Possible Bug in Ancestry Connect? Weird Fact Types Being Created

ETA: This is not a bug, it’s an Ancestry “feature”. :slightly_smiling_face:

This is new behavior that I have not seen before, although I have not been using Newspapers.com as much in the past as I am right now.

After creating facts on Ancestry and then downloading them to RM using TreeShare, I’m seeing these odd new fact types being created. Here is an example:

So far, I’m only seeing this on facts in Ancestry that are associated with Newspaper.com; however, that doesn’t mean that’s the only place it’s happening.

Wanted to let you know. Thanks!

It’s based in how you name the clip in Newspapers dot com. I’ve seen it my database when I treeshared from Ancestry

1 Like

I noticed this long ago. As a result, all my clippings that are “saved to Ancestry” get named “Newspaper clipping”. Any details like newspaper name, type, etc get placed in the Description field.

That makes sense, but I was surprised to see it creating new fact types. I know that we can create custom ones to go along with the RM-provided ones, but I would have expected this stuff to end up in the Description (as you said, if I’m reading your post correctly) rather than as the fact type.

Hope I’m making sense here. This was a bit hard to describe.

Thanks for taking time to reply.

Sorry, just reread your post again and realized that I was not reading it correctly. If my current interpretation is right, you’re naming them all “newspaper clipping” so that they come down correctly from Ancestry and then manually entering the rest of the info in the description field.

Do you use the clippings directly on Newspapers.com? If so it seems like it would make it hard to identify specific clippings because they all would have the same name.

Hey Mardee

No, the clippings themselves all have meaningful titles. I’ll clarify, by going through a new clipping that’s both relevant to my research and a useful demo for you :hugs:

When you do the initial clipping, you can put in the “Clip Title” and Tags. I do this as you’d expect, giving it a descriptive title, tagging it (usually with surnames) and click the Save button. Here’s what that looks like in “My Clippings” on Newspapers.

After the initial clipping action, Newspapers then displays a second dialog with “Share” and “Save to Ancestry” buttons. If you click the Save to Ancestry option, it pops up a window asking who to save it to. I fill that out with the main person and save it. That save operation connects it to Ancestry as a source for that person. But it doesn’t create a Fact entry yet.

The save operation proceeds to a second dialog titled “Add a corresponding fact”. This is where I change things around. By default, that dialog box picks up the same title that I gave the newspaper clipping.

Dialog at start of “Save to Ancestry”:

I change it at this time to “Newspaper item”. Then, further down on that dialog box, I enter all the relevant information into the field that says “Enter an optional description”.

Dialog after modification and before “Save”:

When I click that dialog box’s save button, it creates the new “Newspaper item” fact on the person’s profile.

Resulting Fact entry on Ancestry:

At the initiation of a RootsMagic TreeShare, the new Fact comes across like this:

And the resulting entry in RootsMagic looks like this:

Side note … for my “Newspaper item” custom fact type, I follow a standardized format I’ve developed. Here’s a screenshot of the section of my standards documentation on it.

1 Like

That makes it so much more clear and I’m going to adopt your process! Thanks so much for taking time to provide the screenshots - they are so helpful.

1 Like

I’m glad I could help ya :wink:

I developed my process because, when I started using RM and using TreeSync, I had the same confusion as you about those weird facts coming across. Then I figured out what was going on and how to use the Newspapers-to-Ancestry share differently. I’m honored you find it useful enough to adopt it. :hugs:

By-the-by … If you ever want to attach a clipping to an existing fact over on Ancestry, just skip the “Add a corresponding fact” step. Close the dialog without any action. What that does is makes the clipping a source but doesn’t attach it to anything. Then you can go over to Ancestry, find it in the sources list and do your attachment to the existing fact.

One reason you might do this is, for example, articles from several newspapers all referencing your ancestor’s special event or achievement, etc. Rather than having a bunch of seperate facts, you just collect all the articles under one.

Real-world example … a bunch of news articles covering the trial about the murder of my grand-uncle Frank:

Thanks again - this is so helpful! Also, murder? Wow. It’s amazing some of the things that turn up as we are researching. It helps remind me that these were real people with complex lives.

1 Like

Yup, murder. Frank was no angel though, having served time in San Quentin. His father Enoch, my great-grandfather, was also murdered in an earlier altercation elsewhere. Enoch’s father was squished to death in a logging accident. My primary ancestor line has some pretty rough characters in it; lots of generational trauma.

You’re quite welcome.

1 Like

Hey Kimberly-- I followed and understand everything until you got to the fact itself in RM
You had
Newspaper items
. Fact label field: “Newspaper item” (always, for consistency)
· Description field: {Newspaper name}, {Page # if known} : {item type} - {details}
o Item types:
. News (articles which mention a relative by name as part of some general story)
Social (society articles / mentions)
. Interview (does not require direct quote)
Letter (Letter to newspaper, does not require direct authorship by ancestor or quote by them, just a mention)
· Election (election-related news, including candidate lists, endorsements for office, election results, etc)
Appointment (job appointment)
Advertisement (personal property, including land, etc for sale not ordered by law such as an auction or probate
" Legal Notice (probate, property auction, land patent witness or transfer, etc. See below for marriage.)

I get the first part and the description BUT wasn’t sure on item types especially since it says see below on some of them or see below section for news abt crimes…

Is it just a list of the different items you use in the description?

Hi Nancy

Yes, it’s a list of potential categorical values for the {item type} portion of the model.

And that list is only part of the broader written documentation on how I create / format “Custom Fact” items on Ancestry (and therefore on RM via TreeSync). Sections other than Newspaper include:

  • History … for I when I want to inject a broader historical context occurring at the same time, for example the first Moon landing
  • Geopolitics … such as border changes, which I want to differentiate from other types of historical events because of the relevance to Census
  • Legal Records … for when a person is mentioned on a legal record but not the primary, for example witness on a death certificate
  • Military
  • Crime … for situations where the ancestor is directly accused of a crime and the aftermath

I wish I had known about this excellent explanation and solution about three or four years ago. But at least I can do better going forward. Thank you!

1 Like

I know, right?! I love that we have such knowledgeable and generous users on this forum. It’s so helpful to gain the benefit of their experience.

1 Like