I honestly never thought I’d be blogging about my pet’s DNA. I laughed when Ancestry.com came out with their DNA test kits for dogs. At the time, I thought it was just a dumb idea.
If you’ve ever attended my lectures you might have heard me say that I’m a mutt. That’s a dog with no definable breed or heritage. Um, that would be me. I’m often dog-tired after spending too much time doing genealogy research and no matter what the ethnicity estimates report about my ancestry, they often get updated as my people were everywhere!
I am leery of people who boast that their heritage is purely from one location. Brings to my mind Nazism, the Ku Klux Klan, and Harry Potter. To be clear, I like Harry Potter; I just don’t like people who think they are superior because of their pure blood lineage.
While my husband and I were in Great Britain one of my adult kids decided to perform DNA swabs of my two elderly cats as a pre-Christmas gift.
Upon my return, when I was informed about the testing, I had a hard time not rolling my eyes. I would not have spent money on that. Both of my cats were found at schools my husband and I used to work at. The oldest, Charlie, was born to feral parents and I only have him because a cold hearted employee ordered one of the clerical staff to snatch him and his two siblings from their mother so her two kids could play with them over summer break. This mean individual was told that they were too young, not yet weaned, and that their mother would reject them if she changed her mind of keeping the cats. She didn’t care and at the end of the day when her husband came to pick up the kids he said he wasn’t taking the flea infested kittens home. Well, duh! They had flea because they were born and reared outside. She told the clerical staff to call the county animal shelter. The shelter employee arrived and announced that all three would be euthanized unless we could also provide the mother since they were not weaned. That was impossible since she was feral and he only gave us an hour. The psychologist and I took the kittens home, I took two and she took one. We always thought Charlie was part Maine coon because like his daddy who used to terrorize the children walking to after care through he woods, he was a big boy. We also thought he might have come from Puerto Rico because he only quieted when we played that type of music and he loved hot sauce. In hindsight, I should have realized he was born in a Hispanic neighborhood and his mom must have eaten a lot of Mr. Empanada’s food during her pregnancy. Unfortunately, Charlie’s sister, Ginger, disappeared when we went to one of our children’s college graduations; a neighbor was supposed to be watching them. Ginger slipped out and was never seen again. She was small and orange, like her mom.
Parker was found in the second floor hallway of the school my husband where my husband worked. Likely a middle school kid had brought him in a backpack and he somehow escaped during the day. As a counselor, my husband was called to do something about the cat. That something was get him milk from the cafeteria since he was emaciated and bring him home. He looks a little like a Siamese but we had no idea of where he had originated.
I was good with what we suspected about their heritage. I love them for who they are and not where their ancestors came from.
I really didn’t expect any big surprises when we got their DNA results but my family and I had the biggest laugh as the cat’s DNA matched regions of the world where our ancestors had once lived. Go figure!
Charlie is mostly Siberian with a touch of Norwegian and Persian. The Siberians are big and poor Charlie was always on a diet as our vets thought he was just too heavy. Nope, he was always in the normal range for his ancestry. (Going to use this during my next annual physical.) Charlie became diabetic earlier this year; that also goes with his majority breed. I was happy to share these results with our current vet.
Parker was primarily Norwegian but also of a California breed and some Egyptian Mau. No Siamese! The Egyptian explains why he had spots in his younger years. The Norwegian explains his quirky personality. If you hold him he drops to dead weight. He also loves to pretend he’s afraid of his shadow and runs from it, then looks at you with sad eyes wanting you to pick him up. Yes, he has us humans trained.
The Californian part, though, really made sense. Parker was probably born in Florida where there was an air force base in close proximity to where he was found. I suspect a military family brought one of his parents with them when they relocated to Florida.
My husband is 75% Swedish, I wouldn’t doubt that his ancestors once had Norwegian cats in their household. My mtDNA does cross through Persia and I have half that is eastern European. Charlie has always been closest to me. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that those cats we saw in my family’s villages in Croatia were very distant cousins of Charlie. Likewise, those Swedish cats we saw in April could also be related distantly to Parker. Very weird in a fun way!
The season is just about upon us and now is the time to think of a special gift to give to your genealogist-enthused loved one or for yourself:
The Flower Letters is an interesting gift I received for Mother’s Day – it’s a gift that lasts all year. Every two weeks the recipient will receive a snail mail letter about a historical fictional mystery. The letter is written in cursive, quite decorative, and includes additional items about the info contained in the letter, such as postcards, calling cards, maps, etc. For further education, some words are written in red, and for more information, the reader can go to the online website to learn about the topic. Currently, the company is having a fall sale so take advantage of this unique opportunity. This is a wonderful gift, especially if you are tying it in with an ancestral region.
2. Is travel in your loved one’s future plans? If so, it might be a surprise to learn that travel isn’t quite what it used to be. Lost luggage is happening more frequently so here is a way to find it quick – GPS Trackers. There are many out there so identify first if your loved one has an Android or Apple. I use one of my kid’s Apple trackers when we travel and it is peace of mind knowing that my bags can be found anywhere in the world.
3. If you want to avoid lost luggage entirely, do what we do for trips of less than two weeks – simply get a duffel bag to carry on. I highly recommend a duffel bag instead of a rolling smaller bag as lately, airlines are making you check in those roller bags at the gate. Never thought to put a tracker into a bag I was carrying but it was needed. I have since switched to a duffel. They never take those, they can be crammed under the front seat of even the tiniest planes, and your belongings stay with you.
4. BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS! Here’s a list of my top 6 must haves:
Griffeth, Bill. Strangers No More – This is a sequel to his memoir, A Stranger in My Genes.
Hanson, Anne. Buried Secrets: Looking for Frank and Ida – This family’s brick wall was eventually gotten over and could help if you are stumped, too.
Jones, jr. Henry Z. Psychic Roots and More Psychic Roots – These are two books by the same author – You Can read my review here and here. If your genealogist is having strange and unusual finds this might be just what they need to understand them.
Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence Explained. 4th Edition – Revised must have
Shamblin, Rebecca. Building a Legacy – You can read my review here. For those interested in preserving and sharing their researched and sourced family tree.
Shamblin, Rebecca. Leaving a Legacy – You can read my review here. This is a must if you are planning on writing a family history book in the upcoming year.
5. Here’s a gift to give to yourself if you are age 65+ – a FREE membership to the National Genealogical Society. See if you qualify for membership through Grouper.
6. Had to laugh at a recent drawing that was held in Indy for the Indiana State Library’s Fall Genealogical Conference. The giveaway that got the most Ooohs and Ahhs was a lighted magnifying glass. Older eyes can all use this and not just for genealogy. I absolutely hate the writing on food labels that keep shrinking (or maybe it is my eyes?). More than one is nice – one to keep at home and one for the road trips to archives.
7. You’ll probably think this is dumb but it’s so important – pencils. Yep, those number twos are still used by especially beginner genealogists who are keeping records as hard copies. A big eraser also goes a long way. Personally, I prefer to digitize but I understand not everyone does that. I also like engineering pencils as I don’t have the mess of a pencil sharpener and I can take them into archives that don’t allow pens with no issues of trying to find a sharpener.
9. If your genealogist is into cemetery visits, create a cemetery to-go kit. Walmart even has an incomplete (IMHO) kit for $35.95. Add a bucket, a spray bottle, and some gardening shears to cut the grass/weeds around the stone. Include garden gloves and bug spray as well. If you want to go all out then also add a kneeler pad.
10. Your Time – seriously, just listen to what your family genealogist has discovered. Who knows, you might even get interested?!
It’s October when I typically blog about the creepy coincidences that happen to me over the past year when I am doing genealogy.
I started a bit early, mentioning how I met some Irish and Scotts relatives through my recent travels to Great Britain.
I have another story to share but there’s a back story to it so this will be a two part blog.
I’ve blogged and researched extensively on my Hollingshead family originally from Saxelby, England. Some of the findings were just down right strange! You can read about past blogs I’ve written about Daniel here, here, and here.
I’ve never before shared a personal story about why I am so interested in the Hollingshead family but I think it’s time to do so.
In 2006, after spending time with a college friend who had transferred from the U.S. to Cambridge University in England, one of my adult kids informed my husband and I that they were going to apply to medical school out of the U.S. We questioned the decision but they were adamant with no reasons other than they felt they had to do that. After several acceptances, the decision was to accept the offer to St. George’s Medical School in Grenada, West Indies. To be honest, I wasn’t wild about this decision but once I visited I felt at home. After two years of study there, students transfer to either Great Britain, Canada, or various locations in the U.S. Our adult child decided to move to New Jersey.
I am not trying to be rude New Jerseyans but I just couldn’t understand why someone would relocate from a beautiful tropical island to a snowy cold location. Really, I told my kid, no one does that. Child was insistent that this was the right place but couldn’t explain why.
The adult child finished up their degree by living in Morristown, New Jersey. We visited several times and enjoyed the small town atmosphere. On one of our visits I happened to park next to a church cemetery. I looked up and was faced with a stone for the Byrd family. I had a brick wall Byrd family from somewhere in New Jersey. I decided I would contact the church but I always found it closed and got no response to emails. If you had asked me then, I would have told you we had no connection to Morristown; I thought the Byrd family was from Trenton.
Our last trip to Morristown was in the spring as our child was graduating and would soon leave for internship in another state. We drove one of our vehicles from Florida to New Jersey so that we could have two vehicles (ours and theirs) packed with belonging while my husband drove a small U-Haul to the new location.
On the way, we experienced a major traffic jam in Tampa which delayed us. Bored, I checked my email. There was a new email from someone I didn’t know, Edgar Duer Whitley. The gentleman had found my online public tree on Ancestry.com and was excited that I was providing him info on my Duer line that he had been unable to research. I was spelling Duer as Dure – the original family spelling, so had not connected to his research. He attached his genealogical research which connected to Daniel Hollingshead. I had never heard of Daniel.
I responded I would look at the information when we returned from our trip and would get back with. It was three weeks later when I downloaded the information and I was astounded.
Our child had been residing on land that had once been owned by their 8th great grandfather. Even more astounding was that Daniel Hollingshead had relocated to New Jersey from the West Indies. So I stood corrected, others in our family beside my kid have relocated from the West Indies to New Jersey.
But there’s more…when I shared this with my child I got a laugh. Our kid had traveled around the area of Cambridge and had visited Saxelby, where Daniel Hollingshead migrated from. It was there that they got the idea to go to a medical school that was international. Was this a channeling of a long dead ancestor?
One of Daniel’s sons had become a noted physician in New Jersey. The location where our child had attended undergrad, Boston, was the same area where one of Daniel’s grandson had migrated to, Boston. My line went on to Ohio via a stop in the wilds of Virginia, now known as West Virginia. Our adult child was leaving New Jersey for West Virginia. Creepy!
We joked with our child that they would probably end up in Ohio one day since they seemed to keep following that family line’s migration route. That hasn’t happened yet, however, they live about 10 miles from the Ohio border and work as a physician in Ohio. It’s just two counties away from where the Duers, who married the Hollingshead, settled.
As for Edgar, as soon as I reviewed the information he had sent and realized the migration path I wrote to him. I never got a response. Evidently, Edgar had died in the few short weeks after he sent me his life’s work. I can’t explain how this all happened. It’s wonderfully weird and unbelievable. I may have eventually broke through my brick wall without Edgar’s research but the timing was perfect as we had a family member in the areas that I could stay with while confirming the information. I guess a side moral of this story is contact those folks you find online and share your research widely.
Next time, I’ll tell you another strange connection regarding Daniel and I that occurred while I was in Great Britain.
Are books disappearing from your local library or archive? I’ve heard concerns locally from several patrons and I do share their concerns. The books are showing up at library book sales and even Goodwill.
I asked a local librarian why this was occurring and was told that the books weren’t being used. I asked how would they know if the books were being used or not since they were all reference books not available for check out. Didn’t get an answer.
Last month I spent the day at the Indiana Historical Society. I asked Suzanne Hahn, VP of Archives and Library and Bethany Hrachovec, Director, Education and Engagement if there was a trend towards purging genealogical tomes. There is for the following reasons:
They are a duplicate copy
They have been digitized (though not necessarily by the library who is purging it)
There is a copy at a larger library. In northeastern Indiana that would be Allen County Public Library, Indiana State Library, Indiana Historical Society, or a university library.
Many libraries are now moving to a theme – only railroad books, for example, or only books for their particular county. Could be but I’m seeing books meeting the purported theme also removed. I’m also not seeing communication between libraries so one removes a book that would be a great addition for another library’s theme. Instead of contacting the library it goes to the resale bin.
Which gets me to the current situation I see in my local library. Too many books for resale and not enough storage so they are giving the books to Goodwill. If they don’t sell they are then disposed of. So very sad!!!
There are people who cannot read digitized books. Perhaps they don’t have the tech or their eyes will not handle it. I see no sense in removing a book that has been digitized, especially not by the entity that was purging it. How do they know that book will stay available to the public? Think about the recent law suit with Internet Archives! The case is back in court again but that doesn’t mean that Internet Archive will survive their appeal. What a loss that will be for all of us.
Maintaining only one regional copy is also problematic. When it starts snowing here people stop driving, especially older folks. Having to travel up to two and a half hours to look at a book that used to be available five minutes from your home is a ridiculous waste of time and money.
If shelf space was at a premium I could understand thinning the ranks but in most cases, it’s not. If the library had funds to purchase new materials I could understand it but that’s not happening, either.
If this situation is occurring in your region speak up. Complete library surveys to voice your concerns. If you have the funds and space, purchase the volumes. Perhaps a genealogy club or society can scoop up the works and create their own check out system. Genealogy books need to be treasured and available to future generations. Help make that happen.
I received the most unusual genealogy Mother’s Day gifts from one of my kids that I just have to share. The first is the game you see above – Guess Who? We had the game when my kids were young but my adult child bought a new game and switched out the faces to include the faces of ancestors. I’ve taken the cards that were made to replace the ones that come in the box and placed it on the box top so you can see the variety of family photos included.
This is an awesome idea if you are having a family reunion or want to get a head start now for a holiday gift in December. What a wonderful way to get the younger generation involved in identifying their ancestors!
The second gift I received was also unique. One of the parts of genealogy I love is uncovering mysteries. Who were these people? Why did they do what they did? How did the meet? Where are they buried? Well, the second gift is using old time snail mail to send a letter written in cursive to my home every two weeks for a year. The company, TheFlowerLetters, has several themes. The one I’m receiving is the Adelaide Magnolia Collection which takes place in England in 1817. Since I’ll be trekking to Great Britain later this summer it’s a perfect way to get me in the mood. For the genealogist in your life, the letters feature mystery, history, adventure, and romance – what more could a genealogist want?!
The National Genealogical Society conference continues today. Thank you, dear readers, for all of you who attended my presentation with six other genealogists last evening. If you missed Rapid Roots or would like to review it since it was rapid and had lots of helpful tips, please do so. Don’t forget to complete a review through Whova. You can still leave questions on Whova for the next three months or you can email me anytime at genealogyatheart@gmail.com.
I recently read an article in Family Tree Magazine about 13 purported genealogical myths. I’ll be the first to agree that family stories are not 100% accurate. That doesn’t mean there isn’t useful information in them that provides us with hints for further research. I don’t agree with labeling a family story as a myth. Here are the purported myths mentioned that I disagree with:
Surnames were NOT changed at Ellis Island. Umm, perhaps not surnames but first names and gender was. Here’s a little-known story about an individual who arrived from Great Britain to Ellis Island in October 1908 as Frank Woodruff. During the physical, it was discovered Frank was a female. When asked why she was dressed as a he, Frank informed Ellis Island personnel that life was easier as a man and they decided to become one 15 years earlier. Hard to argue with that as during this period in time women couldn’t vote, had few legal recourse when their husbands beat them, and society wasn’t welcoming them to have a career other than a wife, or teacher until they married, nurse, or nun. Ellis Island wasn’t having Frank’s argument so they changed the manifest making him a her and the name from Frank to Frances. In my own family tale, at Ellis Island, a helpful clerk asked my grandparents separately, as they did not emigrate together, for the “rest of your name.” They had given the name Kos. My grandmother, who was literate, said that was it. The clerk mentioned he thought there were more letters as most American names are longer than three letters. Ellis Island claims they had many clerks of various origins that spoke in the native tongue of the immigrants. If that were true, you would think these clerks also understood culture and customs. Kos is a very common Croatian name meaning crow or blackbird. You would think the clerk would be aware of how it was spelled. No, the clerk didn’t change the name but they gave their opinion and as a new immigrant who wanted to fit in, that was enough for the family to add a second “s.” Obviously, the family felt pressured to change the name. They legally changed it to Koss in the early 1940s, 35 years after they immigrated. Interestingly, their tombstones is engraved with the origin name.
Myth 9 in the article was about three brothers who came to America. The myth here is that there are always three brothers in every story and that’s not likely to occur. Well, in my family it is. My story was once even pooh-poohed by a very well-known professional genealogist who got quiet when I provided the facts. My three brothers were the Hollingshead boys who purportedly served together in the Battle of Blenheim. No records in Great Britain remain of the soldiers but using church records in Cheshire it is apparent that only two of the three brothers returned home. One of those brothers, Daniel, of whom I am a descendant, continued to serve in the military and was transferred to Barbados. He eventually made his way to the New Jersey Colony where he served as a ranger. Inheriting vast amounts of land through his second wife, Thomasin Hassell, he was on his way to a Council of Proprietors’s meeting in New York when he met a man on the road who was his brother who had just emigrated to New England. No, the two brothers did not emigrate together but there were three brothers originally who went off to war together. I don’t understand why this is always mentioned as a myth as there were often large families back in the day and they stuck together wherever they roamed. Safety in numbers is not a new concept.
Myth 11 was that our ancestors were shorter than us. That would be true in my family. I personally knew my mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Every generation we grew 2 inches. You can see this in photos when we stand by each other and I have medical records to prove it. I can also prove this with the men. Military records from the Civil War remain and it’s not too difficult to find them today with their height and weight listed. I believe the truth is that we are heavier today, however, that might not apply to all families. Genetics in some families probably plays a part. Both my grandmothers were known as big-boned ladies. I have no idea how much either weighed as it wasn’t polite to ask. Suffice it to say, my body build is similar to theirs. I can even go back several generations before my paternal grandmother and we all have the same body type by just looking at photos to make a comparison.
Myth 12 was that our ancestors died young. Most died younger in my family than they do today; same with my husband’s lines. He is older than his mother was when she died. Same with both his grandfathers. Additionally, statistics play a role here. People once had many more children than they do today. Due to a lack of medical care, availability of antibiotics, sanitation systems, etc., back in the day will skew results. The pandemic altered our outcomes so it looks like our life expectancy isn’t what it was a few years ago. Statistics doesn’t always take this into account.
Myth 13 was that our ancestors were mostly illiterate. Again, that would depend upon the family’s economic status, availability of local schools, and gender. Many of my female ancestors were deprived of educational opportunities. Many of my male ancestors had to help work in the fields and had their education cut short. I like to think of Maslow’s Hierarchy – you got to eat before you can become self-actualized!
If you’d like to read the entire article you can find it here.
My point is that I’d like genealogists to be more accepting of information that is shared with them and not quickly assume it’s a myth because they’ve heard it before. Only through research can the answer be determined for a particular family.
I didn’t want to start the New Year on a sour note so I hesitated on writing this blog. I think it’s time to share my opinion of a trend I’m seeing with several organizations in the genealogy world.
Have you noticed in the past year a negative change in genealogy societies where you are a member?
I have and I’m not sure what the reason behind it is. Pandemic fatigue? State of the world? Something else? If you have any ideas I’d like to hear from you as I think some of the following practices need to be addressed:
Newsletters/journal articles/magazines that are not published anywhere close to the schedule they were supposed to be? (Yes, there was a paper/ink issue during the pandemic, however, they are also available online and the publication date should have been kept with correspondence to those who request hard copies that the items would be sent as soon as possible.)
Reaching out to various sites with queries/comments and either not getting a response or being told to connect with someone else? (I think we’re all adept enough with email by now to know it needs to be checked and if you don’t know the answer, respond that you are forwarding it to someone else in your organization that might be of assistance.)
Websites that haven’t been updated since pre-pandemic? We were all online for the past three years so what were the webmasters doing during covid? (Clearly, not updating the website. Perhaps no one communicated to the webmaster the updated information. In that case, did the webmaster ever ask why no new information was available?)
Receiving too many requests for donations? (One large organization sent me two emails per day for 12 days during the recent holidays asking for money, along with two snail mail requests. If you are so short of cash you need to explore why that is occurring. If you lost members perhaps the questions I’ve asked above are a source of your problem. If your overhead has increased then raise your membership fees. No one wants to receive 30 requests for a donation during a busy season.)
Notice I haven’t named organizations as I find that my frustration is with several, not all, and I see no point in singling them out. These organizations range from local to international so the problems I noted are at every level.
I connected personally with all of those that I had a serious issues with. The responses, if received, were not promising. This year, I plan to seriously think about not renewing my membership with several organizations.
A few of the organizations I have blogged about in the past and highly recommended them. This brings about an ethical problem for me so I am going to inform you about one in particular that really disappointed me.
Previously, I had used Family Tree Maker to synch with Ancestry and have written about my frustration when the program stopped working. FTM blamed Ancestry and vice versa.
You may wonder why I care to have the trees synched. I mainly work on my Ancestry tree but I like the backup. Nothing lasts forever and although I have no reason to believe Ancestry will cease operating any time soon, I don’t want my years of research to disappear if they do. I also want a backup for my family. Someday I’ll not be researching any longer and I want them to have all of my findings without having to pay annually for an ever-increasing Ancestry subscription.
I figured I’d wait for an update and try again after my life settled down a bit after our major relocation last summer. I read online what others had written on the process so I was confident the synch would work.
In November 2022 I tried again and again and again. I’ve always been happy with the tech support from Roots Magic so, when I was unsuccessful after several tries to synch, I sent the following email on 28 November:
“Hi! After 5 attempts, unable to synch my Ancestry.com tree with RootsMagic8. Have done so with RootsMagic7. Operating on Windows 10. Restarted the computer. My steps: 1. Downloaded from website 8.2.7 Installer placing it in Dropbox 3 times and on Desktop twice. 2. Followed steps to connect; signed into Ancestry and 5th time, clicked buttons to remember signon/password and restart. 3. 1st time it took about 3 hours to “Download tree from Ancestry” and another 3 hours for “Importing your Ancestry tree.” When it got to “Downloading media items it froze at 0% with continuous popups of “Unexpected Error.” Clicking Cancel just had the error message repeatedly pop up. Sent error report to RootsMagic. The remaining four attempts – the tree downloaded in seconds, importing the tree took several hours but always stops before fully importing. Last two times it stops at 72%. The Unexpected Error message is behind a Dropbox message “Remove [file name] from your Dropbox account and all devices? If you move this file to $Deleted, it won’t be available in Dropbox or on any devices.” I have to click “Move out of Dropbox” as clicking cancel does nothing. I’m unable to get rid of the messages unless I go to Task Manager and close out RootsMagic8. I have 2 TB of storage in Dropbox. I’ve tried to save to my Desktop instead but that freezes sooner, about 26%. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.”
I got a response with further instructions:
“First thing I read is you downloaded your RM8.2.7 program to Dropbox. Our RM8 program is coded only to run in C:\Program Files. You will have to download it again and make sure it is stored on your computer and not Dropbox.
If you downloaded the Ancestry file to Dropbox, that is fine for storage, but we do not recommend you run the file from there. The program best runs on C:\documents, or subfolders, or even flashdrive/external drive
When your RootsMagic 8 is installed correctly, our treeshare should download it fine. If not you can share your Ancestry tree with me so I can test it.
If you want to share your Ancestry file with me
* go to your ancestry account,
* open to your file
* On right, click on Share or Invite
* Click on Email
* Add my email, [I’ve deleted it to retain the tech’s privacy]
(do not use my personal email other than for this,)
* Make sure you give me editor rights (Click on Role and choose editor
* Click on Send Invites
Once I have tested the download, I will delete your files from my Ancestry account and my RM8. I do not change or work on your file.”
Wow, I thought. That’s awesome support. Definitely what I’ve encountered in the past from this group. Would have been nice if it had said somewhere on their website to download to a C drive only, though.
I had downloaded it to my desktop on two of my previous attempts but I tried again. I also tried it on my husband’s desktop, and my laptop. Nada.
I do have a very large tree and lots of media but no audio or video as I store that elsewhere.
I wrote back to the tech the following email:
“I’ve tried several times on three different systems, all Windows, and am still unable to download my Ancestry tree. I always get stuck when it gets to the 3rd step. I’ve cleaned the cache, shut down other programs, and followed your instructions. If there’s anything else you can suggest I’d greatly appreciate it.”
Here was the tech’s response:
“I have received you sharing your Ancestry file with me. As I look at it I do see it is a very large file. Ancestry has 74,393 names, 19,268 photos and records 267,983. this is going to take a long time to download.
I can download using my Mac during business hours, but I will have to download this on the weekend on my windows. I should have a good idea if my Mac can download it with no issues.
If you try to download again, make sure you download to your computer or a flashdrive/external drive that has alot of room. I see where large numbers photos like this needs alot of room to download to. If while downloading finds it does not have room for this large file it will freeze or not finish the download.
I will get back to you next week”
Again, I was impressed. How many companies offer to work on your tech issue from home on a weekend? None to my knowledge.
Except, the following week I got no response. So, I emailed again and this is what I was told:
“I too could not download your Ancestry tree, I do not know if it is because it is so large. The number of individual is okay, but you have so many citations. It might be how they are linked to different sources and some may not be linked to any source.
Downloading your file would take many many hours since you also have lots of photos.
If I find out what might be the problem, I will let you know.
Make sure your find is not being downloaded to oneDrive, iCloud or Dropbox When downloading make sure you have lots of Ram. I download to an external drive which had more than enough room.”
So, now I was confused – the tech could download successfully to a Mac but not to Windows. The individual downloaded it to an external drive with lots of room to accommodate my large media-rich tree but still couldn’t get it to work on Windows. I see this as a problem with Windows and not Mac since it was the same data going into both systems. It worked on one but not the other yet the problem identified was I had too many citations and how they were linked (or not) to sources. Or possibly the tech thought I didn’t have enough room on my system. Whatever there was no solution.
I only had one option if I wanted to synch the tree – continue using RootsMagic7.7 which was still able to synch to Ancestry and then update all of the changes I made to my Ancestry tree since June 2019. Believe me when I tell you there were thousands of changes I have made. This is a boring, time-consuming, repetitive process I did not want to go through. But what other option did I have? None that the tech could give me.
To update a RootsMagic file, one must resynch and then click a box to identify only people who have had a change made. I was easily able to do that. I first went through and added new people and deleted from RootsMagic anyone I had deleted from Ancestry. That didn’t take long as my tree hasn’t really grown much since June 2019. I’ve spent much of the pandemic adding finds to existing people instead of researching collateral lines.
I was frustrated to find that the program identified many people who had no changes:
It’s far easier to clear this situation out with one click of a button on the top right but why would I even have to look at the record if no change was made? Something was amiss even with the Version 7.7 software.
I spent every free minute I had going through each individual change. I finished six weeks after beginning the process. All of this was done through Dropbox as that’s where I kept it and even though I was told by the tech that I had to save it to my desktop, 7.7 worked flawlessly to save in Dropbox.
The following day, imagine my surprise when I redownloaded version 8 to my desktop. What I discovered was that it had imported four files from previous attempts I had made on 30 November, 1 December, and 2 December. Those had not appeared the last time I downloaded 8.
Lo and behold, somehow, the files had synched with Ancestry.com. In other words, I never had to go through the individual 6-week grind of adding people to version 7.7.
There are no words to describe how I felt. I had wasted 6 weeks accomplishing a task that didn’t need to be done.
Here is how I know that Version 8 synched with Ancestry…My Version 7.7 contained media for living individuals. When Ancestry.com changed their policy in August 2021 regarding their rights to own any photos you put on their site, I removed ALL photos of anyone in my tree that was living.
I never removed the media from my 7.7 RootsMagic tree. When I open the 7.7 tree that has been updated to 8, I can see the media for the living. The trees that “magically” appeared from my attempts in November and December 2022 DO NOT have media attached for the living.
I am thankful that my tree(s) are synched and I have all of my hard-found data. I am not happy that RootsMagic tech tried to blame citations for the issue. Clearly, that’s not the problem. Space also was not the problem. I have no idea what the underlying issue is but you may be encountering the same problem I did. My advice, wait a while and periodically redownload 8 and check to see if your file appears as mine did.
But all was not well with the RM8 file. I made a few changes on Ancestry and immediately went to RM8 to update. It would not synch with Ancestry.com. Version 7, though, continued to synch, so I continue to update 7. When I tried to import Version 7 to 8 it would not take. This is beyond frustrating!
I’m hoping that RootsMagic looks into the matter and is able to figure out what really is behind the problems and correct them.
Going forward, I’m changing how I research – when I save something on Ancestry I will also save it in Dropbox under the individual as I’ve scanned all paraphernalia I’ve collected and created files for individuals where I’ve placed that information. This way, if RootsMagic has further issues, I still have all of the media for an individual, albeit, it’s now in two places. Three, actually, if I consider I’m working with both versions 7 and 8. What a nightmare.
