make a note to access it every year. That way you know that the format is still valid and the hard disk is still working. When one of those fails then copy another copy onto a new hard disk and/or update the format to cope with new software.

Vicki said...

I really am looking forward to reading your tips on this. I had downloaded my Ancestry tree into RM yesterday (seperate from my "regular" RM file) and I ran into all kinds of trouble, it created doubles of people in Ancestry, the RM file was not doing what I wanted, etc. I finally deleted it. I would definitely say keep your working RM file seperate as we learn how to do all of this.