3 Methods of Getting Sources Into FamilySearch from other Sites

How Can I Add a Record That I Find on Ancestry.com or Other Locations to My Ancestor’s Sources in Family Tree?

 By Bill Davidson of FamilySearch
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I use FamilySearch Family Tree as my “main” site for all my family history, yet I also use several partner websites to complement my work on Family Tree. This raises the question “How can I add a record that I find on Ancestry.com to my ancestors sources in Family Tree?” In this blog post, we’ll look at several options.

Perhaps the easiest to use, is the Tree Connect feature from RecordSeek.com. To use this option, complete the initial set-up at RecordSeek.com by adding the Tree Connect  bookmarklet to your bookmark bar and then sign-in to RecordSeek.com using your FamilySearch login credentials. After you have completed this initial set-up, you are ready to use this service to add sources from Ancestry.com and other websites as sources to your ancestors on your FamilySearch Tree. To use Tree Connect, follow these steps:

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In Ancestry.com:

• Click on the thumbnail image of the record you want to attach to your tree
• Click the Tree Connect link in your bookmark bar
• Sign in using your FamilySearch credentials
• Complete and customize the information in the pop-up box about the record you found
• Search for your ancestor, using names and events or for more precision, search using the Person ID number
• Select your ancestor from the list that Tree Connect returns
• Click Save to complete the process

Another way to add a record that you find on Ancestry.com to your ancestor’s sources in Family Tree is to first save the record to your computer and then upload the record in Family Tree. When you find a record on Ancestry.com that you want to save to your tree, follow these steps:

In Ancestry.com:

• To open the image, click on the thumbnail image of the record you want to save
• In the upper-right hand corner of the image page, click on the Save button
• In the resulting drop-down box, select Save to my computer
• Using the Save to my computer dialogue box, select the folder or location on your computer to save the file. Type a name for the file — perhaps your ancestors name and the type of record. For example, you could save the record as “Jane Doe birth record”

Move to FamilySearch Family Tree:

• Find the ancestor for whom you want to add the new record / source
• In the Person view of your ancestor, select Sources from the available links on the Details tab (below the banner with your ancestor’s name, dates, etc.)
• Click Create a Source
• In the required Source Title box, type a short description of your new source
• Select Add a memory
• Click Add file then navigate to the folder or location on your computer where you saved the record
• Select the file (previously saved in the example as “Jane Doe birth record”
• Complete the rest of the form adding detailed dates and other information from the record
• Select Save to complete the task

A third option is to copy the URL for the new source record from Ancestry.com (or other website) and paste it into your ancestor’s sources in Family Tree. Follow these steps:

In Ancestry.com:

• Click on the thumbnail image of the record you want to add to your tree
• Select the entire URL from the address bar of your browser
• Use either the keyboard shortcut or mouse to Copy the URL

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Move to FamilySearch Family Tree:

• Find the ancestor for whom you want to add the new record
• in the Person view of your ancestor, select Sources from the available links on the Details tab (below the banner with your ancestor’s name, dates, etc.)
• Click on Create a Source
• In the required Source Title box, type a short description of your new source
• Use either the keyboard shortcut or mouse to paste the URL into the Web page URL box
• Complete the rest of the form adding detailed dates and other information from the record
• Select Save to complete the task

All three of these options work well. The first and third options require that others who want to access the record must have an Ancestry.com account.