New Community Member with Questions

[Ahr]

I’ve been collecting genealogical information for decades. I have software and hard copy recordkeeping systems that I’m accustomed to and probably won’t change. My objective is to find software that will automate the process of recording information from FamilySearch. I have spent time recording information by copying and pasting and find it too time-intensive to be viable for me. Searching, using AI, I read that Roots Magic might do what I want.

I want to be able to identify an individual then extract information about that person and persons in that person’s tree. It’s my understanding that Roots Magic will allow me to log into FamilySearch from within Roots Magic and extract data. Before I buy more software, I thought it prudent to ask questions of Roots Magic users.

Questions:
1- Is my information correct? Is it possible to load Roots Magic then from within it login to FamilySearch and extract data? If so, the remaining questions are relevant. If not . . . well “never mind.”
2- How does one go about extracting data? For example, assuming I have a person identified in FamilySearch from within RM, how would I go about choosing a) which individuals’ data to extract; and b) which specific data about individuals to extract?

For my purposes, I’d like to be able to go into FS and select targeted information for all individuals in a male line or a female line choosing only the top branch of that line. For example, I’d like to start with my great-grandfather and select all males going as far back as his tree is recorded in FS and ‘grab’ a targeted list of information that might or might not exist for each individual. Similarly, I’d like to be able to repeat that process for my great-grandmother and select, first, all males in her line and grabbing the targeted data, then proceeding to repeat the process for all females in her line.

I have no knowledge of Roots Magic but I have used LDS records going back to the DOS-based versions of Personal Ancestral File (PAF). I don’t know if GEDCOM is still a format in use. I was familiar with it decades ago, but would have to learn about it again if it is still in use.

Thank you, in advance, for any light you can shed on this. It will inform my opinion about purchasing Roots Magic.

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[thejerrybryan]

The short answer is “yes”, you can do what you are describing with RM. The longer answer is sort of a “not exactly” because it doesn’t work exactly as you describe.

What you can do with RM is to create an empty RM database, logon from RM to FamilySearch, specify the FSID of a person of interest, and download that person and some specified number of that person’s ancestors or descendants or both. And you specified ancestors. So you could pick an FSID and download 3 generations or 7 generations or however many generations of the person’s ancestors that you want. But during this kind of bulk download, there is no filtering capability by male line or female such as you described.

Strictly speaking, the RM database into which you are importing doesn’t even have to be empty, but that is the recommended way to do it. Then you can copy what you imported into a more production type of RM database. It would be in the process of copying from on RM database to another that you might have a more selective filtering capability available.

As far as I know, FamilySearch no longer supports GEDCOM for this kind of import. If you really need GEDCOM, I think the expectation is that you would use RM or one of its competitors for the direct import from FamilySearch into RM or one of its competitors, and then you would create a GEDCOM from RM or one of its competitors.

As far as I know, the kind of bulk import I’m describing does not import sources or media files. After the bulk import is complete, you can then import sources from FamilySearch into RM on a person by person, source by source basis. As as a part of the source import process, you have to specify where in RM the source goes - like to the Person record or to the Birth record, etc. There is no way to simply bulk download all the sources that I’m aware of.

When you import a source in this manner, the media file that is associated with the source in FamilySearch is not imported at the same time. Instead, the source in RM has what RM calls a Web tag which links to the source in FamilySearch so that from RM you can click on the Web tag in RM and see the source in FamilySearch, including seeing the media file in FamilySearch. But you are not really importing the media file to your RM database nor to your computer.

I think this is a fairly accurate overview. But I don’t do it this way myself, so my description may be incomplete or inaccurate to a certain extent. Instead, I logon to FamilySearch in a browser and type any data in FamilySearch that I want into my RM. I also download any media files I want onto my computer and link the media files into my RM by hand. I’m hoping that other RM users that use RM’s tools for linking to FamilySearch may be aware of some more automated ways to do this that I’m not aware of.

[Ahr]

Thank you for the information, Jerry.

To explain a bit more, I’m building a website for family use. I’m the last of my generation but there are 3 or 4 more after me. That group is growing. I’m trying to provide some information for them about lines leading up to my generation. Most of the succeeding generations are not keeping their own records; my effort is to make it easy and simple for them to see their history. This information is part of what might be thought of as a huge family scrapbook. There are web pages for individuals and pages for family groups and pages for ancestral lines. It’s the latter that I’m attempting to find a way to automate the exposition.

I don’t really have software that will search my computer records and retrieve what I want. The next best source is the FS data. The ss below shows how I am presenting data for individuals. In it you can see that there is specific information that I want to extract from FS where it is available. My thought was to take the data extracted and write code to wrap it in the appropriate HTML tags to make it display. The CSS styling is already done as the ss shows. For this to work, I’ll have to be able to read the individual data points (name, birthdate, birthplace, etc) from extracted files in order to wrap each with the appropriate tags.

[mscheffler]

You did not mention whether or not you have a good working genealogy database in PAF or alternate computer program. If so, I suggest you export a gedcom from your most complete current database file and create an entirely new database in RM10. Then use the utility in RM10 to automatically match the individuals in your new RM database to FamilySearch entries. If you have a very large database, the matching process could take several hours, but it is worth doing it.

The next step would be to compare various individuals in your database to the corresponding FamilySearch matches. You may find useful information to expand your line going back one generation at time as well as finding dates and children you did not know. It is always best to add new information one person at a at a time.

Remember that when adding new people to your family file, it is preferable to always go back one generation at a time from what you know to what you do not know. If you simply mix a bunch of family search people into your database you will likely end up with a mess of contradictions and duplicates which could take forever to sort out.

Some people make the mistake of thinking they can simply merge duplicates if they download FamilySearch families in bulk, but merging requires the various facts for the people being merged to match. It is best not to rely on automatic merges because a lot of people will not merge.

Keep backups at various stages in the process. It is easy to make mistakes.

[kbens0n]

@Ahr

I don’t know if GEDCOM is still a format in use. I was familiar with it decades ago, but would have to learn about it again if it is still in use.

Only as an alternative to programs like this and only for sending family data TO the Family Tree.
Create a GEDCOM file • FamilySearch

[Ahr]

You make very good points. If you read my follow-up posts you will see that I have a specific reason for asking my question. I’m trying to automate a process of generating web pages to display information about ancestors.

I asked about the functionality of RootsMagic because I learned from and AI that it might extract data that I want to manipulate and turn into webpage content. I don’t need RootsMagic for recordkeeping. I already have software for that but none of it lends itself to what I want to do.

I have manually transcribed information from FS and from my records for my surname line, but it was a laborious and very time consuming effort. I have about 10 lines that I want to present in the same way. As an octogenarian I don’w want to spend time doing things that are repetitive and prone to error when if I can automate the process thus saving time and eliminating transcription errors.

[rsturley]

@Ahr This isn’t exactly what you asked, but you might be interested in knowing that RM will create and maintain a web page for you with the information you want to share with your family. It won’t be the same format you have designed, but it is reasonably good looking and has the same information. FamilySearch also has a new feature called “User Owned Tree Feature (CETs).” That might also meet your needs. You’ll find it in the “Available Experiments” tab. It doesn’t integrate with RM yet, but that may happen in an upcoming release.