I am new to RootsMagic9 software although I’ve had it on my computer for a while I have imported my Ancestry tree and now I’m starting to understand how it works. I know that the media files are in a single folder with those crazy Amazon file names. But, whenever I search on how to organize genealogy files it mostly advises setting up folders by Family name and Source type such as Family\Smith\Census etc… and then giving a useful name to the source. How does that square with the Ancestry import. Should I go about renaming each source and moving it to another folder or should I leave it as is?
I had adopted the genealogy media file naming style of last name, first name, middle name, date, ‘_’ kind of document. There are no spaces between the fields. An example is SMITHJohnAmos1930_USCensus.jpg. It makes for easy searches. These media files are stored in one folder. Is it a good idea? I saw this suggestion in a facebook post but I’m not sure who made it. Any input would be appreciated.
I do not download media from Ancestry for many reasons-- in the rare time I might – I move, & rename it. Ancestry has a funky naming system (if you can call it that) (this was been true for long time and not specific to RM. What I would do is to download media manually, rename to your naming convention then attach to person, fact and/or citation. The only file I do NOT rename is the Find-a-grave. I leave that as is because its was unique at the time I saved it. Some examples to my naming is below
Ancestry does have a funky name convention.
Setup your Folders in the Settings of RM (if you haven’t done so).
Up to you if you want the media in one folder or multiple folders ie: Census, BMD, Surname, etc.
Since the media are in 1 folder now, I would rename them within RM to a standard you want.
After you rename them, if you want go with multi-folders, you can move them and run the Fix Media Links.
Go through RM when you rename the file then you don’t have to worry about forgetting to link to the newly name file. On the Edit Media panel click on the folder icon in the Filename field. In File Explorer locate the media and right click on it to rename. Once its renamed select and click Open.
I also treeshare and my strategy has evolved over time. my $0.02
Test your renaming workflow. RM makes it easy to recover from files that are moved to a new location but it’s not possible for RM to guess when we change the file name. So you need to follow Renee’s advise to update the filename within RM as you rename the actual media file.
I don’t do it exactly as Renee suggests but I do relink the newly named file from the Edit Media panel at the same time that I change each media filename. Go slowly at first until you’re confident that your renaming procedure works as expected.
Folder Strategy ideas: RMs privacy model is less than ideal when it comes to Treeshare. Until the SW is enhanced to address privacy concerns, the current best “work around” utilizes folders. I have a “<RM> - Do Not Share” folder where I put images that I’ve gotten from sources that have copyright terms that prevent sharing on “for profit” sites (such as ancestry) and another “<RM> - Private” folder where I put images that I consider private (family photos, photos of living people, etc). (Insert your specific text for <RM>.) Before I treeshare content up to ancestry, I append a few characters to the folder name (ie “xx”) and then change the folder names back after the treeshare push is done. That way I can control which images get pushed to the web.
Also, my media folder structure is independent of the “<filename>_media” folder that treeshare creates. This is intentional so that the default treeshare folder should be empty. If there is content in it, then that becomes a “to do” action to rename and relocate the media file. At the same time, I edit the associated citation details because not all ancestry collections transfer enough source/citation details via treeshare. At a minimum, I edit the citation name to be meaningful but there is often other citation data that is lacking (This step has the added benefit of enabling merge citation details to work as intended and avoiding the problems that can occur when treeshared ancestry citations only differ by the media file name.)
Finally, consider giving yourself a present and upgrade to RM10. The new search and copy fact features alone are worth the cost and there’s a bunch of small fixes that make RM10 worth getting now. There’s also a 50% off promo going on for black friday.
Thank you everyone for your replies. I haven’t yet tried renaming the Ancestry media records. I did buy RM10 and will wait until i have installed it, although i will try a few in 9 to see how it goes. I am in the process of setting up folders to hold the multiple trees i am working with. The main one is my tree and that’s the one where i want to rename the sources.
I should have waited until after Thanksgiving when i will have the time to dive into renaming.
An additional and somewhat related question: is it possible to change the sorce/citation template? I have looked into ‘Simple Citations’ as an alternative to what RM provides. It bothers me that the location is identified as Ancestry and not the original location. Can i change the entries that Ancestry provides?
Thank you again everyone. The replies didn’t surprise me but i had no idea how to accomplish renaming.
If you import citations via treeshare the source template type will always = Ancestry Record. You can edit any of the field values. The alternative is to manually create the citation using a template of your choice and manually download and link the media as some folks prefer.
Because one’s media database can grow to thousands of items, I set up a data management convention along the lines of: Record Type-Year_Surname Firstname (so/do/ho/wo = son/daughter/husband/wife of) First Name.
E.g., BAP-1699_Linard Benjamin so John & Dorothy; CEN-1861_Linard Benjamin & Family
Where: Record Type=: BAP (Baptism), BTH (Birth), MAR (Marriage), DTH (Death), CEN (Census), MAP (Map), PIC (Picture/Photo), OBIT (Obituaries), NEWS (newspaper reports) etc.
An advantage is this allows quick check-up of whether a particular record exists.
In addition, I set up sub-directories of RM Media Files for Individual families or Family Lines, plus for special media types such as: Heraldry, Churches, Maps,
If i understand you correctly, you do not have a separate folder for BAP, BTH, CEN etc. The records are in a sub folder of the RM Media file for the Linnard family. RM/MEDIA/. How detailed do you get with the family folders? I was born Anderson; my mother was born Johnson. Beyond them are Larsons and Lunds. Then there is the problem that my father’s sister married my mother’s brother.
Would your naming convention work if all your files were in one folder?
I like some of your naming styles. It would help to separate my father and his grandfather as they had the same name.
What do you do if you don’t know ‘so’ for an individual or is that just used on certain record types?
As you can see I’m still trying to devise a naming convention that i can live with.
I appreciate any suggestions.
Gail there is no right or wrong way to set up your media folders/ sub folders–it is all up to what you want…
Some people divide it into to Census/ Marriage/ Birth etc. and some into family units–here is another good post to read…
But I am getting the idea you want to do both-- subfolders for each major family line and then record type under each major family line-- that would work just fine also-- you could even do a separate sub folder for your father’s sister and mother’s brother who married or even sub folders for every sibling in a line…
In my opinion, the hard part would be setting up the folders and getting what media you already have in the right sub folders