Genea-Musings readers, and Facebook friends, with a long memory should recall that I was very frustrated that I could not TreeShare my RootsMagic 8 family tree database with my existing Ancestry Member Tree since I added my existing RootsMagic 7 family tree database on 30 September (the day RootsMagic 8 was released). RM8 said my database was connected to my existing Ancestry Member Tree but I was unable to use TreeShare, even after the last RM8 update (8.1.1.0). I also had no Ancestry Web Hints.
Over the past six weeks, numerous RootsMagic users with a family tree database with more than about 15,000 persons have been unable to TreeShare with their existing Ancestry Member Tree. There have been many discussions in the RootsMagic Users Group on Facebook without a resolution to the problem. TreeShare using RootsMagic 7 is still available after a fix in early October.
Over the past six weeks, I have added new content to my RootsMagic 8 database (new profiles and new dates, places, notes, media, sources, etc. to existing profiles) to the extent that I could not go back to RootsMagic 7 because I would lose a lot of database information through a GEDCOM transfer to RootsMagic 7.
1) I want to use my RootsMagic 8 database to generate web hints and to use it for my AncestryDNA matches. So I bit the bullet yesterday, and:
* Disconnected my RM 8 file with the existing Ancestry Member Tree in the "Settings > WebHints" setting.
* Clicked "Reset TreeShare" in the "Settings > WebHints" setting.
* Uploaded my RM 8 file using "Publish > Ancestry TreeShare" and selecting to add a New Ancestry Member Tree. That took about 3.5 hours for my 66,000 profile tree with over 1,000 media items, but it worked.
* When I edited a profile, and added some data (name, dates, places, notes, sources, media, etc.), TreeShare worked for me. And I had some WebHints. Yay!
2) Here is the TreeShare screen before I moved data from RootsMagic to the new Ancestry Member Tree:
On the screen above, I have checked the box in the upper left to "Only show changed people." The names of the changed people since the last TreeShare are in the left-hand column. The RootsMagic data for the selected person is in the middle column. The existing Ancestry Member Tree data is in the right-hand column. Similar data is shown in green and different data is shown in pink. If I wish, I can go edit the RootsMagic person using the "Edit RootsMagic Person" button, or show the Ancestry profile in a browser window using the "Show on Ancestry" button.
I almost always add information to my RootsMagic profiles by hand and then add the person details to the Ancestry Member Tree using TreeShare so that my RM 8 tree and my AMT tree are synchronized. I don't bring data from Ancestry into RootsMagic because the media goes into a special folder where I can't find it and the Ancestry sources are not in standard format.
On the screen above, I want to change the marriage information for this profile on Ancestry, so by clicking the left carat (>) in the RootsMagic column I see:
3) I have to choose between "Add as new record on Ancestry," "Update existing event on Ancestry," or "Delete event from RootsMagic." I chose to update the existing event on Ancestry and saw the Update panel:
On this screen, I clicked on the Date and Place check boxes and then the "OK" button to add them to the Ancestry profile.
One thing I noticed was that I could not click on the check box column to check all of the items like in RootsMagic 7 - now RM 8 requires more mouse clicks for many tasks.
Here is the TreeShare screen reflecting the changed information:
Note that the changed information is reflected in the Ancestry column in blue font.
4) Here is the Ancestry Member Tree profile for this person with the updated marriage date and place:
5) This process seems onerous with many clicks in order to explain it, but I usually do 3 or 4 of them in a minute. Last night, I TreeShared 17 profiles in 5 minutes. It helps to have a lot of experience, and a stable workflow, to use TreeShare.
In this way, I can take Record Hints and genealogy and family history data from any online record provider and/or archive, enter it into RootsMagic during the day, and update my Ancestry Member Tree on a daily basis.
I'm happy to be back in the routine of using TreeShare and will probably try to use it daily rather than weekly (in the past, I often had 200 or 300 profiles to do each week and it often took an hour or more). With a daily routine, I can do 30 changed profiles in less than 10 minutes, which seems like a better use of my available time.
The only drawback for me with the new Ancestry Member Tree is that I don't have the previous supply of Web Hints. However, I'm still working my way through Record Hints in the earlier AMT which still exists and has over 156,000 Record Hints. But now I have to check Record Hints from this new AMT too.
2 comments:
Your step-by-step instructions are extremely helpful as I attempt to navigate the new RM8 interface and TreeShare issues. TY!
I still haven't made the leap to RM8. I've played with RM8 a bit, but still work in RM7. I'll have to bite the bullet and make the leap sometime soon.
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