FamilySearch went live with a new tool that makes attaching records to multiple people a lot faster. This tool is new as of late last week. I’ve used it a handful of times and have found that the function has not been identical every time. Here is a breakdown of how it works – at least one of the ways it works. Even though it’s not been perfectly consistent, each way is similar enough that you can follow this general set of instructions.
I found this census record for Seth & Esther Maffit, my 3rd great grandparents. After verifying it was the correct record for my family, I came back to the index page. If I click the blue ‘Attach to Family Tree’ button, then I see the next image.
The website is asking me to match the record to the correct Seth Maffit. You can see there are two lists – ‘Possible Matches’ and ‘History List’. The possible matches are pulled by the system, the history list is just a list of the people I have most recently worked on in Family Tree. If neither of these lists pulls up the correct person you can find them using their ID number. My Seth happens to be the top choice – Seth Potter Maffit. After clicking ‘Select’, I see this.
Some more details about Seth. I can type a reason statement explaining why I am attaching the source and then click ‘Attach’.
After attaching the record, the index page looks slightly different. I can now ‘View in Family Tree’ and ‘Review Attachments’. Clicking ‘View in Family Tree’ allows me to see who the record is attached to. Clicking ‘Review Attachments’ is the cool new feature. I clicked it and then see this page.
On the left is the information from the record. On the right is the family information about Seth Potter Maffit. Notice the family members down at the bottom on the left. They aren’t lined up with Seth’s family members. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. If they aren’t you can solve that by dragging and dropping. I drug Esther’s census entry up and put it in the box next to her name and then it looked like this.
Notice there is now the option to ‘Attach’ the record to Esther. In order to drag and drop the kiddos I clicked ‘Open’ at the end of the first gray bar that says ‘Children from Family Tree’. Then I see this.
Now I can drag and drop the kiddos.
Now everyone is lined up. Well, everyone except for Charles Middlesworth. I don’t know who that child is. More research for another day. The next step is to attach each one. First click the blue ‘Attach’ between the record and the Family Tree entry.
After you click ‘Attach’ you see something like this to compare the information from the record to the information from the tree. You can also add a reason statement here. When you are satisfied, click the blue ‘Attach’ button one last time. Complete this process for each person.
Now the 1870 Census is attached to each member of the Maffit family. This tool has certainly sped up the process but it’s not nearly as streamlined as the ancestry.com tool. I hope to see this tool get better with time. For now I am happy that things are faster than they used to be.
Do you use Family Tree? If so, try out this new tool and let me know what you think.
Eventually I’ll try it out–when I get a big enough block of time. Then I’ll come back through your blog for tips!
Are you a Family Tree user? I didn’t know that.
No, but when I get the block of time I want to try it out. I’m not happy with the incorrect info on Ancestry and am looking for something else. But things are too hectic for me this year.
I see. Well good luck, I hope you like Family Tree better.