Preserving Your Research Beyond Your Lifetime Using FamilySearch s Family Tree Application. Until relatively recently the only way to assure your genealogical research was saved for posterity was to publish a book with your findings. That is still the best way to ensure your hard work is preserved and attributable to you. Having helped with two genealogical books (neither of them my own) I can tell you it s a monumental task but well worth the effort. I think we should all aspire to write that book but realistically, how many of us will manage it? Now, with the internet, there are many more options. The family trees of thousands of people can be found all over the internet. Perhaps the best known examples are the user submitted family trees on Ancestry.com but family trees exist on many other commercial sites as well as on personal websites. The question is, will they remain available to the many generations that follow? On commercial genealogy sites I personally believe they will remain available even as one commercial site buys up another. This makes them a fairly good option when it comes to preserving your work. If your data is well sourced it will be an especially welcome find by others since much of the data currently out there isn t sourced. Personal websites are much iffier since you are paying for the site. Once you are gone the payments will stop unless you ve made some provision to have them continue. For the most part, commercial sites currently consist of many individual family trees (FTs) on one website. There s Mary Sue s FT, Bob s FT, Doreen s FT, Maureen s FT, Mel s FT, Jerry s FT, Stephanie s FT, Jean s FT, Virginia s FT, Graham s FT, etc., etc. Common ancestors between Mary Sue, Bob, Doreen, Maureen, Mel, etc. exist on the different FTs and can generally be located using tools provided by the commercial site but what if the person who knows the most about your common ancestor uses a different commercial site for their family tree. Unfortunately the information on the source of the data on these trees is often, but not always, missing. This perpetuates the spread of invalid Information as users borrow information from one tree and place it in their own tree only to have others pick it up and re-spread it. Even if you are careful of the data you pick up and add to your tree, it s inefficient to have the same person listed in multiple trees. This methodology also wastes valuable time as every person with a common ancestor is inputting the same information. Additionally, it s unlikely that no one tree has all the information about a person. It could be scattered between multiple trees and thus easily missed.
FamilySearch s approach to their Family Tree application is a bit different. Using a Wiki and crowdsourcing approach, they are trying to build one family tree for the entire world. Their idea is that everyone in the history of the world should be listed only ONE time. Even though we can never actually achieve a tree containing every person who ever lived, the idea is that those who can be documented should be listed only ONCE and from that individual you build branches backward (ancestors) and forwards (descendants) in time connecting to the data of other researchers through your shared common ancestors. Common Ancestor The advantage to this type of tree is that you will eventually link into an ancestor who has been researched by another genealogist or another genealogist will link to one of your ancestors and you can share information about this common ancestor. This is a much more efficient way to build a family tree. All the information for a person is in ONE record and everyone with information about that person contributes to that same record. The system they ve developed also keeps track of the changes made to each record, who made the changes and when they were made. They also have an area for notes and an area for discussions about the information. This is where genealogists contributing information on their common ancestor can duke it out if they disagree with one another one some of the information.
There are a few important things to know about the Family Tree application. In my opinion, one shortcoming of this system is that you can tie only vital events (name, gender, birth, christening, marriage, death and burial) directly to a source. You can add sources for other events but you cannot link them directly to the event. The records of living people can only be viewed only if you are the person who entered it into the system. I might enter my cousin and her family and she might enter them on her userid as well but neither of us can see each other s entries. You can NOT load the data from your genealogy database (Legacy, Reunion, RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker, etc.) into the Family Tree database via a GEDCOM file. That said, certain software makers have worked to become certified to interface with Family Tree, allowing users to pass data back and forth directly between their genealogy database and Family Tree. Legacy is one of those software makers. The Family Tree application is beginning to mature in terms of its features and ease of use, making this a great time to begin using it. FamilySearch and the Family History Library have a proven track record in terms of preserving data and offering it to users always for FREE. Pulling information and citations into Family Tree from the records side of FamilySearch is very easy. For every person in your part of the TREE you can turn on a watch switch and get automatic emails whenever something about that person is changed. To access Family Tree on FamilySearch you must have a FamilySearch userid and password. Once you login you have four options (as shown below) on where you go within Family Tree: Tree Person Find Lists.
Here s what the four options look like: Tree: Person: You ll always start with your own record. Until you add your parents and other ancestors, it will be the only box in the tree. Find: Again, you start with your own record when first logging in. Lists: The FIND option allows you to look for the records of other people in the Family Tree database. The LISTS option allows you to look at either the people you have selected to watch or the most recent changes to people in your watch list. Note: these same 4 options are always readily at hand just below the header on each of the 4 different windows as shown below. When you first enter Family Tree your own person record in the Family Tree database will be created. Because you are living, it will be visible only to YOU. Your next step is to add the records of your spouse and parents if they are still living. Start on your own PERSON page, then use the ADD SPOUSE or ADD PARENT options in the Family Members section of the window. Since they are living, select the ADD PERSON tab on the next window, then enter the requested information. Remember, ONLY you can see the records of the living people you ve added.
For all ancestors (or descendants) who are no longer living begin on a PERSON page, then use the ADD SPOUSE, ADD PARENT or ADD CHILD options to look for their records in the Family Tree database. In the next window, use the FIND PERSON tab and fill in whatever information you know about the person then click on FIND. You may find no matching records or you may find numerous matching records. If you find a good match, select it to link it to the person you started with. Next you should look for possible duplicates which may contain additional or different information for this person. The key to success is to merge any matching records so that duplicate records are eliminated and all the information for the individual is in ONE record.
The following flow chart shows the general methodology to use in Family Tree. Record Found? YES Select the record to link it to his/her descendant or ancestor Go to this individual s PERSON record Check for possible duplicates NO Add a new record for this person. (*) A quick word about merging duplicate records. Most everyone feels a bit reluctant to merge records when they first start using Family Tree. I view potential duplicate records as falling into 3 categories: 1. A clear and absolute match 2. A probable match it looks pretty close to what I already know about the person 3. NOT a match by any stretch of the imagination I ALWAYS merge anything in category (1) and most things (based on my evaluation) in category (2). I NEVER merge anything that falls into category (3). Merge Duplicates Use your common sense and a degree of caution if you are worried about merging a record then DON T merge it. I think you will find that most of the records that already exist in the family tree database for your family contain scant data with no sources but you may get lucky and find some records that are documented. If this is the case, hopefully you ll be able to get in touch with the person who entered and sourced the data so you can share information. The worst that can happen if you merge a record that shouldn t have been merged is that someone will need to be re-input the data at some point. YES Found duplicates? (*) No You may now enter other information for this individual.
Good sound genealogical practices are still needed when linking ancestors in Family Tree. Link people only when you have good sound evidence that they should be linked. In the example below, I found only one matching record when I searched for a record on my father via the add spouse option on my mothers PERSON page. Happily it s the record I want! To add it to my family tree as my mother s spouse, I just click on the SELECT button. The next step is to look for possible duplicates by bringing up this person s PERSON page and click on POSSIBLE DUPLICATES. In the example I am looking for the father of Mary Pryor and I find there are numerous James Prior s born between 1770 and 1780 in Tywardreath, Cornwall England. In this case only 1 record agrees with what I already know about James he was born in August 1778. Once I ve linked this record to Mary as her father (by clickin on SELECT) my next step is to look for possible duplicates. Just because you don t see possible duplicates on this screen doesn t mean you won t find any. NEVER SKIP the POSSIBLE DUPLICATES step.
Here s a look at the various sections of the PERSON page in Family Tree. Possible Duplicates option
Here s a look at the Possible Duplicates Window. Merge by ID option ID numbers Generally you can click on the REVIEW MERGE option to begin the merge process. Sometimes however, you will find so many possible duplicates that it can be confusing to keep track of which records you are trying to merge. In these cases it is helpful to use the MERGE BY ID option. To do so write down the id number of the matching person then click on MERGE BY ID. When you merge two people you must decide what information you want to keep and what you want to discard. Often times you ll find the information between the two records is the same so the decision is easy. Also, you should merge the person with less information into the person with more information. If you find yourself in the opposite situation you can use the SWITCH POSITIONS option to move the right hand person into the left position and vice versa.
Here s an example of a merge window. Switch Position option Don t let this note scare you into inaction: Cath Cubbon and information remaining in this column are deleted at the end of the merge process.
After you have made all your decisions about the possible merge data, click on the CONTINUE MERGE button to complete the merge.
When merging you need to decide, for each information group, whether to REPLACE the information in the original ONE record for this person or to REJECT it. Sometimes it s an easy decision as in the three different information groups shown below. In all three of these cases, the information on the right does not significantly different than the information on the left. In all three cases I would click on REJECT. Don t forget to scroll down through the entire record to make sure you ve chosen replace or reject for each information group. Sometimes the decision is more difficult which is why it s important to know as much as possible about the person you are merging. If the decision is particularly difficult, write down the information on the right hand side and enter it manually in the final ONE record as an alternate name or alternate birth, etc. after the merge is completed. Repeat the POSSIBLE DUPLICATES process until you are satisfied there are no more duplicates and you have arrived at ONE record for the individual in the family tree. This information should be enough to get you started using Family Tree to preserve your hard work. Hopefully you ll link to a common ancestor with lots of great documented information and you ll further your research beyond what you can possibly imagine. Additionally, you ll have preserved your research for the benefit of your family and others. There are more important features of Family Tree to understand. I m working on an additional handout that will discuss: Searching for source records for individuals in Family Tree. Adding Source Records to an individual Citing the Sources Linking the Sources to an individual s vital information Adding other types of information you ve found about your ancestor. Watch for an announcement in the newsletter when the second handout is ready for prime time. I hope you enjoy using Family Tree!