I’m finding that, if I associate a source with a person and facts in Ancestry, and subsequently pull that source down in TreeShare, RM will not reuse an existing source and just add new citations to it, but will create an entirely new source with the exact same fields. Should I not be doing that, and only making source/citation links in RM and pushing them up to Ancestry? I think this is somewhat new behavior, I believe when I started using RM about 6 months ago (I think pre-AN api change but post RM11 release) this wasn’t the case.
A related annoyance, which I don’t think is new behavior, is that RM will also create new citations for every individual citation link that comes down from Ancestry. For example, a Census source that is linked to a person’s name, birth, and residence will create 3 separate citations under the (possibly new) census source. I would think creating one citation with 3 citation links to it would be preferable. The solution is not to do the “merge duplicate citations” action because that doesn’t update the ancestry links. Once I do that, 2 of the ancestry link entries will point to non-existing citations and will show up as red on TreeShare. The quick fix would be to check for existing ancestry links when merging duplicate citations and make sure to update the Ancestry link to refer to the post-merge citation, but I would prefer to just have RM create one citation with multiple links.
I agree with the logic of what your are saying but I am not sure that would work for everyone’s needs. (That is often the challenge with implementing new features etc.)
The best way is to sync only up to Ancestry from the file on your computer. Keep it as the master copy and trust yourself not Ancestry to behave responsibly.
This is strictly in the backend, it would have no impact. The merge (duplicate) citations functions simply don’t do this - I’ve checked the DB tables before and after.
I have not reviewed – but there have been various issues over past years since Ver 8.
You might want to consider opening a ticket with support as to why and if its operating as “designed” or something else is going on
The only way to add a source once is to make sure all facts using it for a person are included before clicking Accept Changes. If it is added individually then it will have duplicates. If multiple people are using the same source it will be added on each of them. The only other way is to download the full tree.
RootsMagic won’t attempt to determine if a source already exists when pulling in new fact sources/citations from TreeShare
Merge duplication citations can’t be made to update existing ancestry citation links to point to the newly merged citations
To add a source once or add a citation once? Regardless, neither is true.
I just tested by pulling down a new census source for a person that cites Name, Birth, and Residence. That census already exists in as a source in RM, but it created a new source identical to the existing one and 3 citations, each with one link to their respective facts.
It seems to me that RM should be able to use the same logic in “merge all duplicate sources” to figure out if a source already exists or not. And I would think adding one citation with multiple links should be doable for a single pull (like you said when clicking Accept Changes).
If the citation is already in the database TreeShare has no way of reusing it. Each time you click on Accept Changes it will download a new copy. That is why I said to make sure all facts using that citation are included before clicking Accept Changes. If the source and citation are identical you can merge all sources and citations in RM. However, the Citation ID that Ancestry gave us maybe different turning some icons pink in TreeShare.
I am new to using RootsMagic, although I’ve had it for a few years but not an active user. I’m strongly considering switching from Ancestry as my primary tree tool with RootsMagic being a back up, to using RootsMagic as my primary tool and uploading verified people to my Ancestry tree. I used TreeShare to update RootsMagic with my Ancestry tree a couple of days ago and noticed the issue of multiple duplicates of sources.
I’m hoping for some clarification of the conversation on this issue. If I understand correctly, I can merge duplicate resources in RootsMagic. But I am unclear how this impacts my Ancestry sources when I use Tree Share to update Ancestry from RootsMagic. I’m not sure what it means that the Citation ID may be different turning icons pink in TreeShare.
When referring to making sure all facts using a citation are “included” before clicking Accept Changes, at what point in the process does that occur and how do you make sure the facts are included?
Yeah I’m still struggling with this. I’m thinking of making a new post with step by step pictures of what I’m seeing.
At this time, what you can safely do is “Merge all duplicate sources”. What you cannot do (without messing up the associations and turning the ancestry sources pink) is “Merge all duplicate citations”. While it’s annoying to have to periodically merge duplicate sources, its not the worst. Having to manage citations one by one is more of an ordeal.
What I will do when I am updating a source from Ancestry is use Treeshare to download 1 instance of a source to a fact. Then I will go into edit the person directly and duplicate the citation to the other facts/names that it needs to be in. It isn’t too bad of a workflow using the copy and paste citation function (make sure to reuse the citation), but I still would prefer the underlying issue is worked on.
P.S. Don’t worry about the “CitationID”. That was me geeking out on the underlying database. It isn’t visible in the application.