I responded to a question about preserving genealogies in my article “17 Years of Research Being Flushed Down the Toilet.” I pointed out FamilySearch Genealogies. Among the responses were several that clarified FamilySearch Genealogies. (There were a lot of suggestions on other ways to preserve. I’ll share those next week.)
Dear Ancestry Insider,
My problem, quite honestly, with FamilySearch trees, is that anyone can add (or delete) members of your tree. FamilySearch needs to have some method to "lock down trees" so that only the tree owner, or someone that has edit privileges, can change the tree. I won't put my tree on FamilySearch until the trees are locked down.
Brenda Hare
Dear Readers,
I responded privately to Brenda and she pointed out a big flaw in my article. I failed to point out that FamilySearch Genealogies, the kind I explained in that article, are “locked down.” No one else can modify your tree. FamilySearch offers both systems: personal trees that no one can modify, and a public tree that everyone can modify. Read the article for instructions on how to upload your GEDCOM to FamilySearch Genealogies.
The downside is that you cannot edit your FamilySearch Genealogies online and you can’t give edit privileges to anyone else. To update your tree you must replace it with a new GEDCOM.
Signed,
The Ancestry Insider
Dear Ancestry Insider,
RootsFinder might be a good solution for this.
It is a new free service that lets you upload a GEDCOM, and then work on your personal tree from there. It supports “publishing” your RootsFinder tree to FamilySearch Genealogies and keeping it up to date. So instead of blowing away your previous upload (thus breaking long-lived links) and re-uploading, RootsFinder sends deltas to keep your Genealogy on FamilySearch up to date (with no user interaction required—it’s kept as an up-to-date copy).
By the end of this month, they will have an app you can download (for Windows and Mac) that will take your GEDCOM and the pictures it references on your local hard drive and upload them all to RootsFinder.
They’re also working towards being able to preserve images in RootsFinder as Memories in FamilySearch, linked from Genealogies. (I don’t have a due date for that feature).
At that point, you should be able to use the RootsFinder app to upload your GEDCOM + images to RootsFinder, indicate that you want to publish it on FamilySearch, and the GEDCOM and images should all be preserved.
Signed,
Randy Wilson
Dear Randy,
Thanks for alerting us to this new FamilySearch partner. We also heard from RootsFinder directly.
Signed,
The Ancestry Insider
Dear Ancestry Insider,
We also have a free new online family tree you might want to check out at rootsfinder.com. It allows you to upload a GEDCOM and preserve your data in FamilySearch's free Genealogies long-term preservation service, and we’re working with FamilySearch to give you the option to preserve your RootsFinder pictures as well.
As has been pointed out, GEDCOM only transfers data, not images. But by the end of the month we will have a media transfer utility which will allow you to upload your GEDCOM along with the media from your computer so you won't have to upload your media later; it will all import everything at once and everything will stay attached.
We're still new and getting the word out about this; in fact we were semifinalists at the RootsTech Innovator Showdown. If you want to check it out we appreciate your feedback!
Signed,
RootsFinder
Dear RootsFinder,
Thanks for letting us know! (What’s up with these people who identify themselves only via pseudonym? Don’t you hate that?)
Signed,
The, um, Ancestry Insider
While I often bite my tongue when someone edits one of my trees by adding already dis-proven or fantastical family connections, I monitor them by "watching" certain key people in my tree. Not perfect, but I usually am alerted to and am able to logically dispute the addition of a child born to a mother at age 105, or other such nonsense
ReplyDeleteI can imagine that happens a lot. What confuses me is finding the site PhpGedView by a fluke google of my one set of g'grandparents. At first I was thrilled. Followed the surname to Scotland in the 1500s.
ReplyDeleteThen see they have my grandmother's birth and death dates wrong!
And the 'genius' in charge, the only contact for it, won't acknowledged it's a mistake....or that other obvious craziness, about 10 yr old boy fathering children, etc, etc, could POSSIBLY be incorrect.
Anyone have any thoughts on that?
Seems either a tree and info are free game for anyone to change, or cast in stone by an idiot-genius who defies all logic and close relatives.
I look at "bad trees" as similar to bad census taker handwriting/spelling, and multiple "John Jones"'s in the same city. A potentially valuable but possibly flawed clue, and an exercise in self-restraint and logic. Brain exercise. :-)
DeleteMy favorite is all the people insisting that they are related to a guy who died when he was two. And others keep trying to give him a brother, I think because it relates them to royalty. Hmpf! If they really understood the characters of royalty back in the times, they'd better understand why so many risked so much to escape that society and move to a new world. Yet some somehow try to link themselves -- like it makes them cooler. But they're all on watch lists. If I don't check frequently, things can become at time indiscernible from the original. But I've also made GREAT new collaborative friends from around the world and found pictures I've never seen. So it's all more than worth it. But you HAVE TO have your own tree wherever it resides, to act as a compass, to get you back home if information added goes too far astray.
ReplyDeleteCall me silly, but I have my public tree on Ancestry. I'm not even sure what a gedcom is??? Is it something I could simply add my Ancestry tree to -- or would I have to enter each person separately?? Also, If I were to put a family tree on family search as "Private", then how would I connect with other people looking at their trees? If it is "public" then all sorts of nut cases would be able to alter it - never a good thing. Ahh, so much to learn!
ReplyDeleteMarianne, FamilySearch has a shared, public tree. It has public, personal trees. It does not have "private" trees.
DeleteYes, it is possible to copy your Ancestry tree and create a personal tree on FamilySearch. It requires more explanation here than I can quickly give. Your local family history center or genealogical society can probably provide guidance. Maybe I should write about it at some time.