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I just found some information on Ancestry.com that I'd like to add to my FamilySearch tree. How do I do that?

moonman239 wrote:I just found some information on Ancestry.com that I'd like to add to my FamilySearch tree. How do I do that?

It depends on what kind of information it is. If it's source information, then you would create a source on FamilySearch, link it to the particular Ancestry.com source record, and then attach that source to the person(s) in the FamilySearch Family Tree that it applies to. Sometime in the future there will be smoother integration for source linking, but that's not available yet.

If it's a set of people, then you could do a couple of different things. You could create a GEDCOM in Ancestry.com, then import that GEDCOM into a program that syncs with Family Tree. Or you could manually add the people to Family Tree. If it's just one or two people, it's probably easier to just add them manually, but if it's several people, you might want to go the GEDCOM/Sync route.

I prefer to add people to FamilySearch tree via FS's sources. If the sources are available on FS itself, I'd use Ancestry as a guide and re-create the trees on FS.

Note that trees on Ancestry can be full of errors and questionable assumptions. I wouldn't accept any tree information found there without examining it in detail. That's not a knock on Ancestry - the same can be said of any compiled trees. That's why it might be wise to NOT import but to re-build it using the other tree as a "hint".

A second issue is that a number of those people might already be in FS. You should check for duplicates. Especially before submitting names to the temple. Checking for duplicates is easier to do if you're adding them one-by-one. Even if you are a convert, there are other members out there doing their lines - and some may have been done by name extraction.

russellhltn wrote: A second issue is that a number of those people might already be in FS. You should check for duplicates. Especially before submitting names to the temple. Checking for duplicates is easier to do if you're adding them one-by-one. Even if you are a convert, there are other members out there doing their lines - and some may have been done by name extraction.

I get what you're saying about the Ancestry.com trees. They're prone to error, but I don't see how much more error-prone those trees are than user-contributed/edited FamilySearch records.

As for your second point, theoretically, FamilySearch could identify potential duplicates and ask the end user to compare the information in the Ancestry.com records to said potential duplicates, just as FamilySearch already does when you manually add an individual to your FamilySearch tree.

moonman239 wrote:I get what you're saying about the Ancestry.com trees. They're prone to error, but I don't see how much more error-prone those trees are than user-contributed/edited FamilySearch records.

Well, hopefully you've backed your part of FamilyTree with sources. As such, it's less likely to be fiction.

moonman239 wrote:As for your second point, theoretically, FamilySearch could identify potential duplicates and ask the end user to compare the information in the Ancestry.com records to said potential duplicates, just as FamilySearch already does when you manually add an individual to your FamilySearch tree.

Oddly enough, FS's duplicate checking doesn't seem to be as good as it should be. I've learned that if names pop up while trying to match sources to write down the ID numbers and follow up on them. I've found several duplicates that way.

I'm not sure as FS does any checking when importing. And I can tell you from experience - it's easier to resolve duplicates while you're adding records rather than after you've built the whole tree. Because then you have to move up and down the tree like a zipper merging everything together. It's easy when the duplicate is one person. It's more work when it's an entire branch.

I have been using my free Ancestry account to create personal family trees as a replacement for my old PAF file. When this free "FamilySearch partner" Ancestry account was created, the first four generations of my direct ancestors were copied from Family Tree to my Ancestry tree.

As I perform research on Ancestry, and collect data into my tree, I can click the link next to each person's name to connect them to FamilySearch, and then compare information between FamilySearch Family Tree and my Ancestry tree, copying information in either direction, depending on which checkboxes I select.

This feature has been a great time-saver.

Good afternoon everyone. I am helping a friend with their temple work. She has over 1200 names that need to go from Ancestry to Family Search. Is there any way I could get someone to have a call with me to walk through that process? I would like to get the names transferred ASAP so that our youth can do the baptisms on their next temple trip.

If anyone can help me, please do let me know. Thanks!

Jerrod

jerrodnelms wrote:I would like to get the names transferred ASAP so that our youth can do the baptisms on their next temple trip.

Be sure to spend the time it takes to locate duplicates. There's good odds that some of those names have already been done - either by other relatives or by name extraction.

This is a very common question. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to upload multiple individuals into FamilySearch Family Tree, and there is a very good reason for this.

In Ancestry.com, you can create multiple family trees, and you can upload GEDCOM files into one of your family trees. This is possible because you "own" your family trees, and your changes do not affect anyone else. However, FamilySearch Family Tree is a single tree for all humanity. Each deceased person you add to Family Tree is a potential duplicate of an existing record, so you must carefully search for an existing record before you create a new record. Obviously, this cannot be done automatically when you have many names to upload.

If a person has 1,200 names in a GEDCOM file or an Ancestry tree, I suspect over 1,000 of those individuals already exist in Family Tree. Therefore, careful manual searching and merging is required.

Ancestry does provide a link to "Connect person to FamilySearch". If a matching person is found, you can then transfer data from Family Tree to Ancestry, or from Ancestry to Family Tree. If a matching person is not found, this feature allows you to create a new individual on Family Tree. You can also use this feature to submit individuals for temple ordinances, and track their progress.

However, Ancestry does not provide any online help or tutorial on this feature.
I found this blog post with screenshots that provides an introduction to this feature.

Linking FamilySearch Family Tree to other online databases
http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogsp ... nking.html

Dana,
Thank you so much for the link at the bottom of your post. It really spells out the method well. We have a convert sister who has about 19,000 names on Ancestry and wants to transfer them to FamilySearch. I guess there isn't an easy way to do it, but at least we can get her started. Too bad there isn't anything on FS about it.