'm writing a new "how to" for updating the FamilySearch Family Tree (a unified tree, intended to include everyone in one tree, freely editable and modified by any registered FamilySearch registered user) using the RootsMagic 6 genealogy software program. At this time, RootsMagic 6 is the only FamilySearch certified software program that can add, edit or delete content on the FamilySearch Family Tree, but that should change very soon (i.e., more software programs will have this capability).
In Using RootsMagic 6 to Update FamilySearch Family Tree Families - Post 1: the "Before" Tree Person Profiles, I showed how to use RootsMagic to access a person in the FamilySearch Family Tree, and compare the information between My RootsMagic Person and My FamilySearch Person.
In this post, I want to show how to add, edit or delete information in the FamilySearch Family Tree using RootsMagic 6.
1) Again, we start with clicking the FamilySearch icon on the Pedigree, Family or Descendants View in RootsMagic 6 (circled in red on the Family View shown below):
2) The "Share Data" tab screen opens, as shown in the first post in this series (only the top part shown below)
I have a list of items that I want to add, edit or delete from the FamilySearch Family Tree Person Profile, and several to add to the RootsMagic profile (assuming that the vital record information is correct in My RootsMagic Person), including:
* Resolve the Name field - should I use the nickname in the name?
* I have what I think are better birth and death dates in My RootsMagic Person, with standard localities, and want to replace them in My FamilySearch Person.
* I want to add the Burial Fact to My FamilySearch Person.
* There is a redundant marriage date and wrong locality in the FamilySearch Person.
* There is an AKA name in the FamilySearch Person that duplicates the entry.
* There are several Alternate Names in the FamilySearch Person that are duplicates or redundant or confusing, and I want to add one of them to My RootsMagic Person.
3) First, I want to check that there are not Duplicate Persons in the FamilySearch Family Tree. If there are, I want to combine them now so that I don't have to do it later. I clicked on the "Find Matches" tab just below the highlighted Person's name on the screen below:
My Mary Metcalf has already been matched with a Mary Metcalf in the FamilySearch Family Tree. There are a number of other candidates as duplicates, but after scanning them carefully, I don't think any of them are a duplicate Person for the Mary Metcalf already in the Family Tree.
If I was Adding a new Name from RootsMagic that didn't match a person in the Family Tree, the screen above would open and would search for Duplicate Names and if they were a match, I could select them.
4) Back to the "Share Data" tab, and I'm ready to work on the problems. First is the Name. I have "Mary "Polly" Metcalf" as her name in RootsMagic; the Family Tree has her as "Mary (Polly) Metcalf." I clicked on the box to the left of the name in My RootsMagic Person:
A "What do you want to do with this fact?" window opened, with several choices. I wanted to Replace the Family Tree name with the RootsMagic name. I clicked on that selection. It didn't do what I requested - it put only "Mary Metcalf" in the Family Tree person list. I tried several more times without success and finally decided that the Family Tree doesn't want quote marks around a name in the Family Tree. Okay, I'll change the Name in My RootsMagic Person later.
5) Next item on my list was to change the Birth Fact information. I clicked on the box next to the Birth Fact and saw:
The only choice was to Replace the item, so I did that.
6) The next item was the Death date and locality, and I Replaced that also:
I also Added the Burial Fact to the FamilySearch Person.
7) Now I wanted to delete the extra Marriage Fact on the FamilySearch Person. I chose to "Remove this fact from FamilySearch:"
I also Removed the AKA name which was a duplicate of the FamilySearch Person's name.
8) I want to delete all of the Alternate Names on the FamilySearch Person except for "Polly Metcalf." So I clicked the box next to each alternate Name and selected "Remove this name from FramilySearch."
9) When I got to the Alternate Name of "Polly Metcalf," I wanted to add that to My RootsMagic Person. So I clicked the box next to the name and selected "Add a new name to RootsMagic."
I finished Removing the rest of the Alternate Names.
9) There is a fifth child in the list of children of Mary Metcalf and Amos Underhill for the FamilySearch Person. I clicked on the box for that fifth child, and perused the options, as shown in the screen below:
I looked for Robert Duncan Underhill in the FamilySearch Family Tree and found him, with no other information than an estimated birth date of 1810. I found that other records, on Ancestry, Find A Grave, GenForum and other sites, list a Robert Duncan Underhill born in 1810 to John and Mary Esther (Mitchell) Underhill in Sullivan County, N.H. My tentative conclusion is that he doesn't belong in the family of Amos and Mary (Metcalf) Underhill. I decided to leave him on the FamilySearch Person list for the time being.
10) Finally, I recalled that I had not removed the Nickname from My RootsMagic Person, so I did that in the "Edit Person" form in RootsMagic. The final screen for Mary Metcalf in the RootsMagic "FamilySearch Person Tools" screen looks like this:
I accomplished everything I set out to do.
11) What does the "cleaned up" Person Profile in the FamilySearch Family Tree system look like? Here is the page for Mary Metcalf (three screens, no overlap):
Strangely, the children of the second marriage of Mary Metcalf, with James P. Underhill, that are in the "My FamilySearch Person" list in RootsMagic, do not show up in the FamilySearch Family Tree.
12) The next problem, and it's a big one, is to consider the second "family" listed on the "My FamilySearch Person" side of the RootsMagic "FamilySearch Person Tools" screen, down at the bottom. I sincerely doubt that this Marriage is factual; in fact James P. Underhill (with a birth year of 1775) is actually one of her children with Amos Underhill, and the four children listed for their marriage are Mary's children, but all are by Amos Underhill. One has the name James Pierce Underhill with the same FamilySearch ID number (LHBP-JXH) as the one in the list of children with Amos Underhill.
The next post in this series will try to deal with all of that. It is apparent to me that the James P. Underhill husband entry for Mary Metcalf is fictitious, and that the children listed for the marriage are identical to Mary's children with Amos Underhill, but three of them have different FamilySearch ID numbers, so they are duplicate entries in the FamilySearch system.
13) The effort to clean up the information for Mary Metcalf using RootsMagic 6 took about ten minutes to complete. There are significant wait times for some of the actions (20 to 30 seconds in some cases). It would probably be easier and faster to do some of the actions (especially the Removing duplicate Facts or Alternate Names) in the FailySearch Family Tree environment.
In my experience to date with FamilySearch Family Tree, the cleanup effort I did is fairly typical - some persons need less, some need more. Once you learn the routine, you can do it with some confidence.
Someone has to do this, and since Mary (Metcalf) Underhill is my ancestor, I'm doing it. Other researchers may come along and disagree and add or edit content - so be it. I dread doing it for my Massachusetts immigrant ancestors in the first half of the 17th century - the task will be much larger there, I fear, due to many duplicate Persons and many more duplicate or erroneous or redundant Facts, Names, etc.
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/06/using-rootsmagic-6-to-update_5.html
Copyright (c) 2013), Randall J. Seaver
1) Again, we start with clicking the FamilySearch icon on the Pedigree, Family or Descendants View in RootsMagic 6 (circled in red on the Family View shown below):
2) The "Share Data" tab screen opens, as shown in the first post in this series (only the top part shown below)
I have a list of items that I want to add, edit or delete from the FamilySearch Family Tree Person Profile, and several to add to the RootsMagic profile (assuming that the vital record information is correct in My RootsMagic Person), including:
* Resolve the Name field - should I use the nickname in the name?
* I have what I think are better birth and death dates in My RootsMagic Person, with standard localities, and want to replace them in My FamilySearch Person.
* I want to add the Burial Fact to My FamilySearch Person.
* There is a redundant marriage date and wrong locality in the FamilySearch Person.
* There is an AKA name in the FamilySearch Person that duplicates the entry.
* There are several Alternate Names in the FamilySearch Person that are duplicates or redundant or confusing, and I want to add one of them to My RootsMagic Person.
3) First, I want to check that there are not Duplicate Persons in the FamilySearch Family Tree. If there are, I want to combine them now so that I don't have to do it later. I clicked on the "Find Matches" tab just below the highlighted Person's name on the screen below:
My Mary Metcalf has already been matched with a Mary Metcalf in the FamilySearch Family Tree. There are a number of other candidates as duplicates, but after scanning them carefully, I don't think any of them are a duplicate Person for the Mary Metcalf already in the Family Tree.
If I was Adding a new Name from RootsMagic that didn't match a person in the Family Tree, the screen above would open and would search for Duplicate Names and if they were a match, I could select them.
4) Back to the "Share Data" tab, and I'm ready to work on the problems. First is the Name. I have "Mary "Polly" Metcalf" as her name in RootsMagic; the Family Tree has her as "Mary (Polly) Metcalf." I clicked on the box to the left of the name in My RootsMagic Person:
A "What do you want to do with this fact?" window opened, with several choices. I wanted to Replace the Family Tree name with the RootsMagic name. I clicked on that selection. It didn't do what I requested - it put only "Mary Metcalf" in the Family Tree person list. I tried several more times without success and finally decided that the Family Tree doesn't want quote marks around a name in the Family Tree. Okay, I'll change the Name in My RootsMagic Person later.
5) Next item on my list was to change the Birth Fact information. I clicked on the box next to the Birth Fact and saw:
The only choice was to Replace the item, so I did that.
6) The next item was the Death date and locality, and I Replaced that also:
I also Added the Burial Fact to the FamilySearch Person.
7) Now I wanted to delete the extra Marriage Fact on the FamilySearch Person. I chose to "Remove this fact from FamilySearch:"
I also Removed the AKA name which was a duplicate of the FamilySearch Person's name.
8) I want to delete all of the Alternate Names on the FamilySearch Person except for "Polly Metcalf." So I clicked the box next to each alternate Name and selected "Remove this name from FramilySearch."
9) When I got to the Alternate Name of "Polly Metcalf," I wanted to add that to My RootsMagic Person. So I clicked the box next to the name and selected "Add a new name to RootsMagic."
I finished Removing the rest of the Alternate Names.
9) There is a fifth child in the list of children of Mary Metcalf and Amos Underhill for the FamilySearch Person. I clicked on the box for that fifth child, and perused the options, as shown in the screen below:
I looked for Robert Duncan Underhill in the FamilySearch Family Tree and found him, with no other information than an estimated birth date of 1810. I found that other records, on Ancestry, Find A Grave, GenForum and other sites, list a Robert Duncan Underhill born in 1810 to John and Mary Esther (Mitchell) Underhill in Sullivan County, N.H. My tentative conclusion is that he doesn't belong in the family of Amos and Mary (Metcalf) Underhill. I decided to leave him on the FamilySearch Person list for the time being.
10) Finally, I recalled that I had not removed the Nickname from My RootsMagic Person, so I did that in the "Edit Person" form in RootsMagic. The final screen for Mary Metcalf in the RootsMagic "FamilySearch Person Tools" screen looks like this:
I accomplished everything I set out to do.
11) What does the "cleaned up" Person Profile in the FamilySearch Family Tree system look like? Here is the page for Mary Metcalf (three screens, no overlap):
Strangely, the children of the second marriage of Mary Metcalf, with James P. Underhill, that are in the "My FamilySearch Person" list in RootsMagic, do not show up in the FamilySearch Family Tree.
12) The next problem, and it's a big one, is to consider the second "family" listed on the "My FamilySearch Person" side of the RootsMagic "FamilySearch Person Tools" screen, down at the bottom. I sincerely doubt that this Marriage is factual; in fact James P. Underhill (with a birth year of 1775) is actually one of her children with Amos Underhill, and the four children listed for their marriage are Mary's children, but all are by Amos Underhill. One has the name James Pierce Underhill with the same FamilySearch ID number (LHBP-JXH) as the one in the list of children with Amos Underhill.
The next post in this series will try to deal with all of that. It is apparent to me that the James P. Underhill husband entry for Mary Metcalf is fictitious, and that the children listed for the marriage are identical to Mary's children with Amos Underhill, but three of them have different FamilySearch ID numbers, so they are duplicate entries in the FamilySearch system.
13) The effort to clean up the information for Mary Metcalf using RootsMagic 6 took about ten minutes to complete. There are significant wait times for some of the actions (20 to 30 seconds in some cases). It would probably be easier and faster to do some of the actions (especially the Removing duplicate Facts or Alternate Names) in the FailySearch Family Tree environment.
In my experience to date with FamilySearch Family Tree, the cleanup effort I did is fairly typical - some persons need less, some need more. Once you learn the routine, you can do it with some confidence.
Someone has to do this, and since Mary (Metcalf) Underhill is my ancestor, I'm doing it. Other researchers may come along and disagree and add or edit content - so be it. I dread doing it for my Massachusetts immigrant ancestors in the first half of the 17th century - the task will be much larger there, I fear, due to many duplicate Persons and many more duplicate or erroneous or redundant Facts, Names, etc.
The URL for this post is: http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/06/using-rootsmagic-6-to-update_5.html
Copyright (c) 2013), Randall J. Seaver
