FTM2019 Clean Up

After I Privatized my Media Files, I thought I would do some File Clean Up.

This is work on my own File, with 12,661 profiles. I have two questions in my mind as I have been doing this clean up.

What do I need / want to see

What do I want YOU to see

Those two questions have been on my mind when I give presentations on Family Tree Maker or when I blog, here, about the program. I have implemented these questions in a couple of smaller files, but not on my own file. I have been cleaning up a lot of information, like Citations in my file, but not really spent some time making this file public. Too messy, and needed to be cleaned up.

Thinking through the Media file issue, those two questions returned to this file and the related, linked Ancestry Member Tree (AMT). In an earlier blog post I figured out a way for someone finding the AMT, to communicate that I had images for the Profile. I can do that with my Master File.

But what about other information, like Facts, Notes, those stories. I know what I want to handle the Person (Profile) Notes. Each Note will have a Citation, keeping in mind that may be many notes in one persons Notes, but each one will have a Citation and that citation is in Bold. I have been doing that. The bolded Citation is a visual for me, that there is the "next" note, in the person note Tab. So, IF I have notes and I have not put the Citation, in bold, I just Privatize that Persons Notes. Looking at what I had left, not made private, I just privatized that note and moved on. I realized that the notes, with citations, were not consistent. So, I went through almost 200 pages of notes and made them Private. I want to see consistent notes, with Citations, but don't want anyone else to see them YET. Also, Ancestry AMTs do not present the Notes with the formatting (like bold Citations) that I have in my version of the Notes. Remember that those notes may appear in a Book that I may create from this file. That Formatting WILL remain in that Book. I can also unprivatize those notes for that book.

All Notes are not marked as Private.

I already have a number of FACTS that I have marked as Private, like Current Place Names for a Historical location (see earlier blog posts on that), but when I was looking at the 200 Facts that I have in my database, again my use of those Facts were not Consistent.

I did two things with the Facts. Marked ALL but Birth, Marriage, and Death Facts as Private, but Default, AND those existing, as Private. I can see that ALL. As I did this, I created an EXCEL spreadsheet with each Fact and the Number of times that Fact was used. As I went along, I made a quick notation that I needed to fix my usage of that Fact, in EXCEL.

What I also have, is an Evernote (another program) Notebook on how I use Family Tree Maker. I have used that for a long time, especially for Citations. So my next task, and I may blog about this, is to put all of those Facts in Evernote, and describe how I use that Fact and Where I get it from.

In EXCEL, I made a couple of Notes. Self, Records, System. Where did that fact come from. Very high level, but I did this to give me a clue as to the Order in which I want to work on those Facts. Some are easy, some, not so much. My Military FACTS are out of control.

Going forward, my workplan is to make those Private Facts public, as appropriate. Keeping in mind those two questions.

What do I need / want to see

What do I want YOU to see

I have not forgotten my prep work for the 1950 U.S. Federal Census project, as I will switch between the two projects from time to time, probably one day with one project the next on the other.

I probably will share some of this work in this blog, if there is any interest. But I want my file to be the way it should be. I have learned a lot of information since I started AND Family Tree Maker has many new features that make it easier to accomplish my goal.

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Copyright © 2021 by Cousin Russ

FTM2019 - Update Privatized Facts

In the previous blog post, I marked certain Facts as Private by default. Meaning the next time that Fact is used, it will be private. The one I selected in the previous video, the fact had not been used.

There is a couple of screens that appear, when that Fact is being used. This video will demonstrate that.

In addition, I will show what a "messy" Ancestry Member Tree (AMT) looks like when Alternate Facts are selected in the Facts Tab in the AMT.

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Copyright © 2021 by Cousin Russ

FTM2019 - Just the Facts

As I am considering making my Ancestry Member Tree (AMT) Public, I want to evaluate what Facts in my database, do I want a visitor to the AMT to see. 

I will demonstrate the process that I am going through, making the changes, as to which Facts are Marked Private by default, and by checking the Properties of each Fact, which existing Fact will appear in the Updated AMT.

Keep in mind, that they always can be changed back globally, or individually.

 

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Copyright © 2021 by Cousin Russ

Social Security Death Index - Warning

As some of you know, I work off of Ancestry RECORD Hints, and find this works very well for me. I then will use the Web Merge feature of Family Tree Maker to get that data from the website, into my database. The REASON I do this is so that my database contains the exact information from that Record. Misspelling and all. When the Data is in my database, then I evaluate the information presented and mark the appropriate Fact as Preferred. Keep in mind, that I have already evaluated the Hint BEFORE I do the Web Merge, to make sure it is my person. This 2nd evaluation is to match this new information against the other information I already have.

Now, the reason for this blog post is to bring to your attention a problem that I have seen in a number of Records, but I will focus on ONE Record Group, the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) from Ancestry.

The issue: The Death Fact information.

I have seen this problem during the Web Merge of an SSDI Record, many times and have reported this as a Bug to Family Tree Maker. But, I wanted to see why the Web Merge was acting the way it was. The Root Cause of the problem (yes, I'll tell you in a minute), is the way that Ancestry handles this Record.

Here is a Hint, in my Ancestry Member Tree (AMT), for an Individual, for a SSDI Record:

This is a Quick Compare, in the AMT, with My information on the Right and the Record information on the Left. I only have the Year of the persons Death. The Record, in this Hint, had the Month and Date (all good) of the Death BUT is has a Death Location.

If I were to just accept that Hint, the Death Location would be Added to that Death Fact.

Here is the Issue:

If you Look at the RECORD, the Record has the Month and Year but NO Death Location. In this example, there is a Last Residence Fact, which is good, it includes the city, county, state, and Zip code. All good. BUT there is NO Death Location on that Record.

What information does the SSDI contain?

The SSDI contains the following information fields:ty number
Surname
Given Name
Date of Death
Date of Birth
Last Known Residence
Location of Last Benefit
Date and Place of Issuance

Note: the Date of Birth, nor the Date of Death items do NOT include the Location / Place. And, in the Web Merge, online or in Family Tree Maker, the Birth PLACE is not included. Only the Death Place (example in a minute)

My understand of the Last Know Residence and the Location of Last Benefit, is the last place someone lived, according to Social Security and where the Last Benefit was sent. Neither of them are noting the Place of Death.

In the Web Merge, in Family Tree Maker, as it the AMT Save Hint we see:

I will NOT accept that Place Name for the Death Fact, I must manually delete the Death Fact PLACE for an SSDI.

I caught this issue a while ago, but chose now to blog about it, when the SSDI claimed that my Grandfather Died in New Jersey. He did not, but the Last Benefit was sent to New Jersey.

My mothers SSDI claimed her last residence correctly, but the Last Benefit was sent to the same Place Name, but a different Zip Code. In this specific case, and the  reason why I enter those other Fact Names into my database, (deleting the Place of Death) is that it gave me a clue as to why my mother's estate did not include any Social Security benefits. It must have been sent to the Long Term Care facility, as part of their Contact. It IS useful information.

It is my opinion, that this is a BUG for Ancestry.com to resolve as well as Family Tree Maker to resolve.

IF the RECORD does NOT Contain the Place of Death, it should NOT be included in the AMT Merge, nor the Family Tree Maker Web Merge Feature.

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Copyright © 2019 by Cousin Russ

User Question: FTM2017 starting to add 100's of Facts

Here is a Family Tree Maker User Question:

FTM 2017 has started a new fact for 100's of facts that normally would have gone into a regular Fact item. I use Ancestry online to make changes and sync to FTM 2017. Now in FTM 2017 I have all these new fact categories. I don't how or why it is doing it and don't know how to fix them.

Sorry, the question is too vague but I will take a stab at a response. Beware, I will probably have some views along the way.

What I am guessing the question is about, is the types of FACTs that Ancestry will add when a Merge of a record, from Ancestry, OFFERS to the owner of that Ancestry Member Tree (AMT). When a merge is started, the user is offered what Facts to keep, ignore, or accepted as Alternate Facts.

What I don't understand it "facts that would have going into a regular Fact item. A FACT is a FACT. Don't know what a "regular fact" is nor do I know what "new fact categories" means. Above that, how to fix "it".

Various Records from Ancestry offer many different Facts, based on that Record. In other words, these records provide us with INFORMATION about the Profile (person) to help us determine that persons story. If Regular Facts means Birth, Death, and Marriage Facts, then a Social Security Death Index Record might add Facts like "Last Residence", Last Benefit", "Social Security Number".

One of the advantages of doing the Merging of Records in FTM2017 is that you are the "big" picture, all of the Facts, that you have collected so far, before you do the merge, and during the merge you see some of them. That is on the Lower Left Panel of the Web Merge Screen, and in the Lower Right Panel is the FACTS (Information) that is contained in the Record.

Like the merge done online, you have the option to chose which Facts are or are not going to be included in that Merge.

Here is what the Web Merge looks like in the AMT

The information on the Left is from the Record and the information in my database (AMT) is on the Right. In this example, I only have the person's NAME (fact) and some relationships. This was taken from an AMT Hint. The word NEW in the left panel and right panel, is suggesting that I can ADD those FACTS to this profile. AND I have choices.

Sorry, I just can't guess what the real question is, only guessing what it might be.

Finally, IF I were do to this merge in the AMT, then did a FamilySync with FTM2017, those "new"facts would be added to my FTM2017 database.

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Copyright © 2018 by H R Worthington

Ancestry Member Tree Views

How to control the Settings in an Ancestry Member Tree for a View / Guest to that tree or as a Contributor or Editor to that tree.


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Copyright © 2016 by H R Worthington

FTM2012 vs AMT - Facts

In the Knowledge Base article on the differences between FTM2012 and AMT, I had to look carefully at this statement:


Facts
 
In general fact dates, names, places, and descriptions (including custom and alternate facts) are the same in Family Tree Maker and Ancestry trees. However, you may find that some fact types are labeled differently. For example, the Physical Description fact in Family Tree Maker is the Description fact in Ancestry trees.

It was the Example that through be off a little. But, a picture or two says it all.

In FTM2012, you can add a Physical Description as a Fact for a person. As with each Fact, you can have a Date, a Place, and a Description for that Fact.

The same Fact when created in AMT would be:

From what I can tell, that is what this Knowledge Base article is talking about. I am sure that there are other examples.


For further details of the Differences between Family Tree Maker 2012 and an Ancestry Member Tree, please visit the Knowledge Base article #5359 What are the differences between the Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com trees when using TreeSync™?

Copyright © 2011 by H R Worthington