How do I sync FamilySearch with Ancestry.com?

I just found some information on Ancestry.com that I'd like to add to my FamilySearch tree. How do I do that?

moonman239 wrote:I just found some information on Ancestry.com that I'd like to add to my FamilySearch tree. How do I do that?

It depends on what kind of information it is. If it's source information, then you would create a source on FamilySearch, link it to the particular Ancestry.com source record, and then attach that source to the person(s) in the FamilySearch Family Tree that it applies to. Sometime in the future there will be smoother integration for source linking, but that's not available yet.

If it's a set of people, then you could do a couple of different things. You could create a GEDCOM in Ancestry.com, then import that GEDCOM into a program that syncs with Family Tree. Or you could manually add the people to Family Tree. If it's just one or two people, it's probably easier to just add them manually, but if it's several people, you might want to go the GEDCOM/Sync route.

I prefer to add people to FamilySearch tree via FS's sources. If the sources are available on FS itself, I'd use Ancestry as a guide and re-create the trees on FS.

Note that trees on Ancestry can be full of errors and questionable assumptions. I wouldn't accept any tree information found there without examining it in detail. That's not a knock on Ancestry - the same can be said of any compiled trees. That's why it might be wise to NOT import but to re-build it using the other tree as a "hint".

A second issue is that a number of those people might already be in FS. You should check for duplicates. Especially before submitting names to the temple. Checking for duplicates is easier to do if you're adding them one-by-one. Even if you are a convert, there are other members out there doing their lines - and some may have been done by name extraction.

russellhltn wrote: A second issue is that a number of those people might already be in FS. You should check for duplicates. Especially before submitting names to the temple. Checking for duplicates is easier to do if you're adding them one-by-one. Even if you are a convert, there are other members out there doing their lines - and some may have been done by name extraction.

I get what you're saying about the Ancestry.com trees. They're prone to error, but I don't see how much more error-prone those trees are than user-contributed/edited FamilySearch records.

As for your second point, theoretically, FamilySearch could identify potential duplicates and ask the end user to compare the information in the Ancestry.com records to said potential duplicates, just as FamilySearch already does when you manually add an individual to your FamilySearch tree.

moonman239 wrote:I get what you're saying about the Ancestry.com trees. They're prone to error, but I don't see how much more error-prone those trees are than user-contributed/edited FamilySearch records.

Well, hopefully you've backed your part of FamilyTree with sources. As such, it's less likely to be fiction.

moonman239 wrote:As for your second point, theoretically, FamilySearch could identify potential duplicates and ask the end user to compare the information in the Ancestry.com records to said potential duplicates, just as FamilySearch already does when you manually add an individual to your FamilySearch tree.

Oddly enough, FS's duplicate checking doesn't seem to be as good as it should be. I've learned that if names pop up while trying to match sources to write down the ID numbers and follow up on them. I've found several duplicates that way.

I'm not sure as FS does any checking when importing. And I can tell you from experience - it's easier to resolve duplicates while you're adding records rather than after you've built the whole tree. Because then you have to move up and down the tree like a zipper merging everything together. It's easy when the duplicate is one person. It's more work when it's an entire branch.

I have been using my free Ancestry account to create personal family trees as a replacement for my old PAF file. When this free "FamilySearch partner" Ancestry account was created, the first four generations of my direct ancestors were copied from Family Tree to my Ancestry tree.

As I perform research on Ancestry, and collect data into my tree, I can click the link next to each person's name to connect them to FamilySearch, and then compare information between FamilySearch Family Tree and my Ancestry tree, copying information in either direction, depending on which checkboxes I select.

This feature has been a great time-saver.

Good afternoon everyone. I am helping a friend with their temple work. She has over 1200 names that need to go from Ancestry to Family Search. Is there any way I could get someone to have a call with me to walk through that process? I would like to get the names transferred ASAP so that our youth can do the baptisms on their next temple trip.

If anyone can help me, please do let me know. Thanks!

Jerrod

jerrodnelms wrote:I would like to get the names transferred ASAP so that our youth can do the baptisms on their next temple trip.

Be sure to spend the time it takes to locate duplicates. There's good odds that some of those names have already been done - either by other relatives or by name extraction.

This is a very common question. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to upload multiple individuals into FamilySearch Family Tree, and there is a very good reason for this.

In Ancestry.com, you can create multiple family trees, and you can upload GEDCOM files into one of your family trees. This is possible because you "own" your family trees, and your changes do not affect anyone else. However, FamilySearch Family Tree is a single tree for all humanity. Each deceased person you add to Family Tree is a potential duplicate of an existing record, so you must carefully search for an existing record before you create a new record. Obviously, this cannot be done automatically when you have many names to upload.

If a person has 1,200 names in a GEDCOM file or an Ancestry tree, I suspect over 1,000 of those individuals already exist in Family Tree. Therefore, careful manual searching and merging is required.

Ancestry does provide a link to "Connect person to FamilySearch". If a matching person is found, you can then transfer data from Family Tree to Ancestry, or from Ancestry to Family Tree. If a matching person is not found, this feature allows you to create a new individual on Family Tree. You can also use this feature to submit individuals for temple ordinances, and track their progress.

However, Ancestry does not provide any online help or tutorial on this feature.
I found this blog post with screenshots that provides an introduction to this feature.

Linking FamilySearch Family Tree to other online databases
http://rejoiceandbeexceedingglad.blogsp ... nking.html

Dana,
Thank you so much for the link at the bottom of your post. It really spells out the method well. We have a convert sister who has about 19,000 names on Ancestry and wants to transfer them to FamilySearch. I guess there isn't an easy way to do it, but at least we can get her started. Too bad there isn't anything on FS about it.

A nine-step process is listed at the bottom of this Help Center article:
https://familysearch.org/ask/salesforce ... A4&lang=en

Rootsmagic 7 syncs with FamilySearch. It also allows you to download your own tree from Ancestry.com.

Isn't someone out there as a 3rd party intermediary, working on a FS and Ancestry certified app that would do the trick?

Do you mean something like AncestralQuest?

I want to be able to sync Ancestry with FamilySearch. What I mean by that is to be able to have it do what my cell phone and laptop do. I can sync the two so that changes made to my contacts and calendar on my phone and changes made on my laptop show up identically on both devices. So, what I would like is to know how to make the changes to my tree on Ancestry and my changes made on my tree in FamilySearch are synced so that both trees are identical. What I do not want to do, or have time to do, is to one by one go through the thousands of records and manually do it one record at a time. I can't find a program or app, or a description anywhere and hope that there is such a thing. If there is not, there should be. I can't be the only one who needs and wants this.
THANKS SO MUCH!

drepouille wrote:A nine-step process is listed at the bottom of this Help Center article:
https://familysearch.org/ask/salesforce ... A4&lang=en

This isn't information on how to sync but rather how to transfer data from ancestry and upload it into familysearch.

The transfer works both ways, sort of. You can transfer up to four generations from FamilySearch to Ancestry for end-of-line ancestors. Going the other way, you can only add one person at a time to FamilySearch from Ancestry.

This is very archaic and creates duplicates. There needs to be a system that will actually sync the two. This should not be difficult. After all, there are all sorts of programs that sync our various devices. For example, I can sync my laptop and phone so that all the contacts, calendar items, to do lists, etc are exactly the same on each device. I can make a change on one, then sync to make them the same. Without this type of sync for FamilySearch and Ancestry it is not practical to keep the two the same as each other. Research is hampered, not helped by the fact that I have two trees that should be the same but are different and therefore other people doing research and find that my tree and their tree intersect will not be getting the best information, or might even miss people because they are in one tree and not the other. This also hampers missionary work that could take place when non-LDS are researching on Ancestry and do not get the information they are looking for.

I will take a look at RootsMagic. Thanks for pointing out that resource. Hope it is effective. I appreciate your thoughtful suggestion.

davebres wrote:I have two trees that should be the same but are different

Family Tree is not your tree. Family Tree is a collaborative database that we all share. I can change your deceased ancestors on Family Tree as easily as you can. So this is not a question of you synchronizing your tree on one web site with your tree on another web site. Apples and oranges.
A closer analogy is trying to synchronize one Ancestry tree with another Ancestry tree, which is also not easy to do. I had an Ancestry tree with myself as the home person, and I wanted to create a new Ancestry tree with my half-sister as the home person. There is simply no easy way to copy our shared ancestors (our mother on back) from my tree to her tree.

davebres wrote:I can't find a program or app, or a description anywhere and hope that there is such a thing. If there is not, there should be.

Have you tried AncestralQuest?

I am unable to link ancestry and family search today. I did it yesterday but today all I get this an error message about an unauthorized account.
It’s doing it for my husband and myself. What s wrong?

Chandra_obrien@yahoo.com

shealyn99 wrote:I am unable to link ancestry and family search today. I did it yesterday but today all I get this an error message about an unauthorized account.
It’s doing it for my husband and myself. What s wrong?

I tend to see that message when I try to resume a browser session rather than logging in again. You may be trying to sync while logged out of family search.

No; that isn't it. I am at home now and even when to attempt to 'resync' from family search and login to ancestry to 'sync the accounts, I get the same error message. Something is wrong.

my original post as an attachment of waht it looks like. This message is ON THE LDS SIDE; not the ancestry side.

I didn't say it wasn't. I think you're logged out on the back end, even if the browser shows you are still logged in.

Close the browser, log back into FamilySearch and try again.

moonman239 wrote:I just found some information on Ancestry.com that I'd like to add to my FamilySearch tree. How do I do that?

Here is a good video showing the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M88eCcld9hc