FamilySearch Community https://community.familysearch.org/en/ Wed, 22 Jul 2026 13:47:41 +0000 en FamilySearch Community Source Linker jumps from CET to the FamilySearch Family Tree and back https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/162514/source-linker-jumps-from-cet-to-the-familysearch-family-tree-and-back Sun, 26 May 2024 21:15:12 +0000 Social Groups James Tanner 162514@/en/discussions I was adding names by generation to connect a person I was researching in the FamilySearch Family Tree to the same person in the CET. I am doing descendancy research and I trace a line back to a reasonably remote ancestor and then start researching forward in time, adding names to the Family Tree to link the person to my CET. I keep the View Relationship open, so I don't leave the pedigree by starting to research a collateral ancestor. So, I have the FamilySearch Family Tree open to keep me on the particular line I am researching. While I was copying the line back to the original ancestor, I got an error message when attaching a source that the person I was looking for was already in the family tree, but she wasn't. Then, when I went back to look for my research person, I found his ID number had changed and I was working with FamilySearch and FamilySearch said the Person Not Found. Because even though the titles said I was working on the CET, I was actually working on the FamilySearch.org Family Tree.

]]> Initial observations upon working with a family tree imported from RootsMagic https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/162491/initial-observations-upon-working-with-a-family-tree-imported-from-rootsmagic Sun, 26 May 2024 13:30:55 +0000 Social Groups James Tanner 162491@/en/discussions I tried importing the same family tree I had used initially from Ancestry.com but somehow it ended up not being recognized as a GEDCOM file. Subsequently, I went to my RootsMagic file and downloaded a GEDCOM file that worked. First observations were that again, as was the case with the Ancestry family tree, Almost all the place entries are non-standard. With over 6000 names, It is unlikely that I can standardize even a small percentage of the names. Next, to match the work I have already done in the FamilySearch.org Family Tree, I will have spend a lot of time adding people to the RootsMagic/CET family tree. One of the first things I noticed was that a non-standard name entered from RM had an name entry that looked like this: Charles Godfrey DeFriez (Jarvis) (he adopted the surname Jarvis) GRVQ-J7S (FamilySearch FT entry KWCK-XQG) However, the name in parentheses came into the CET as a Suffix. In addition, because I have been working primarily on my part of the FamilySearch Family Tree, I have a lot of work to do adding people to my uploaded RootsMagic family tree to get to the point where I was with the FamilySearch Family Tree. I realize that added people from the FamilySearch Family Tree is coming in the future but until that time working with the CET will be painful. I noticed that the CET had active Research Help and so started adding the suggested record to my CET. At this point, I have to have an Edge browser open with the FamilySearch Family Tree, and windows open to see the View Relationship and another window open to work on the FamilySearch Family Tree. I am fairly sure that I will need at least five windows open in at least two browsers to do any work at all on the CET. I will stop adding to this discussion and start another one.

]]> Imports from old PAF GEDCOM files may be very different than the current FamilySearch Family Tree https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/162155/imports-from-old-paf-gedcom-files-may-be-very-different-than-the-current-familysearch-family-tree Sat, 18 May 2024 23:23:14 +0000 Social Groups James Tanner 162155@/en/discussions If a potential user imports their CET from an old PAF GEDCOM or from another program the differences between the standardized FamilySearch Family Tree and the old or non-standard family tree may be significantly more extensive.

]]> Must use two different browsers to work with the CET https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/162156/must-use-two-different-browsers-to-work-with-the-cet Sat, 18 May 2024 23:25:04 +0000 Social Groups James Tanner 162156@/en/discussions If I want to have a copy of the CET and the FamilySearch Family Tree open at the same time, I have to use two separate browsers, in my case, Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. If I try to open both family trees in the same browser, they automatically go to the same family tree. This is probably going to be an issue with less experienced users.

]]> Another example of changing ID numbers and importing sources from Ancestry.com https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/162160/another-example-of-changing-id-numbers-and-importing-sources-from-ancestry-com Sat, 18 May 2024 23:33:59 +0000 Social Groups James Tanner 162160@/en/discussions I found another interesting issue when I tried to use Ancestry.com’s API and add information to the FamilySearch Family Tree (FSFT). I found record hints for William Flewin 9K4L-V86 and used the interface to the FSFT. I then quit the program and reopened it to the CET. I went to the Recents menu and found William Flewin 9K4L-V86 while still in the CET. I then changed back to the FSFT by selecting the tree from the menu and then I went to the Recents menu and looked for William Flewin 9K4L-V86 again. I can provide screenshots of this happening if asked. I then used the menu to move to the Tanner Family Tree Group and went to Recents and found William Flewin 9K4L-V86 with all the sources from Ancestry.com. I thought this was a little bit unusual since I did not think the three trees shared the same information. So, I closed the program again and then used the View Relationship chart to find William in the FSFT. Since I still had the Chrome browser open, I did not have to sign into FS again. When I opened the program, it defaulted to the last choice of the three family trees. I switched to the FSFT and using the View Relationship, I worked my way back to William Flewin 9K4L-V86. The FS program then crashed. I went back into the FSFT and worked my way back to William again. Now I was back to William Flewin 9K4L-V86. I changed the Family Tree view to the CET, and it returned to the default view and then I worked my way back to William again using the Relationship Chart which I had open in another window. Now I had William Flewin G5BW-5WZ with only 10 sources. I changed to the CET Group and worked my way back to William in this tree. Here William was 9K4L-V86. Next, just to see what would happen, I switched to the CET and went back on the pedigree. Now William was William Flewin G5BW-5WZ. I shut down the website again, this time completely and reopened it to each of the three trees using the recents menu. I had to sign in, of course. William Flewin 9K4L-V86 with all the sources was in the FSFT. William Flewin 9K4L-V86 Was in the Tanner Family Tree Group Tree and also in the CET. Interesting. Apparently, I can import from Ancestry and the FSFT and the Group Tree.

]]> GEDCOM imported from Ancestry.com needs every place standardized https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/162153/gedcom-imported-from-ancestry-com-needs-every-place-standardized Sat, 18 May 2024 23:16:53 +0000 Social Groups James Tanner 162153@/en/discussions Because Ancestry.com has a different standard for its place names, if you import a GEDCOM from Ancestry, all most all the place names will be marked as needing standardization in the Family Tree. I am aware that it may be possible in future upgrades to “import and export” directly to the FamilySearch Family Tree from the CET, but this is still going to be an ongoing issue. For the time being, I will standardize any dates and places as I work with the CET.

]]> Add New Person Finds Match in Family Tree https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/165645/add-new-person-finds-match-in-family-tree Wed, 14 Aug 2024 21:56:35 +0000 Social Groups Darris Williams 165645@/en/discussions When I try to add a new person to my CET I expect the search to look for that person already in the CET that I am working in. If I try to add Howell Llewelyn died 1850 at Llangiwg, Glamorgan, Wales, United Kingdom as the father of Hannah Llewelyn it brings up as a possible match this person in Family Tree, PID, LWFV-QFZ. It is the same person but the two trees are getting mixed up.

If I follow through to attach the person from Family Tree, I get a pop up that states the relationship has been created but it doesn't actually add the person to the CET.

]]> Is it possible in CET to return the feature in Memories that had 3 categories? https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/164402/is-it-possible-in-cet-to-return-the-feature-in-memories-that-had-3-categories Thu, 11 Jul 2024 19:48:48 +0000 Social Groups mboyden3 164402@/en/discussions This feature has been lost to the regular FamilySearch public tree but I am not the only one who would like the 3 categories in Memories so historical documents & professional journal articles can be distinguished from "images" and from "stories." Not all sources are created equal and the most authoritative sources often become lost on the public tree in a sea of inaccurate "stories" and even photos of irrelevant places or persons. This is particularly true of old erroneous material for persons the 1500s-1700s that have more recent, professionaI genealogical journal articles that have debunked a lot of old mistakes with authoritative sources and professional interpretation.

Is there a way in CET at least to restore this option?

And will there be a way to be able to reposition the order of items placed in Memories so the most trustworthy ones can be seen first? I am holding back on posting Memories to pages in CET because the order will ultimately be important.

]]> GEDCOM used to upload CET https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/164854/gedcom-used-to-upload-cet Tue, 23 Jul 2024 19:59:09 +0000 Social Groups James Tanner 164854@/en/discussions It sounds like to me that if the CET (whatever they end up being called) are popular, that FamilySearch will see an increase in the number of GEDCOM uploads. As you might know, I am a member of the ongoing GEDCOM Steering committee and it has been a couple of years now since we released GEDCOM 7.0. After the release we began working on GEDCOM 7.1 and also a potential 8.0. All this is in the openly online available GEDCOM.io website. GEDCOM 7.0 has been adopted by quite a number of developers and I am wondering why FamilySearch has not adopted GEDCOM 7.0? Just some thoughts.

]]> DID YOU KNOW: Ancestry Integration Works in a CET https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/164852/did-you-know-ancestry-integration-works-in-a-cet Tue, 23 Jul 2024 19:22:24 +0000 Social Groups Robert Kehrer 164852@/en/discussions sort of….

If you have a personal tree at Ancestry and have access to the FamilySearch-Ancestry integration, you can go to the profile page for a person in your tree, click the small FamilySearch tree logo in the top right. It will give you the option to search for a person at FamilySearch by ID. Paste in the PID to the corresponding person in your CET. You will then link the person in your personal Ancestry tree to the person in your CET.

Once linked you can move data between the two trees & persons across websites.


There is a small gotcha. You can only link the person in Ancestry to one PID on FamilySearch & Ancestry has no concept of a CET. What that means is that, if you have linked them to someone in Family Tree, you may need to unlink the Ancestry person from a Family Tree person and relink them to the correct person in your CET. This shouldn't be a problem for those of you who are doing your genealogical research in your CET.

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