Auto Wikitree Tables +: Chrome extension to quickly and easily make Wiki tables from an Ancestry or Family Search page

Question

I'm just going to put this Chrome extension out there in case anyone may find it useful.  It does one job - makes wiki tables from an Ancestry page. You go to an Ancestry page - say a census page - and click the extension icon. Then there are checkboxes for what fields from the form you wish to include in your table. It automatically copies the generated table (and a link to add to the sources section) to your clipboard.  You can then just paste your table into a Wikitree page.  See what you think.  If you find it useful, then... good; if you don't... never mind. 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ancestry2wikitree/bldfdpnmijncfmaokfjgdmcjdhafihoh

UPDATED UPDATE: For the few people who are interested in this... I've updated this (v. 1.7).  I've extended it to be used on Family Search, too, so I've changed the name of it.  It was called 'Ancestry2Wikitree', but now it's 'Auto Wikitree Tables +' (and I've changed the icon to a table). I hope someone finds it useful.

Comments

After doing the copy paste, I frequently add other information on the line of the family member that is not included in that family list, such as birth month year from 1900, year married, where parents born, mother's children count, etc, whatever might be available but not included in family list. It takes up less room than having all the information entered on a separate line for each item and each person.

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Hi Jonathan.  I spent yesterday extending this to be used with Family Search, so my mind's kind of on it now...  I'd be interested to know what were you thinking.

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Thanks for working on this and offering it up for the community, Ian.

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Chris... Thank you for building and running the site and the community. 

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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Research_Worksheet_Template

Right now I'm using https://www.tablesgenerator.com/mediawiki_tables by copy/pasting the entire contents from whatever worksheet I have into the tablesgenerator site, then modifying and copy/pasting the whole thing back in. 

Thinking about making some format changes anyway, but wondered if I should write an extension that allows for direct editing of tables, and uses mergeEdit to throw it back in. Having never done that before, wondered if yours would negate the need. 

I don't think it does the same thing though, it's doing the conversion part, but not direct editing. 

Also, what is the significance of the checkboxes on the second column versus the first? I've been playing with it a little, but can't figure out what it's trying to do.

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Jonathan... Thanks for taking a look.  I hope you find it useful.  Honestly, I was working on connecting this with mergeEdit a while ago, but I was having too many problems with it, so I kind of gave up.  Having said that, though, with the way I'm using this, I don't need mergeEdit.  Rather than copying the person's id (e.g. Beacall-6) from WikiTree into the extension, and then going through mergeEdit, I just make or edit a profile in WikiTree, click the extension icon in the table I want (on Ancestry) and then paste it into the profile. Sometimes, I copy a few tables - maybe a few censuses - and easily paste them into the page while the edit thing is open.

As for the checkboxes being on the left or right, there's no meaning at all.  They're just all the fields from the table in order, going across (so the second row has the third and fourth fields; the third row, the fifth and sixth; and so on).

And... (and I'm quite pleased with this one)... in my latest update, if you click the icon when you're not on a page with a table, you get... a table. 

And... Wow... I just looked at what you're doing (your worksheet page).  That's pretty... in depth. Good luck with that!

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This extension is definitely useful, no doubt. Thank you for creating it!

And yeah, I figure the research worksheets will keep me busy for the next 50 years or so haha...but at least I'll be organized! Seems like a good candidate for a site like this, if other people also updated what they did. Cast a wider net, and all that.

Just hard to use at the moment. it's doable, but I doubt very many other people than myself will want to put up with it unless I make it easier.

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Update: I got it to work on a record that had a census image on it.

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I can't get Auto WikiTree Tables to work. With a Ancestry record opened on-screen I click the Auto WikiTree Tables icon (a Table) and it pops up a picture of a table instead of the data, as shown in the examples.

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Hi Edward,

Can you give me a link to a record where it didn't work?

Thanks.

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Will do when/if I find another one. So far, everything is working right.

Answer 1

Will give it a try. Be less time consuming then the page I am using now and having to edit out the data I don't want.

Answer 2

Hi Ian - just wondering how to use it. Downloaded but the most I get when I use the extension is the input boxes and a friendly Hello!.  Not sure what I need to do to utilize. Thanks for your help.

Comments

Shirley, did you actually go to an Ancestry page? Something like this - https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?dbid=7667&h=43742851&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=7163 (as a random example)? If you're on that page (or thousands more like it), you should be able to click the icon and... it should work.

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When I follow your link and then use the Extension the link copies to the input box and then it works as expected. But when I go to a record in one of my trees and use the extension, all I get is the Hello!. Same thing if I do a new search on Ancestry.

I find that it does work if I locate a record through the WikiTree Research and then access the view.

Sure it will be helpful for those searches, but doesn't seem to work for records located directly in Ancestry.

Great work and thanks for doing this :)

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Hi Shirley,
I was surprised that you had problems with the extension, and then I came across a page where it didn't work.  I think I may have fixed it now, but it takes (maybe) a day or so for the extension to update in your browser (you may need to re-enable it (look for the exclamation mark in the top-right of your browser)). Can you do me a small favour?  Just take a look for me at a page where it's working and one where it's not... Look at the URL.  I think it is/was working when the URL starts https://search.ancestry.com  but not when it starts https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/ .  That's where I found the problem and I've changed the code to fix that.  If your case is different, (if you're on a page that starts https://search.ancestry.com and it doesn't work) let me know. Thanks.  If your case is the same as I've found here, please try it again in a day or so.  Thanks again.

Edit: It's updated now (though as I said, you'll need to re-enable it), so hopefully, you won't see the problem anymore, but let me know if you do.

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Hi Ian - here's a URL I just tried - its from within an existing Ancestry Tree.

https://search.ancestry.ca/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=7667&h=35544535&ssrc=pt&tid=81389239&pid=48437993972&usePUB=true

All I get is the Hello! - I'll try some other access points, see what I get. (Is it possible that it is the .ca causing the problem?)

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Thanks, Shirley.  I hadn't even thought about all the international domain names they use(!)  Anyway, I've updated it to be as inclusive as possible.  It will work on the page you showed me there when it updates. (It seems to take about half a day for the update (v. 1.3) to be pushed out to Chrome, and then you need to re-enable it again).

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You are awesome:)

Answer 3

Nice! Would you like me to add your extension to the Apps page?

Comments

Sure.  That would be fine, as long as people understand what it does.