Monday, November 27, 2017

Dear Randy - How Can I Combine Two Ancestry Trees Into One Ancestry Tree?

Genea-Musings reader Laura asked this question a few weeks ago.  

She has her mother's tree in one Ancestry Member Tree, her father's tree in another Ancestry Member Tree, and she wants to combine them into one new Ancestry Member Tree because of DNA matching issues.  Oh, and she wants to keep all of the Ancestry images from the two trees in that new tree.

That latter requirement negates the use of GEDCOM files to download and upload Ancestry Member Trees - the images do not transfer to or from an Ancestry Member Tree via GEDCOM..

My recommendation to Laura was:

*  Obtain RootsMagic Version 7 and install it on your computer.  It needs to be the paid version since RootsMagic Essentials will not TreeShare after the initial upload or download.  

*  Learn how to add persons, edit person profiles, add events, add notes, add sources, and add media in RootsMagic.  Learn how to TreeShare.  Use the Help feature in RootsMagic, or watch RootsMagic videos, to learn these tasks.


*  Use TreeShare in RootsMagic to download your Ancestry Tree A with the media to create RootsMagic Tree A.

*  Use TreeShare in RootsMagic to download your Ancestry Tree B with the media to create RootsMagic Tree B.

*  Create a RootsMagic Tree C with just you in it.  

*  Merge RootsMagic Trees A and B into RootsMagic Tree C in separate operations.  

*  Deal with the duplicate persons if any (use the Help feature for Merging persons on how to do this).  All of the media from Ancestry should be attached and in one Media file on your computer hard drive.

*  Use TreeShare in RootsMagic to upload RootsMagic tree C to a new Ancestry Tree C, with all of the media in RootsMagic Tree C.

*  Keep the two trees (Ancestry Tree C and RootsMagic Tree C) synced by regularly TreeSharing from within RootsMagic.  

NOTE:  An experienced user could combine RootsMagic Tree A into RootsMagic Tree B to form a bigger RootsMagic Tree B.  They would still have to go through the duplicate person merge process, which is the most difficult task in the process above.

NOTE:  This process should also work with Family Tree Maker 2017 genealogy software.  The user still has to go through the duplicate person Merge process.

That is a bit complex, but taking it one step at a time, and reading the RootsMagic Help files, should make it work out - a combined tree with all of the images with her entire ancestry in the merged file.

==============================================


Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.


3 comments:

niftythrifty said...

Is it still possible to download two trees from Ancestry to RootsMagic7? I installed my version of RootsMagic7 last week. After downloading my husband's family tree, I seem to be locked out from downloading the family tree from my side of the family.

Thanks,
ME

Jennifer Bunker said...

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. After spending a few YEARS (Yes, years, ha ha) worrying that I would never be able to merge my separate maternal and paternal trees on Ancestry, I watched this video and had them merged and back up on Ancestry as a single tree in 20 minutes. THANK YOU, big relief!

Unknown said...

Thanks Randy for posting this. Very helpful!! I would like to merge two trees that I was using to figure out how two DNA matches matched each other, for a friend. Now that I know where the connections are, I'd like to join the two trees. They aren't huge, but it would still take a while to enter all the data "by hand." My question is, in the fifth bullet step, "Create a RootsMagic Tree C with just you in it," that should work if you create a new tree with one person who appears in both trees, right? Doesn't have to be someone living, or someone with no descendants? The main point being that it's someone who appears in both trees?
TIA,
MCA