Unable to sync blank names to Ancestry

RootsMagic
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1

I used RM10’s DataClean (NameClean) tool and corrected a ton of “?” removals from first or last names for people I didn’t know the name of. But when I come to sync my changes back up to Ancestry, all these people/names are marked as changed, but there is no checkbox next to line where the name is now None, so I can’t sync these removed names up.

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Is there any way around this besides editing them (manually) in Ancestry, or uploading a new tree?

Thanks, Gary

2

No expert on Treeshare BUT I tried this in my test database–instead of using UPDATE Ancestry Name Use ADD as a new name— hit show on Ancestry and you should see where Sarah ? is now Sarah with Sarah ? is an alternative name— think I would delete the alternative name on Ancestry and don’t forget to hit accept change

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3

Thanks for that alternative idea, but there’s still going to be a manual step on Ancestry to fix it up.

4

You cannot send a nil (blank) to overwrite something in a field. That is why its not an option.

5

Do you mean the Ancestry API (used by TreeShare) doesn’t support this (i.e. deleting the contents of a field)? Because this is exactly what I want to do (and is supported in the Ancestry UI, obviously). Or is it that the Ancestry TreeShare component doesn’t support this - I would consider that a bug, in that case, unless there’s another way to achieve this.

Thanks, Gary

6

[quote=“gcbartlett, post:5, topic:12391”]
Because this is exactly what I want to do (and is supported in the Ancestry UI, obviously).
[/quote
I tried a few days ago to do this in reverse–sending the blank name from Ancestry to RM —on update existing name it gave me the exact screen that you have above ----you DEFINITELY DO NOT want to use add as new name to RM as you end up with 2 PRIMARY names and NEITHER can be deleted

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1 Like
7

To delete one change it toAlternate Name. Then delete

8

It’s the Ancestry API that won’t let us overwrite a field with nil.

9

Thanks @MYoung but you can’t just change one to an Alternative name–what you have to do is add a 3rd name using the fact Alternative name-- while making that fact it gives you the option of making it the primary or private-- when you mark this fact as primary, the other 2 become alternative–then you have to go in and mark whichever you want as the primary --then delete the others…

Lot more work than me telling @gcbartlett that he needed to delete the alternative name on Ancestry…