Family Tree
roberternestjenkins1 roberternestjenkins134m agoI have uploaded close to 4000 pdf files, to the proper person in my tree. I have close to that many more to go. These all represent a lifetime of work by my mom, dad, and aunt. I've not uploaded any of the old temple cards, with the completed temple information on them (that's almost another 1000 by themselves!). Most of the files I've uploaded are family group records, then pedigree charts, letters, photos, and lots of misl. notes. All have valuable information that others can use.
Recently i was told that a few of the family group records were not acceptable for uploading to Family Search. I can only guess that there are a very few that might have a date on it, associated with temple work.
It was at this point I realized there could be hundreds of files like this! I can't imagine the work it would take to undo all that I've done, and I'm only about halfway there. More importantly, removing these records because of a couple of dates means removing all of the other useful/important information on that file. That does not make sense!
So my recommendation is this: create a tool that acts just like the tool used for saving a document (move the box to the upper left-hand corner, with the mouse hold down the green dot and drag it to the lower right-hand corner, click save). Using the same tool, cover the information that needs to covered and when you click on the green dot it leaves a white square or rectangle. That way whatever information needs to be covered, but all the rest of the page remains for others to read.
It runs counter-intuitive to remove whole documents with information that may not be found anywhere else, because a small portion is not allowed.
Please consider this and pass along to whoever needs to read it. Gathering Israel on the other side of the vail requires important information.
Thanks for listening!!
Comments
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Some of your family group sheets may have information about LIVING individuals. That is more likely the reason they are being refused. Unfortunately with PDF files, you can mask data by overlaying it with white boxes (or equivalents), but you can't prevent anyone else from then removing that mask, so I suspect that it really isn't a simple fix.
However, I'm also wondering why you are uploading a lot of that information:
1) Why upload all the temple information for all of those people? If the work was done, it should already be in the system and visible under the Ordinances tab for each of those person records in the FSFT.
2) Why upload all the family group records and pedigree charts? When all of the associated names are put into in FSFT, you automatically get them presented in pedigree and family group formats. Besides, if the temple works was done on all of these as you imply, all of the records are already in the tree. Have you looked to see if any of those records already exist? There is a very likely chance that they do and have more information already attached to them then you have on all of those sheets.
3) Loading all of those letters and photos into memories could be real useful, but the notes likely need to be placed directly into the notes attached to those individuals or into the memories as appropriate.
I fear that you may be wasting a LOT of time uploading the genealogical type information documents that you have since most of that information is already documented in the FSFT itself.
Also, although family groups sheets and the like can be useful for initially searching for sources, they do NOT make good sources in and of themselves. For example, if you set up a family group that was different than the way it was in FSFT using the family Group sheet provided by your parents, Someone who has attached actual birth record and census sources to that family may just come along and delete those memories you have attached since they may contain no significant evidence that contributes to the actual proof that the family really looked like that.
You also referred to "my tree". Although you may already understand this, if you don't, you will need to know that nobody has "their own tree" in the FSFT. There is a single tree owned by FS who allows everyone else to contribute to it in a shared fashion. If someone doesn't believe the information you put there because it isn't sourced well enough, they will remove or change it. Although personal FG sheets and pedigree charts made by your parents can be used as a "last resort" as an initial source, others may view them as just somebody else's personal opinion of things.
Anyway, I'm not trying to criticize what you are doing, I'm just warning you that you might want to reconsider where you are putting all of your efforts so that the work you do doesn't get trashed by others along the way.
Good luck with wading through all that good information! That's how I started with a stack of family group sheets and pedigree charts. Then as I started entering that information directly into a database and attaching actual sources to the individuals, I started discovering that there were MANY mistakes in those records and adjustments that were necessary. The people that built the original sheets and charts I started with did not have the digital tools and search capabilities of historical records that we now have. It's now a lot easier to find mistakes.
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"Unfortunately with PDF files, you can mask data by overlaying it with white boxes (or equivalents), but you can't prevent anyone else from then removing that mask, so I suspect that it really isn't a simple fix."
They could flatten the PDF file so that the information below it is not in the file anymore and, therefore, the mask cannot come off to show what was there before.
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