How Do I Download The List Of All The People On My Ancestry Tree
I've been looking for a way to back up my Ancestry tree that is better than Ancestry's export choice, which leaves your uploaded photos and documents behind.
Both the gratuitous and paid versions of RootsMagic 7 will download your Ancestry tree with the associated records, images, and documents. You tin besides upload your local RootsMagic tree into a new copy in Ancestry. It'due south non a consummate and perfect copy, but its close.
I tested RootsMagic Essentials by downloading a demo Beginnings tree that included records, photos, PDFs, and Word documents. I also added Ancestry'south special features: comments, TreeTags, and inline stories.
To go a true measure of the quality of the backup, I uploaded the RootsMagic tree into a new Ancestry copy and compared both trees side-past-side.
A Summary of Testing the Backup
And so how did RootsMagic mensurate upwardly? This article is a step-by-step guide and an in-depth review. Before nosotros dive into the details, hither is a summary of using RootsMagic Essentials to back up your Ancestry tree.
These Ancestry elements were preserved correctly:
- Persons, family structure, and life events
- Records from Ancestry collections
- Images attached to Ancestry records
- Uploaded photos, Give-and-take documents, and PDFs
- Notes
These Ancestry elements were either non preserved or had problems:
- Comments and MyTreeTags were missing
- External web links as sources were missing
- Attribution of photos copied from other trees was lost
- Inline stories had issues
- Tree profile photos had issues
I besides encountered some software mistake messages, although they did not stop me from completing the tasks. The problematic elements are probably less oft used past Beginnings users.
And then, should you use RootsMagic to support your Ancestry tree? Well, I will go along to do so.
RootsMagic vii Essential vs RootsMagic seven
RootsMagic Essential is the gratuitous version of the software, and it is the version I used for this review. Their website has a very long list of differences.
Just exist aware that the user interface appears to be the same. But if you click on some menu items, it will prompt you to upgrade to become the functionality.
Most of the "missing" features seem to be around printing your tree, making customized wall charts, and creating a family unit website. None of these features are relevant to what I want to accomplish in this review.
My only caveat is the ability to attach files to your person profiles. Photos may be attached with the gratis version, but Word and PDF documents can simply be attached locally with the upgraded version.
Part of my test involves trying to download a tree with Discussion and PDF documents. Tin can they be synced back up to a new Beginnings tree if they are already linked in the downloaded tree? Not to keep you guessing: the answer is yes.
Installing RootsMagic 7 Essential on Windows
The current software is merely bachelor from the RootsMagic website. Older CD-Roms are upwardly on Amazon, but the company no longer uses external distributers. That makes the Amazon reviews a little misleading, as they will be for earlier versions.
I found the the download and install to exist quick and smooth on my Windows laptop. I kept all the default options.
Installing RootsMagic on a Mac
We have a carve up commodity on problems and fixes with RootsMagic on an Apple tree Mac.
Roots Magic 7 does not run natively on the Mac. It runs on top of a slice of iiird party software. When Apple tree upgraded the Mac OS in 2019, Roots Magic 7 would non run properly on an upgraded organization.
This problem has since been resolved, every bit of March 2020, although it still doesn't run natively. Withal, the upcoming RootsMagic 8 will run direct on the operating system.
How to Download your Ancestry Tree with RootsMagic TreeShare
Step 1 – Open the application and create a new file
Start the RootsMagic app, and skip the welcome screen. It's offering you options to create, open, import or search for a file. Cull "Create a new file".
All you need to do to complete this step is to provide a file name. You tin keep all the other defaults. That includes using the genealogical standard date format, which also happens to exist Beginnings's preferred date format.
The only option that is enabled in the default settings is "WebHints". This setting volition let you to work with your Ancestry tree hints within your local RootsMagic database. You can accept and ignore hints here. This article is about downloading your Ancestry tree with RootsMagic, simply you may besides keep the hints option enabled to run into how it works.
An empty tree will open in a horizontal pedigree view. We're not going to enter in whatever information now via the RootsMagic interface. This is only a landing space for our Ancestry tree.
Step ii – Change your Ancestry settings if you don't use the .COM
I was wondering why the Ancestry functionality seemed a little wearisome, and and then I realized I was connecting to Ancestry.COM. If yous're in the United States, then you can skip this pace.
Otherwise, now that you've created a RootsMagic file you tin switch your Ancestry website settings in the file options. From the elevation bill of fare, choose Tools->File Options and open the Beginnings tab in the left sidebar.
The drop down carte du jour at the top allows y'all to alter to a dissimilar Ancestry website – exist it .CO.UK or .COM.AU etc. That'southward all you need to do here.
Stride 3 – Launch TreeShare for Ancestry
Now for the meat of this. Yous'll probably have find by now that the user interface is showing its age. I guessed nineties, simply the application was actually created in 2003 by Bruce Buzbee.
Click on the Net drib-downward in the top carte bar, and choose "TreeShare for Ancestry". This brings y'all to a login page within the software that accepts your Ancestry login and countersign.
Yous accept the selection of saving your login details within the awarding, and so that you lot'll log in automatically each time. I was a piddling nervous about where my countersign migt be stored and so I didn't do and so. But I've checked into how hallmark is handled, and it's via the Ancestry API. This means your countersign doesn't leave your local machine.
It takes a few seconds of white screen while connexion and authentication happens, only a more than colorful brandish appears to offer 2 options: to upload a tree to Beginnings or to download an existing tree from Ancestry.
Footstep iv – Download and Connect
Cull the option on the right to "Download an Beginnings Tree".
Step v – Choose your Ancestry Tree for download with RootsMagic
You're now presented with a list of your copse in Ancestry. I choose the demo tree I set up to exam these downloads. You will see the trees that you own and also trees on which you take Editor status.
Pick one tree for download. I picked my tiny demo tree with four persons, which took under a minute to complete. My larger tree of 500+ persons and nearly 100 photos and documents took under three minutes.
Footstep 6: Review your downloaded tree within RootsMagic
On completion, a side-by-side comparison appears of the dwelling house person in the RootsMagic download and the online Ancestry tree. You can close this folio and view the entire downloaded tree in a horizontal pedigree format. Y'all have completed the download.
The next department of this article reviews the level of quality of this download. Were all media downloaded? Is information technology an exact re-create of my Ancestry tree? In curt, the answer is nearly just not quite.
The Ancestry Tree Download Exam
The Ancestry test tree has four persons. I of the persons has these elements:
- Two nascence registration records (with images) sourced from Ancestry collections
- A web link as an external source (to a YouTube video)
- An uploaded photo that is fix as the Person Profile prototype
- A 2nd uploaded photograph that is linked to this Person
- A Word document uploaded as a Story
- A PDF uploaded as a Story
- An inline Story (entered with the Beginnings Story editor)
- an attached Note
- an fastened Comment
- an attached MyTreeTag
A second person has a photo that was copied from some other Ancestry tree, and set every bit the Person Contour paradigm. Using Ancestry's "save photograph" feature preserves the source trail and gives credit to the original tree owner.
Then my first question is: did all these Ancestry elements download and fall into the correct places in the RootsMagic version of the tree? Nigh, but not quite.
The RootsMagic Tree Review
Let's address the records commencement, and then assess the media (photos and documents).
Does RootsMagic download the record details from Ancestry?
Both birth records are present in the RootsMagic tree, with additional details too captured.
My demo person has two birth registration records sourced from Beginnings'south annal. I actually entered them in Ancestry in slightly different ways. One has an optional description and citation comment. This was captured correctly in the RootsMagic tree.
Does RootsMagic download record images from Ancestry?
Why, yep. Yes, it does. I was really blown abroad by this.
The results are easier to run into with the download of my large family unit tree, in which I have many Ancestry-sourced records. Here are a couple of rows from the media gallery inside RootsMagic:
Don't squint besides hard – there's a few different types of record documents: a WWII Draft Card, a Passenger List, and demography records. Merely are these images really on my local computer? Yes! Each epitome gives you the file location (they're all in the same place), so y'all can open any file in your epitome viewer of choice. The images are and so big, I won't slap one in here.
The good news!
This is the equivalent of viewing every image inside your Ancestry tree and right-clicking to save to your local motorcar. I've done that with some, while wondering if it was even legal. RootsMagic is an canonical partner, and has only dumped them all onto my laptop. Hurrah!
What would happen if I let my Ancestry subscription lapse? Well, I uncertainty that the RootsMagic software would all of a sudden delete the copies in my RootsMagic folder. But…just…in…case… I may have taken a re-create of the RootsMagic image folder and stored it carefully elsewhere (wink).
Okay, then there are a couple of drawbacks.
The bad news!
Every bit I mentioned, RootsMagic tells you lot the file location and name. And this is the file name of a WWII Typhoon Card paradigm: 44544_03_00007-00907.jpg
And if you lot've got thousands of these unhelpful file names? I'll wait into what tin exist washed to make them easier to categorize. For example, I'm wondering if the starting numerics signify a specific Beginnings collection. I'll come dorsum to information technology in another article.
Some other drawback is that at that place is often useful information on the bordering pages of Beginnings images. For case, your attached record may be a particular page of a passenger manifest. But the actual details for your person of interest may spread over three pages. It's just something to be enlightened of. It really depends on the type of drove.
Does RootsMagic download the Notation, Annotate and MyTreeTag?
The Notation is visible in the RootsMagic person profile, just the Comment and MyTreeTag are not downloaded.
Notes are part of the GEDCOM standard, and likewise get exported to a GEDCOM file. So it would have been odd if they weren't handled by RootsMagic.
I'm non surprised past the missing MyTreeTag as it's a relatively recent Ancestry feature. Will it be included in a future version? I doubtfulness information technology. The RootsMagic FAQ doesn't mention MyTreeTags, simply says explicitly that Comments are not downloaded.
Personally, I'm not likewise worried most the comments and tree tags. Information technology's the photos and documents that interest me well-nigh.
Does RootsMagic download the Photos and Documents?
All photos and document were downloaded past RootsMagic and associated with the correct person in the RootsMagic tree.
I of my demo Beginnings person profiles has two photos, a Word certificate , a PDF, and an inline story. The RootsMagic "Media Album" shows thumbnails of all v pieces of media.
By the way – the Ancestry inline story is stored as a HTML file by Beginnings. So it's correctly represented in the thumbnnail to a higher place as the icon of my preferred browser.
Then RootsMagic says it has the media – only has it actually taken downwards the files to my local motorcar? The file location is helpfully shown every bit part of the file details, and all files are stored in the same binder. My examination shows every slice of media: the higher up-mentioned five files and the additional photo that I had copied from a dissever Ancestry tree (associated with another person).
Minor Alarm – the "Compare Media" display
When you first run the download, a folio pops upwards which lets you compare the RootsMagic tree person and the Ancestry tree person. Information technology's a nice feature, just it seemed to tell me falsely that there were missing files that had not been downloaded.
Specifically, these were the contour photos. Although not in the list of RootsMagic files, they were clearly present in the RootsMagic tree every bit contour photos: and their files were in the local folder also.
This may be related to a more serious result I discovered with profile photos, which I will discuss in the section on syncing up to Ancestry.
Major Alarm – the loss of photograph attribution
When y'all use the Ancestry "save photo" feature to copy a photo from another Ancestry tree, some additional details are copied alongside the paradigm. Specifically, the original tree and the tree owner are noted every bit the source. This keeps the evidence trail, and provides proper credit to the person who uploaded the image originally.
The RootsMagic photo does not show any link to the original tree and tree possessor. I'm pretty sure that Beginnings wouldn't let this due to privacy concerns, so I'thousand non pointing the finger at RootsMagic here equally the cause of the problem. But it'due south still a problem to me.
If you don't re-create photos from other trees, and then this won't put y'all off the RootsMagic awarding.
Summary and Conclusion – Thumbs Upwardly for the Download
In summary, the RootsMagic download does non include Ancestry comments and MyTreeTags. This may not bother most Ancestry users.
All my uploaded photos and documents were downloaded, and associated with the correct persons in the RootsMagic tree.
In addtion, all images associated with Ancestry-sourced records were also downloaded.
Problems with RootsMagic Software
When I was downloading one of my larger trees, the application popped upwards this error message:
Information technology'due south possible that there was a problem with my broadband. The download connected with no further credible problem. I'd be more worried virtually this memory access violation mistake when I clicked on an item:
A gimmicky application should not be throwing these kind of errors. One of the more than negative Amazon reviews of an older version had this to say: "Get used to retentivity exception errors oft. The program was developed using Delphi and is Non crumbling well."
I was prepared to treat those reviews every bit being old news until the above fault popped up for me when I clicked on the RootsMagic equivalent of the green leaf hint (a yellow lightbulb).
However, the application didn't crash and shut downwards. I was able to continue working.
Does RootsMagic give a High Quality Ancestry Backup?
I watched a video fabricated by the founder of RootsMagic when he was launching their integration with Beginnings in 2017. He was justifiably excited, it's a major software accomplishment. His audition of existing RootsMagic users had created their trees within the RootsMagic software and were contemplating uploading into Ancestry. He was at pains to emphasize that "Ancestry is not a fill-in of your RootsMagic database".
There are elementes in RootsMagic that are non in Ancestry e.g. to-do lists, inquiry lists, the ability to attach media to locations. These, of course, will not upload to Ancestry.
Simply my question, as an Beginnings users, is: will RootsMagic be a backup for my Ancestry tree? At this point in the article, I've got what seems to be a good copy held within the RootsMagic software on my local motorcar.
The key question now becomes: will the local copy upload completely and correctly into a new Ancestry tree?
If I lost my Ancestry tree, if I deleted a whose co-operative by mistake – would I exist able to recover the situation by syncing my nigh recent RootsMagic copy up into a new Ancestry tree? That's the 2d and concluding exam. Read on for the results.
Uploading a RootsMagic Tree back into Beginnings
Now I've got a re-create of my Ancestry demo tree in RootsMagic, the next chore is to upload it into a new tree in Beginnings. I was puzzled for a while equally the Upload push on the TreeShare screen was disabled. What's going on is that RootsMagic assumes that you will now be syncing your RootsMagic and Beginnings copse, which are linked together.
After a scrap of tinkering, I went to the options screen of and clicked on "Disconnect from Ancestry Tree". That did the play tricks, and enabled the Upload button.
Within the RootsMagic sequence, I set the new Ancestry tree name to "demo from RootsMagic" and kept all the default options. The upload took under a minute to consummate for my small tree.
I've washed the same download/upload test with Ancestry'southward GEDCOM export. And so my first impression when viewing my "new" Beginnings tree is that the quality is amend: the person contour images are displaying correctly. These get wiped out with a GEDCOM download.
So now for a detailed quality review.
The Beginnings Tree (Uploaded Re-create) Examination
Straight up, we can predict what will be missing from the original Ancestry tree. RootsMagic doesn't re-create downward Comments, MyTreeTags, and external Web Link source URLs. So these don't magically re-appear.
The Annotation is nowadays and correct in this new tree.
More critically, the two birth registration records are an exact copy. I think nosotros can exist rubber in assuming that Ancestry sources will be okay. I doubt Beginnings (the visitor) would allow RootsMagic to use its API if they didn't get this correct.
And then what about my uploaded documents? The 2 images, the Word certificate and the PDF? These take all been copied, and are in the media galleries of the correct person profiles.
A small problem – the inline story is missing
Comparing the 2 media galleries side-by-side, information technology's easy to come across what'due south missing. The unmarried inline story I attached to a person was dowloaded into the RootsMagic local binder. Simply it hasn't gone support into the new tree. I checked the person profile gallery and full tree gallery.
Now, this is a minor problem for me – considering I recall the feature is kinda stupid. I've got no problem with Ancestry giving us an online editor to type in the story. But then it's stored every bit a HTML file! Are you lot going to email HTML to your elderly aunt? I'll stick with uploading external stories every bit Word or PDF files.
But the adjacent matter is more than serious.
A bigger problem – loss of copied photograph attribution
This was anticipated. The downloaded RootsMagic tree had lost the evidence trail of a copied photograph. The original Beginnings tree displays the source tree and tree owner'southward user proper name.
As I mentioned in my assay of the download, I think this is Beginnings insisting on the privacy of other Ancestry users from inside an external awarding. Then I doubt it'southward a software error on RootsMagic's part. Only information technology's something to be aware of.
A major problem – tree profile photos
I mentioned that I immediately saw that the person profile photos were correctly displaying. But things got very strange when I compared the media galleries of the original and uploaded trees.
The profile picture is displaying, only it's not in the gallery. This is what I mean:
Come across? The photo is gear up as the profile image, but information technology's not in profile gallery. It's in the overall tree gallery, only the difference to the original tree version is that the photo'due south status is fix to unattached to anyone in the tree. That scenario just should non happen.
And it wasn't simply this one profile photo. I accept two persons with profile images in the demo tree. Both have the same trouble in the uploaded tree. RootsMagic just isn't making the correct connections within Ancestry.
To try to be fair to RootsMagic, I did my best to achieve the aforementioned set-upwardly in a third little tree within Ancestry. I uploaded the photo, linked information technology, unlinked information technology, and generally clicked every which way. My conclusion is that it is not possible within Ancestry to set up a profile image without having it linked to the person.
Why am I banging on about this as a major trouble? Is it non just a display event? Well, RootsMagic has put this Ancestry tree contour into a state that it is not designed to be. Technically, the data is corrupt. As a data technologist, this kind of stuff worries me!
Is it a known problem? Yes .
I searched the RootsMagic support forum, and found a seemingly related thread from 2017. The fact that it hasn't been resolved is non confidence-inspiring.
Is it a bargain breaker for using RootsMagic Essentials with Beginnings? No.
Look, I don't desire to throw RootsMagic Essentials overboard on this 1.
Firstly, you may not use profile images in your tree.
Secondly, if other people have encounted the effect merely have non reported major bug with their synchronized treees to Beginnings…well, then it's probably not so serious.
Thirdly – did y'all read the section on downloaded record images? I tin overlook a glitch or ii for that functionality.
Should you utilise RootsMagic to back up your Ancestry tree?
It's a qualified yes from me.
I'll exist reviewing some of other options, so subscribe to our newsletter to go a weekly notification when the reviews appear.
Video Walkthrough – Download Media from your Ancestry Tree
This is a video walkthrough using RootsMagic Essentials to download all record images attached to your Ancestry tree.
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