how do I upload my Ancestry.com to Family Search?

FlorenceVrankovic

FlorenceVrankovic

thank you everyone for any help you can give me. Flo Vrankovic

Cindy Hecker

Remember FamilySearch is a collaborative tree and likely many of your relatives are already in the tree. Please check before adding possible duplicates. There is a way to add a Gedcom to Familysearch and you would have to create a gedcom using 3rd party software. So create a gedcom from Ancestry and upload to FamilySearch. https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-copy-information-from-my-gedcom-file-into-family-tree

FlorenceVrankovic

thanks Cindy, I have only a few entries on FS that I keyed in manually. I'll see about the third-party software to get the Ancestry tree and attachments over to FS. I don't know the third-party software but will give it a look. Thank you again. Flo

JeffWiseman

While in Ancestry.com, select one of the trees that you are interested in, and go to the "Tree Settings" window. You will be able to create a GEDCOM file from the tree that you selected in Ancestry. I have not ever used this and I have no idea how much (or how little) control you have over what goes into that GEDCOM file. I assume that it is just the full tree that you have selected.

 

That being said, after uploading a GEDCOM file into the Genealogies area of FamilySearch, when you try transferring data from there over into the FamilySearch FamilyTree, it can be fraught with problems and you have the ability to easily corrupt data in the FSFT that others may have spent years compiling. You can blow it away in seconds and not even know it! (not a good way to make friends).

 

So I always cringe a bit in showing folks how to do this. But if done correctly knowing the dangers, it can occasionally be useful to some folks.

 

So as Cindy already mentioned, you will likely find a very high percentage of your GEDCOM file is ALREADY in the tree. People discover that anywhere from 60%-90% of the records in their GEDCOM files are ALREADY in the FSFT! If you ignore this fact, it is very easy to create hundreds (or even thousands) of duplicate records in the FSFT which will have to be all merged and corrected one-at-a-time. That can take weeks.

 

In spite of how it is frequently abused by some people dumping entire GEDCOM files into the FSFT, the real intent of the GEDCOM upload and Compare facility in the FS website, was for COMPARING what you have in your file with what is in the FSFT (it also makes your GEDCOM data searchable by anyone with a FS account in a read-only fashion). If records in your GEDCOM truly do not exist in the FSFT already (this is typically the EXCEPTION), then you can copy the record data from your GEDCOM file stored in the Genealogies area of the FS website into the FSFT using the tool. If there is a match found between a record in your GEDCOM file and a record in the FSFT, you can compare the data and vitals in both side-by-side to determine if you want to change data in the FSFT to match that in your GEDCOM file.

 

One of the big problems with the FS tool for doing this is that it BLINDS you to much of the information you need to make intelligent decisions for what exactly to do. Sources, notes, discussions, change history for all the conclusions/vitals, etc. are NOT visible in the GEDCOM compare tool when you are using it. For this reason, all that information which may contain a complete proof that the values in your GEDCOM file are WRONG, and which are extensive and have been in place for decades now, are not considered by the person bringing their GEDCOM data over into the tree. Consequently, all that information is ignored with the owner of the GEDCOM file just assuming that their data is all correct.

 

The longest thread to ever exist in the old FamilySearch Feedback forum was a huge discussion with over 1500 posts in it, which went for over several years before FS locked it (even though was still never resolved).

 

So the bottom line is that there has been a lot of animosity toward people inappropriately using the GEDCOM upload tools at FamilySearch. So if you are going to use it, you want to do it right. So when you are ready to try it, make sure that you are familiar with the link that Cindy provided above and bring any other questions that you have here.

FlorenceVrankovic

thank you for the help, it's much appreciated. I followed the instructions and happy all the new information is uploaded to Family Research. I've been so careful with each entry and wanted FS to be as accurate as my Ancestry tree. I'm still figuring it out, but know it'll work out eventually. Thank you again... that was really nice of you to help.