* Importing from Ancestry and merging records

[paulr1949]

Hello,

I have recently been doing a lot of work on Ancestry, where I have uploaded part of my tree prior to sharing it with a fourth cousin in Australia I have found. I've been taking advantage of the free access to commonwealth records on Ancestry over Easter (although they don't seem to think New Brunswick, Canada is in the Commonwealth as I couldn't access records there!), and I've been going through all the ancestry hints, checking them etc. I now have a large number of new people and new facts on my Ancestry tree.
I now want to export the gedcom so that I can have all these new details in FH. I have looked at the various knowledge base guides, I certainly realise I have to do something about media etc. What would be the best way to merge the records back into my main tree without ending up with duplicates. Failing this being possible, I think I would be able to create a new version of the main tree without the set of records I exported and merge the ancestry data into that, if that's more practical.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

Paul

[tatewise]

Paul, I've moved this to the Importing and Exporting Forum that is more appropriate.

The first step is to create a Project from your Ancestry tree as advised in how_to:import_from_ancestry|> Import from Ancestry website.
You will need to follow all the associated advice to clean up the Ancestry style of data in that temporary Project.
It is important to do that before merging with your master FH Project to avoid bringing in junk data.

Depending on exactly what you added, Ancestry has a preference for using Residence facts instead of Census facts, so they may need changing.

If you usually create Method 1 'splitter' Source records, then I suspect you will discover that Ancestry uses a different strategy and puts most details in the Citations. So you may need to correct that. You will also have to download all the Media files from Ancestry into the appropriate Media tabs, etc, within FH.

Use the File > Split Tree Helper or File > Import/Export > Export > GEDCOM File to delete most of the Individuals and associated records that duplicate what you already have in your master FH Project. Leave just a few key Individuals related to the new Individuals you have added, and remove all but the BMD facts from those key Individuals. Those will be the ones that synchronise with your master FH Project when you perform the merge.

Once you have a clean FH compatible temporary Project then follow the advice in glossary:merge_compare_files|> Merge/Compare File to merge that temporary Project into your master FH Project.

Next time, you may decide that it is quicker to work directly in your master FH Project and just download the records you find researching in Ancestry, because Ancestry is one of the worst products for abusing GEDCOM structures, and using different strategies than FH.

[paulr1949]

Thanks Mike, I was expecting it to be a long job! I'll try and follow that process through and see how I get on.

I realise that it would have been helpful to keep FH up to date on the fly, but in the timescales available it just wasn't practical. I had a huge amount of hints, many of which were very useful - and of course they lead to more and more people, then more and more hints....!

Paul

[tatewise]

If my recollection of Ancestry 'hints' is correct, then be wary of 'hints' to other user trees that are unsubstantiated.
However, 'hints' to Ancestry records are OK.
If you can, then download the Ancestry record images & transcripts while you still have free access.
Otherwise, you might not be able to download later.
I hope I am wrong, but better safe than sorry.

[paulr1949]

Oh yes, I downloaded them all whilst I could (I try and always download records I find to my computer and then add them to my tree)
Any record on a tree which doesn't have a source I either ignore or add a note "to be confirmed - from ancestry trees"

Paul

[LornaCraig]

However, 'hints' to Ancestry records are OK.

Not necessarily! Treat them with the same degree of caution as hints to other users' trees.
One of the reasons so many trees on Ancestry are full of errors is that the tree owners have accepted hints to Ancestry records without checking, and have cited those records as sources.

[tatewise]

Yes, sorry, perhaps should have said 'hints' to Ancestry records are more reliable but still need ratifying.

[BobWard]

Next time, you may decide that it is quicker to work directly in your master FH Project and just download the records you find researching in Ancestry, because Ancestry is one of the worst products for abusing GEDCOM structures, and using different strategies than FH.

Highly recommend Mike's advice on this issue. I always work directly from my FH project and just copy/download data from Ancestry and manually insert/paste it into my FH project.

[davidm_uk]

I've given up with importing from, and exporting to my Ancestry tree. Instead, if I'm using Ancestry to follow up on hints, or even just searching on a person within the tree (via their profile screen), having verified the information I'll add the facts and sources to my Ancestry tree, and then dowload the sources and add the information into my FH tree.

It sounds cumbersome, but I find it quicker overall than trying to sort out the prolems created by trying to automate bits of the process.

[AnneEast]

Me too, David. Doesn't take long and is more reliable for me and my way of working. Provides a double check too.
Anne

[paulr1949]

Me too, David. Doesn't take long and is more reliable for me and my way of working. Provides a double check too.
Anne

I agree, that is what I usually do, however I currently have over 3000(!) hints on the part of my tree which is on ancestry so I wondered if there was a quicker way. It's not helped by me not noticing that ancestry had managed to duplicate all 15 children of one family....