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

Dear Randy: How Do You Search For Records on Ancestry.com? - My Take

My good friend and colleague, Randy Seaver, had one of his readers ask him a question, and his response is here

Dear Randy: How Do You Search For Records on Ancestry.com?

My approach is slightly different and thought I would share the difference. Please don't get me wrong, Randy will run circles around my research.

His second choice was to use Hints and Suggested Records. Hints, within FTM2017 are my FIRST Choice. Reason, the criteria and data required by the Hints provided in my Ancestry Member Tree are far more accurate from the data on the Generic Search Website.

(I see they have changed the All Records Search screen a bit)

There are many fields that can be filled in, some fields may or may not get the results I might want.

I have mentioned this before, but when I do use the Ancestry Search engine, manually, no hints, I will search in a specific Record Collection, preceded with a specific Genealogical Question. l have learned that the Search Screen fields will be different based on that record collection. Also, I have an Evernote note that I create and update based on that Record Group. I have Citation information, what information I want to gather from that record collection.

For  example: The U.S.,Social Security Applications and Claims Index,1936-2007.

https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=60901

Note the fields that can be completed, if know.

And the U.S., Social Security Death Index,1935-2014

https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3693

The data fields are different.

But, in most cases, I have a specific question, which would lead me to a specific Record Group, I would go to that Record Group and did the search from there.

I generally start very broadly, then refine (Edit) the information in the Fields, but I do start with the Sliders that Randy describes.

But, I let my Ancestry Member Tree (AMT) find the Hints that I will use, within FTM2017. I do ALL of my Data Entry in FTM2017, including the Web Merge Feature. I do not merge any records in the AMT.

But Please read Randy's Blog Post. (link above)

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Copyright © 2018 by H R Worthington

How to Un-Ignore a Shaky Leaf Hint for FTM2017?

After I posted the How to Ignore a hint in FTM2017, and was successful, I really did NOT what to ignore that hint. I spent some time trying to determine how to do this, and here is my result.



I will continue to look for a better answer, and I have provided Feedback to Family Tree Maker on this problem.
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Copyright © 2017 by H R Worthington

Why doesn't the IGNORE button Work ?

In response to a user report problem about the Ignore Button in FTM2017, Web Search Workspace. I'll try to explain how it works.


The IGNORE button is for Hints, not search results

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Copyright © 2017 by H R Worthington

FTM2017 - No Hints from Ancestry

Just purchased or upgrade to FTM2017 and the People Workspace, Tree View has no Hints.

Simple answer, go to the Plan Workspace and Check the Sync Status:

The answer: You must have an Ancestry Member Tree (AMT) to receive Hints. Those AMTs are what provides us with the hints.

Upload and Line to Ancestry is the Answer. Be sure to check the settings of the Ancestry Member Tree as you upload and sync.

• Public
• Private
• Private, not searchable by Ancestry

Are the options.

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Copyright © 2017 by H R Worthington

FTM2014 - How I handle Hints in a 5 Generation Tree

I have talked about managing Hints by searching by Record Groups. Now I have added another Hint Management system to my Genealogy Tool Box. Hints using the F.A.N. Club, or by Direct Descendants for a person. In this case, my Great-Grandfather's children.



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Copyright © 2016 by H R Worthington

FTM2014 - Why I do my Merging of Records in FTM2014 / FTM-3

There are a number or reasons why I do ALL of my merging of data, mostly from Shaky Leaf Hints, into Family Tree Maker from my PC.

• Easier control of WHAT data is included in the Merge and how each Fact is handled
• Easier to Add Facts from data in the record, what is not included in the merge
• Easier to add Citations to the manually entered Facts
• Two links directly back to the original Record on Ancestry
• A copy of the image, when the record includes an image

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Copyright © 2016 by H R Worthington

FTM2014 - How I manage AMT Hints within FTM2014

Some people have seen and/or heard my Information Overload, So Many Hints, So Little Time. (just added that ending piece).

With Changes that Ancestry.com has made recently, I had to modify how I work with those hints. I thought I would share how I manage those hints now.


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Copyright © 2016 by H R Worthington

FTM2014 - How is this better than a research log ?

One of my blog readers, Stephanie, ask how is FTM2014 better than a research log. I was trying to explain how I use FTM2014 do to my research.

I thought a short subject video might make it easier to explain.




Thank you for the Question and the tine to do the recording.
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Copyright © 2016 by H R Worthington

Census Merge in Ancestry Member Tree

As a follow up to the FTM2014 patch, I will now do the same task, but in an *Ancestry Member Tree*. Same choices and Same results.




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Copyright © 2015 by H R Worthington

FTM2014 - Following a Shaky Leaf Hint for Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current from Ancestry.com

How I handle a Shaky Leaf Hint for Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current from Ancestry.com database


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Copyright © 2015 by H R Worthington

FTM2014 - Ancestry.com - Find A Grave Index Hint

Here is how I handle an Ancestry Member Tree hint, for the Ancestry.com U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current and bring that information into FTM2014.
In this specific case, I am creating a bread crumb that would lead me to the Find A Grave website. The reason for me to create this lead to that website, is so that I can create the Creator of that Memorial, get the memorial number. I would then deal with any images or other information that might be on that memorial.




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Copyright © 2014 by H R Worthington

Civil War Pension Index Cards

DearMYRTLE’s Docu-Challenge: Phillips, William D
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2014/10/docuchallenge-phillips-william-d.html

Russ Worthington’s response:
DearMYRTLE’s DocuChallenge in A Worthington Weblog
http://worthy2be.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/dearmyrtles-docuchallenge

Russ’ Conversations with Dixie Petty on FB:
https://www.facebook.com/hrworth/posts/10205358785239170:0 

DearMYRTLE's
WACKY Wednesday: What kind of document is THAT?
https://plus.google.com/102461242403735457058/posts/idFLzywri2L

A BIG Thank you to +DearMYRTLE for this DocuChallenge




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Copyright © 2014 by H R Worthington

Following the PA Death Certificate Hints

As you may have seen, I have been working with the Ancestry Shaky Leaf Hints.

For the past several days, I have been working with the relatively new Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1906-1963 collection. I had already done some research on them, but that was "way back when" you had to write, wait months, and cost money, OR drive to Harrisburg. I had already identified 21 people with Death Certificate Numbers.

The purpose of this blog post, is a summary of my experience with the NEW collection, on Ancestry, that end up in my Ancestry Member Tree as Shaky Leaf Hints. I then compared that with the hints in FTM2014, merged the records in FTM2014 and did all of the follow up work following the merge. That work includes getting the "Source Information" from Ancestry.com, into an Evidence Explained format for Citations, putting a Citation on Each Death Certificate, Entering a Research Log entry for each person that was cited from that record, and created a Death Certificate Fact for follow up later.

I only recorded the Facts from the Merge an will review each Death Certificate in the future. This was just go get the information from Ancestry into my FTM2014 file.

I started with 42 Hints in my Ancestry Member Tree. I was able to merge 32 of them. There are now 10 new items on my ToDo list, for follow up. 75% of the hints were accurate. Of the remaining 10, 7 were hints in the AMT that do not show up in FTM2014. I will be looking into this issue, as I have already reported this to Ancestry.com. There were 3 other hints that I have to look into further, as they weren't a quick fix, quick merge, not quite sure if they are the same people. Bottom line, the hints were good and worth while working with.

The good news, I added 10 more people that were not in my database. Parents of people who I had in my database, not to mention a score of maiden names for people, females in my file. All good. Picked up a couple of middle names along the way.

There is some amazing information in these Death Certificates as I glanced at them along the way, but didn't want to get side tracked in the detail. That is to come.

Everything was updated in my AMT and just checked and have 8 new Hints to follow.

All of the Images in this collection are appropriately Cited, In the right Category, the Filenames are the way I want them and the Image Caption is the way I want them. Research logs on everyone.

Back to the earlier work, I was able to cross reference the Death Certificate Numbers from my manual search with what is now on Ancestry for 5 of the 21, which means I'll be on the look out for 16 more, as they become available on Ancestry. AND I have a ToDo list for each of those 16 people.

I am really liking this working on a specific collection at a time. The time involved doing the many steps that I take is greatly reduced as I don't have to try to remember, how do I do that?

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Copyright © 2014 by H R Worthington

What's New on Ancestry.com (Hints)

My new Morning Routine:

• Get some Coffee
• Go to my Ancestry.com "customized" home page
• See what's New and Updated
• Browse any new or updated Record collections that might be of interest
• Check Hints in my Ancestry Member for new or updated collections

NOTE: Just making this video, I found that Burial Ground Map that I have not seen before


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Copyright © 2014 by H R Worthington

AMT - Finding an Ancestry Record Number

How to search for a specific record Collection on Ancestry.com


Here is a link to Ready Seavers blog post on this topic.

http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/10/finding-record-hints-for-persons-in.html
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Copyright © 2014 by H R Worthington

FTM2014 - How I merge a Shaky Leaf Hint into my file

This is a follow up to several previous Shaky Leaf Blog posts

Here is a link to a short subject video that +DearMYRTLE and I did on this topic
Shaky Leaf Hints

That video showed how I identified the Shaky Leaf Hints in my Ancestry Member Tree. This goes that next step to show how I bring that information into the file on my computer



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Copyright © 2014 by H R Worthington

FTM2014 - Shaky Leaf Follow Up

This is a follow up to my previous two blog posts on handling of Shaky Leaf hints. I am finding that using the Ancestry Member Tree as my "Hint Manager" is working, at least for me.




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Copyright © 2014 by H R Worthington

FTM2014 - Shaky Leaf Tip

An approach when dealing with those Shaky Leaf hints from Ancestry.com



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Copyright © 2014 by H R Worthington

FTM2014 - Thought about Shaky Leaves - Follow up

 On Saturday, I made this blog post:

FTM2014 - Thought about Shaky Leaves

Where it had said "Of the 47 people in this AMT (FTM2014 file) 29 people have hints. 29 hints from other Ancestry Member Trees, 34 are for Records on Ancestry, for a total of 63 Hints."

Then I had one of my readers say:

Do you realize what happens when you click on that shaky leaf?  For me, it creates more leaves!!  And I find myself getting sidetracked on all the new info, which means I don't get much done on any one relative.  I did, however, manage to clear up about 25 of those shaky leaves -- only 106 more to go (not counting the ones that will get added).  But, thanks for the idea, Russ.  I was having trouble trying to get back to working on my tree and this did it.

 That is so true.

I thought I would post an update, as I have been working through those 34 Records.

What ??? From 47 people to 95 people? 34 Records to 59 Records? I thought those numbers were to go down. So, my reader was right.

BUT, how am I handling this growing number of leaves. It's worse then my front and back yard.

I had my list of hints, that I talked about in my previous posting, and created an Ancestor Chart of my Focus person. I am ONLY following those hints from people who appear on this 3 page chart. Here is the 2nd page of that chart.

Much of the information in that chart was not there when I did that first blog post. But John Westley Powell had 2 hints. One for the 1860 US Census and a Find-A-Grave hint from Ancestry.com.

My trick of only following those on this chart has kept me focused, but in doing so, I found out who J. W. Powell was and his parents and siblings. The Find-A-Grave hint, led me to the Find-A-Grave website with a photo of his daughter, which lead me to a Find-A-Grave page that had links to her parents, her children, and back to John Wesley Powell. Listed above is Raleigh Ross Powell, but it was his sister that has all of the links to help confirm what I have from the Census Record. The census record only have the first and middle initials, but the Find-A-Grave links gave their complete names with links to many new Find-A-Grave pages for that family.

There was one comment, on the Find-A-Grave page, which may be the only "record" of one person. It said "Hoyt Powell (only lived 2  days)" (1). AND there was a comment on the same page: "Also spelled Heatherington. Rest in peace sweet grandmother", dated Nov 4, 2011. Her married name was Hetherington. The Find-A-Grave page for her husband said "Also spelled Heatherington. Love to my grandfather".

Sticking to my Ancestor Tree has kept me focused, but has lead me to hints that I may not have found, had I not been following those Shaky Leaves.


(1) Angela Loflin, "Find-A-Grave", database, Find-A-Grave (www.findagrave.com) Mary Pemilla Powell Hetherington (1892 - 1951) - Find A Grave Memorial. www.findagrave.com.

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Copyright © 2013 by H R Worthington