* Ancestry Tree tags vs. Family Historian

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jmurphy
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Ancestry Tree tags vs. Family Historian

Post by jmurphy »

Lately I've been doing "quick and dirty" work online via Ancestry's online tree system, entering data into Family Historian later, once I've had a chance to properly analyze things.

Ancestry introduced MyTreeTags (tm) where we can tag profiles with things like Military service, direct ancestor, etc. Some of my custom tags are for members of Fraternal organizations, Data Conflicts, people whose wills I've obtained via the probate search service (to stop me from ordering them twice), and so on.

As part of my Do-Over / Go-Over / review process, it seems like a good idea to incorporate the same info into Family Historian, but how?

I am leaning towards Named Lists simply because that's the feature I'm most familiar with. This would give me the same ability to filter the names in the tree with that Tag as I can on an Ancestry Online tree (without the necessity of running a query to find them, as I must on Ancestry).

I generally don't work with FH diagrams so I haven't explored flags or icons.

One of the things I want to keep track of which I haven't yet -- heads of household in the 1939 Census that have at least one closed record, so I can review those households every time Findmypast announces that they've opened more records.

Another upcoming task: finding everyone in the 1950 Census (US Federal) or 1921 Census (England). Keeping track of those tasks will be much simpler in Family Historian compared to Ancestry because of the "Lookup Missing Census Facts" plugin.

I'd be interested in hearing what other people use, and what subtle differences there might be between one technique vs. another that wouldn't be apparent from reading Getting the Most from Family Historian or the articles in the Knowledge base.
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E Wilcock
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Re: Ancestry Tree tags vs. Family Historian

Post by E Wilcock »

I guess it is personal.
I too have data on ancestry. I had a DNA test using Ancestry and uploaded my tree (no sources) showing my direct ancestors.
Ancestry computers link a person's tree to sources and to trees uploaded by other people, some of the trees to which my data was linked were based on my original research.
DNA matches for my husband and me, uploaded trees which suggested ancestors a generation or two further back in time.

However, my choice is to have my main "master" tree on my computer. I added some suggested ancestors to it, showing the researchers or documents from which they originated and noting which one's I thought questionable.
I have not added any of these additional people to my own tree on ancestry. Nor altered the tree since I first uploaded it.
If other people have added additional people to their versions of my tree, that is up to them.
Where DNA contact has added significantly to a tree on my computer, I have updated that tree on my website.

My dirty work for everything from any online site or database goes directly into fh.
It is one of the reasons I love fh. You can paste or type in the whole name and the note field below can take any explanation.
Looking at recently entered names, one can add birth and death later without holding up e.g. transcription from a list.
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Jane
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Re: Ancestry Tree tags vs. Family Historian

Post by Jane »

Ancestry introduced MyTreeTags (tm) where we can tag profiles with things like Military service, direct ancestor, etc. Some of my custom tags are for members of Fraternal organizations, Data Conflicts, people whose wills I've obtained via the probate search service (to stop me from ordering them twice), and so on.
You can use Flags in FH for exactly the same purpose as long as they are all at the Individual level.

They don't need to be combined with Icons and you can use the "Has Flag" query to quickly find all the individuals with that flag set. You can add flags as tick boxes to the Property box or use the "Edit>Flags" menu option to quickly flag an individual.
Jane
My Family History : My Photography "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."
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tatewise
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Re: Ancestry Tree tags vs. Family Historian

Post by tatewise »

Getting the Most From Family Historian has quite a good comparison in Chapter 16/20 Named Lists and Record Flags.
I would say the key differences are that Flags can trigger Icons in Diagrams, whereas Named Lists can show associated Columns of data and have dedicated Notes per record.
It is quite easy to swap between Flags and Named Lists if you change your mind as explained in the above Chapter.
See how_to:create_work_in_progress_or_research_to_do_lists|> Planning and Tracking Your Research that may offer some ideas.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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jmurphy
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Re: Ancestry Tree tags vs. Family Historian

Post by jmurphy »

Thanks to all!

I'll have to review all my tags and consider what's best as I transfer my data over.
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jmurphy
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Re: Ancestry Tree tags vs. Family Historian

Post by jmurphy »

D'oh! I had forgotten about the Research Planner Plugin. :oops:

I've now looked at the article in the KB https://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/wiki/doku. ... ch_planner and I'll use that as a guide for all my task-oriented tagging.
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