Transferring Sources from RM to FamilyTree

RootsMagic
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In the thread Transferring Notes from RM to FamilyTree, I revisited my decades old decision not to use RM’s Family Search Central tools to transfer notes to FS/FT. My results were positive enough that I am now beginning to use RM’s tools to transfer some of my notes into FS/FT rather than copying and pasting notes into FS/FT manually.

Armed with that success, I decided to revisit my similar decades old decision not to use RM’s Family Search Central tools to transfer sources to FS/FT. Again, my testing is fairly positive. However, there are some important cosmetic issues that give me a little pause. I suppose it’s unusual to describe an issue as both “important” and “cosmetic” in the same breath, so let’s see if I can explain. Here is an example screen that exemplifies some of the cosmetic problems.

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  • $In the Shadow of the Smokies. This is an old citation using a free form template that I have not yet converted to using my templates. I cannot see the citation information which is in the Page Number field of the free form template. So I cannot see what is going to be transferred. I need to be able to see both the source name and the citation name.
  • $Obituary. Same as before. I need to see the citation name along with the source name.
  • $Tennessee State Marriages, 1765-2002, Same as before. I need to see the citation name along with the source name.
  • *book: Manly, Elizabeth Cate etc. This is a templated source. But the source name is too long to see. I need to see the whole source name, which should wrap to a second line. Also, the column divisions have no sliders so I can’t change the column widths. This is an extremely split source, so there is no citation name. But if there were a citation name, then I would need to see it.
  • *book: Smoky Mountain Historical Society etc. This is a templated source. Same comments as the previous source.

I can click on the little i icon (information icon) to see more. But it’s still not everything. I need both the source name and the citation name, and they both need to wrap so I can the whole name.

Aside from these important cosmetic issues, transferring source citations from RM to Family Search seems to work quite well. But I’m not sure I want to adopt the practice with these important cosmetic issues in place.

1 Like
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FamilySearch has always treated source citations a little differently. That makes it a challenge with sharing sources and what is included. If you have multiple citations using the same master source it will only upload the first source citation added to them on the Edit Person screen. Example: Newspaper as the Master Source, citations are various articles. You can only send the first citation article. You will see the master source name and all the citations/facts using it grouped together, but it’s not really seeing individual citations if different for each fact. Since it’s not always reflecting accurate information on which citation a fact is using, adding citation names won’t necessarily add clarity. I did still report the need to see the citation name, just wanted you to be aware that there is more of a hurdle going on than that.

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Interesting, and good to know. I haven’t run into that problem because I’m a source splitter and I never have multiple citations using the same master source. (Well, I still have old citations that are free form and are not split. They are useless without the citation name. But so far, I haven’t needed to transfer them to FamilySearch. I’ll probably convert them to split citations before transferring them.)