Introduction
Many Family Historian users upload copies of their family tree to web-based genealogy platforms, both for public visibility and convenient searching of the platform’s records. This usually starts with a GEDCOM export from Family Historian, and if you want a detailed tree on Ancestry, complete with all your media, sources, and other information, the Export GEDCOM File plugin is ideal for this purpose.
However, there are additional challenges if you want to exploit Ancestry hints, as each new upload is regarded as a new tree. This resets hint generation, losing the record of which have already been reviewed. While updating the Ancestry tree manually is possible for relatively small trees with infrequent changes, this is impractical for larger trees that change frequently.
The only way to achieve automatic synchronisation with Ancestry from Family Historian is via use of an alternative application as an intermediate, and upload from there. The TreeShare feature built into the full versions (but not the stripped down Essentials versions) of RootsMagic 7 and later provides this functionality, and is particularly suitable as Family Historian is able to read and (partially) write directly to RootsMagic files, enabling the two applications to be kept in sync much more reliably than would be possible relying solely on GEDCOM file export and import.
Note that while TreeShare supports limited two-way synchronization between RootsMagic and Ancestry (so can copy updates made within Ancestry back to RootsMagic), this plugin is one-way synchronization only. This ensures that Family Historian remains the master copy of your data and avoids any potential issues with data corruption by other apps.
Process Overview
TreeShare does not support linking an existing Ancestry tree and existing RootsMagic database. This means that it is not possible to simply repeat this process after making changes to your tree in Family Historian, and overwrite the old RootsMagic tree with a new import. Instead, we have to update the existing RootsMagic database by merging a fresh GEDCOM export from Family Historian.
It would be too complex to create a RootsMagic database from scratch directly from Family Historian, so data transfer is carried out via a GEDCOM file. Once this is imported into RootsMagic, Family Historian processes the RootsMagic file to remove the errors and inconsistencies that inevitably arise from GEDCOM transfer to ensure that it is an exact copy of the corresponding data in Family Historian prior to being uploaded to Ancestry.
The overall process for creating a fresh tree in RootsMagic is shown in the following graphic:
Subsequent updating of that tree in RootsMagic and on Ancestry follows a similar process with additional steps:
The plugin interface, below, provides all the options needed to maintain a synchronized tree extract on Ancestry.
The Links frame in the menu identifies the RootsMagic file that the current project is linked to. Move the mouse cursor over the file name to get a pop-up description of the full file path. The Linked Ancestry tree provides a direct hyperlink to the linked tree on Ancestry (note that the demonstration tree shown here is stored on Ancestry as a private and unindexed tree purely for test purposes, so you will not be able to view it).
The details of how to set up the initial RootsMagic file and Ancestry tree and keep it synchronized with Family Historian are given in the linked help page, below.
From time to time, it is advisable to audit your Ancestry tree to ensure that it remains in sync with Family Historian, and any errors introduced by either RootsMagic or Ancestry limitations are corrected. Details of this operation are provided in the linked help page, below.
Modifying Plugin Defaults
The plugin that drives the synchronization process is deliberately designed to have only limited user-defined options, in order to ensure that all its output GEDCOM files are configured identically.
There are currently five options available, all of which are saved as project level options (so can vary by project if you maintain multiple Ancestry trees):
- By default, Individuals marked as “Living” are excluded, but an option is provided to include them in the export and update process (default = off). If “Living” Individuals are included, the Living flag is copied to RootsMagic and subsequently uploaded to Ancestry, so public viewing of living people’s details is still suppressed.
- The plugin is provided with a default list of standard facts that are exported to RootsMagic and Ancestry, such as birth, baptism, census (residence), marriage, death, burial, probate, occupation, etc. This list can be changed readily by a simple modification to the plugin code, even if you have no previous experience of writing or editing plugins. Select “More>>” from the Plugins Window to show the hidden options, select the plugin, and click on “Edit…”. Directions for which lines to edit are given in the plugin script. Note that only Individual Facts should be added to the list, not Family Facts, due to significant limitations in how both TreeShare and Ancestry manage the recording and updating of family facts. For users who wish to limit the Ancestry tree to basic birth, marriage and death details, a plugin option is provided that makes this change without having to edit the script file.
- By default, all fact comparisons between Family Historian and RootsMagic are case-insensitive, to allow for any minor capitalisation differences that RootsMagic record merging overlooks. An option is provided to enforce strict case-sensitive matching to ensure that the Ancestry tree is a perfect copy of the corresponding data in Family Historian.
- The Research Note outputs can be configured with Individuals listed as either plain text or hyperlinked text, according to personal preference.
- If you have a lot of updates to make, generating a cross-reference table can be useful, where the Family Historian and RootsMagic record numbers are tabulated for each Individual present in either app. This is displayed in the Query Window when the plugin closes.
RootsMagic does not have an “undo” facility to reverse changes made during synchronization. Early versions of the plugin had an option to create a backup of the RootsMagic file every time the plugin was run. This has now been changed, so that a backup is created automatically, but only if changes are made to the file. Just running the Compare operation does not write to the RootsMagic file, so no backup is created.
Compatibility with Previous Plugins
This Store plugin is a direct development from the earlier FH-RM-Ancestry sync plugin that was maintained within the Family Historian User Group (and the initial Store version had only minimal changes from the latest FHUG version). It is therefore fully compatible with the FHUG version, both in terms of continuing to use the same RootsMagic file and Ancestry tree, and using options specified in the earlier plugin (apart of course from any user customisations of the plugin file, such as a modified fact list).
Early versions of Family Historian 7 were not able to access RootsMagic files directly, so required a different plugin to drive the export and synchronisation process. Any users of this early version (which was withdrawn in October 2021) who wish to transition to the current plugin while still maintaining the same Ancestry tree should consult the FHUG Knowledge Base for advice.
Plugin Ancestry Synchronization
Help content on this page is owned and provided by Mark Draper, the plugin's author, Calico Pie takes no responsibility for its content.