Where to update information on a living person (synchronization of data)
I have a living person in my family search tree, my wife has the same living person and we have the same living person in our group tree.
where do we add new information about this person so all 3 I’d numbers get the same update? Or do we have to add the new information 3 times?
Answers
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You need to add the same information to al three profiles if you want the information on all three.
The other option is to say the profile in the group is the profile for the person and not worry about keeping the other two synchronized with it.
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@Gordon Collett is correct, it is currently not available to synchronize data across different trees. The product team is investigating the possibilities of being able to do so, however. So it may become available in a future update.
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thank you both for your responses. As a retired engineer and programmer I would suggest that instead of trying to sync 3 different ID’s that these be merged so that only one remains that can be seen in all three trees.
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The trouble, as usual, are privacy concerns. Living people in different private spaces cannot be merged according to current FamilySearch policy which has to follow the privacy laws of every country it can be accessed in.
Then there is the issue of what happens if I get kicked out of group I am in. If I don't have my own copy of a living profile, I've lost it all together.
Both of these issues are not insurmountable, of course. It took them about eight years to develop the current Family Groups, at least that is about how long they have been promising it was coming, so who knows what we will be able to do in another eight years.
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The product team is looking at ways profiles could be compared information imported/exported from profiles in one tree into a different tree. We would be interested in hearing your thoughts on how this type of 'synchronizing' could work. Obviously, a single profile shared across multiple groups is not a possibility, because it would show evidence of work by people who are not in the particular group that you are in. Also, who or what group would 'own' that profile? If you could show a mock up of how it might look to compare across different trees in order to copy & paste information from a profile in one tree into a profile in a different tree. Or if you have thoughts on how that copy & paste could work, please add them here.
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The prompt for a mock up makes me think of the merge screens, with the "surviving person" title changed to identify the FGT they are in, and arrows could go either way.
Because you are concerned about audit trail of addition by non-members of the FG, the person requesting the copy of the data would be the author of that data in any target FGT.
It could go further in allowing the creation of hierarchy of entities. I may chose to have one profile be the primary profile for all my edits, and I want to propagate it to any other tree. I would then want to set an option for an "automatic sync" type, including "all" which overwrites all conflicting data in the target, "new" which only adds new information but leaves conflicts in place, and "manual" which means I have to select what goes where.
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Here's a weird thought: What if we turned this idea on its head, and instead of syncing entire profiles, we sync bits of information that are attached to profiles?
It's a little difficult to describe, so here's a quick and dirty mockup: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13N8m2zlUl9Pq04OIJiiJOsr08oOoAhTC/view?usp=sharing
EDIT: Obviously, only profiles which are already visible to you would appear in the sync page. It would be up to individuals to sync their private profiles.
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I'm enjoying reading this because one of the main points of dissatisfaction with the current system for me is this question of keeping data synchronized. I understand the issues and solutions raised, and will leave that to others. I am only commenting to add that this has bothered me since I saw this at RootsTech. I created a group with only 5 members then, but we did not really use it other than me setting up things. This week I went ahead and added names of my living cousins and pictures I have, etc. However, not having a button or straightforward process to say "also add this to my private space" or "merge with private space" is a bit confusing. I notice the prompt to add from my private space pops up every time I try to add a new person which is good because I could see myself forgetting. So I avoid checking "don't show this again." I need that reminder every time. But I cannot remember exactly who is in my private space already and who isn't so having to try a search is a little bit inconvenient, but at least it is possible. There are some complicated ways to get around the disconnect like how we have to tag photos of ourselves in both the group tree and private space. After seeing the prompt a few times I get it. However, I only get the option to do it for some of my living people. Others that I have in both spaces like my sister only show a tag option for the one I have inside the group. My brothers on the other hand showed both tag options. So why my sister only showed the group tag option, while my brothers showed both I have no clue. Maybe that is something I should have started a new thread about. But my point is that just using the existing user interface is a bit complicated and inconsistent. I am glad this exists at all though. We have all wanted this as users for many years, so I am thankful for sure. I plan to try and get my cousins on this and see if it can help us be more connected. Could we get some sort of list of private people in our own space compared to private people in the group tree, wit the option to copy people over? It should automatically sort those who already exist in both spaces. Perhaps the backend needs a tag showing that X person in the group tree = Y person in the user's tree. I'm not sure if you already track that, but that'd help with a few features. It is hard to see who is already present in both trees. In the tree view you get a check box to copy people over, but there ought to be a mark on those people that tells you which people have already been copied over so that instead of trying recopying the same person you'd have a compare button where you could sync data as described in this thread.
To summarize in part:
- It is a bit confusing overall and not everything works as expected, but I am very happy we have the possibility to do family trees together now.
- Can we get a list of private people in both spaces that we can use to either copy people over, initiate a sync process for people who have come out of sync, etc?
- Can we get a better user interface and feature set for the tree where there are check boxes to copy people over? Right now it is not clear who you already have copied.
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Sorry if this is obvious to everyone, but I wanted to mention an example of why better sync features matter. It is not just about sync with my private space, but also if I decide to manage more than one group tree.
My family is fairly small so for now I have added my first cousins and their kids on both my dad's side and my mom's side to a single family tree space. Hopefully this doesn't bug any of my cousins. It is easier for my own immediate family to see both sides in a single group. So far I do not have much engagement so I cannot say how well it turns out or not.
In the future, for example, if I want to create a group of all issue of one set of great grandparents, a lot of the data on living I already added to my first-cousins group is going to apply to that group too. I would need an easy way to copy it over and maintain it between the two groups.
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