What's with all the Ancestry junk?

Question

I've been noticing ridiculously long Ancestry.com, what can only be described as junk, on so many of the profiles.

It seems pretty useless. I don't understand it, it looks terrible it takes up space where real sources could be displayed and if you do venture to actual press one of the links you come to a pay site for members only.

Here's an example:

• Source: S1 Abbreviation: GEDCOM file imported on 10 April 2015 Title: GEDCOM file submitted by Chai Mercaida research for Ken Carver GFR request. Imported on 10 April 2015. Subsequent Source Citation Format: GEDCOM file submitted by Chai Mercaida research for Ken Carver GFR request. Imported on 10 April 2015. BIBL GEDCOM file, Chai Mercaida research for Ken Carver GFR request. TMPLT TID 0 FIELD Name: Footnote VALUE GEDCOM file submitted by Chai Mercaida research for Ken Carver GFR request. Imported on 10 April 2015. FIELD Name: ShortFootnote VALUE GEDCOM file submitted by Chai Mercaida research for Ken Carver GFR request. Imported on 10 April 2015. FIELD Name: Bibliography VALUE GEDCOM file, Chai Mercaida research for Ken Carver GFR request. TMPLT
• Source: S2 Abbreviation: Ancestry Family Trees Title: Ancestry Family Trees (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.) Subsequent Source Citation Format: Ancestry Family Trees BIBL Ancestry Family Trees. Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. TMPLT TID 0 FIELD Name: Footnote VALUE Ancestry Family Trees (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.) FIELD Name: ShortFootnote VALUE Ancestry Family Trees FIELD Name: Bibliography VALUE Ancestry Family Trees. Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Repository: #R1 Page: Ancestry Family Tree TMPLT FIELD Name: Page VALUE Ancestry Family Tree Data: Text: http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=77995372&pid=833
• Repository: R1 Name: Ancestry.com Address:" 

Answer 1

That comes from importing Ancestry profiles from GEDCOM files.  There's an app called AGC that might clean them up.  Or there's a video about how to do it:  https://youtu.be/7gJMhj-93fw

And a Help file.

Comments

Thanks!

Answer 2

While I'm not a huge fan of pay sites that essentially lock out those of us who choose not to feed the machine, I have seen this a number of times and honestly never know how much of it to cut and how much to save. I believe there is a certain value to these GEDCOM source notations that Ancestry litters across the profiles, but I suspect that 90% of it could be cut away and leave just the key indicators behind. Unfortunately, I'm not an Ancestry GEDCOM expert, so I'll leave this to those with more experience. But my take is that typically I'll leave it alone, or on an Ancestry free weekend if I come across one, I'll follow the links back and validate and even try to clean up parts so that it's more meaningful.

From what I can tell, it appears to be referencing a specific public (possibly private) Ancestry Family Tree and referencing the sources located within that tree. Other than that, there does appear to be a significant amount of "field" indicators that don't seem to go anywhere or have blank data in them.

Comments

Thanks for the info.

Answer 3

Actually, this doesn't look like an import from an Ancestry GEDCOM file.  Looks like it came from a 3rd party program/site that an Ancestry Com GEDCOM was loaded to and then a GEDCOM was created from there.  So it looks like a bad citation of a citation.  A clone more or less of the original.

Eric, on which Profile is this found?

Please remember when you come across any Profile created from a GEDCOM upload to look at the date the Profile was created.  Profiles before 2018 were created with an older pre-GEDCOMpare Upload utility that, well, left a lot to be desired where Ancestry and other pay site's sources were concerned. 

I am still fixing some of my earlier Profiles created from Ancestry uploads.  I'm replacing all of my Ancestry sources with those from familysearch where and when available. Of course familysearch doesn't have the same record files as Ancestry and visa versa.  So if I find a WW 2 Draft record on Ancestry, I'll use it, a record is a record is a record no matter where it is found.  Especially when there is an image to verify the transcript.  Ancestry records aren't bad in and of themselves, just how they are presented is the problem.  More folks need to read this  Help:Links to Ancestry   when they upload Ancestry GEDCOM files.  Or use this WikiTree Sourcer  I use the Sourcer now to add sources instead of GEDCOM uploads, it is so quick and easy and since I have to clean up after an upload anyways, it is actually a time saver.

Comments

The profile was Rhodes-3282

Wow, it sounds really complicated. Thanks for explaining how some of these never ending strings were created. And that's great that you've been fixing those links. I'm going to have to learn more about this.

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Almost everything on that Profile can be replaced once you add a source.  I would keep:

==Biography==

==Sources==

<references/>

and

Rhodes-3282 was created by [[Jacobs-3097 | Beryl Jacobs]] through the import of Carver Family Tree 2.ged on Apr 10, 2015.  This would stay below <references/> with ==Acknowledgement== above it.  Everything else except the link mentioned below is GEDCOM JUNK!

The link https://ancestry.prf.hn/click/camref:1011l4xx5/type:cpc/destination:https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?viewrecord=1&r=an&db=WebASM-9289&indiv=try&h=12286616   refers to this:

Name: Hezekiah Rhodes

Gender: Male

Birth Date: 8 okt 1723 (8 Oct 1723)

Birth Place: middlesex County,virginia,USA

Father: William Rhodes

Mother: Hanna Miller

Which has the familysearch equivilent: "Virginia Births and Christenings, 1584-1917".  Citing FHL microfilm: 873777;.  [https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VRR7-986 FamilySearch] (accessed 23 February 2022).  Hezekiah Roads baptism on 27 Oct 1723 (born 8 Oct 1723) in Christchurch, Middlesex, Virginia, British Colonial America.

Also found this you might find of interest regarding the Rhodes Family in Christchurch

https://www.colonial-settlers-md-va.us/getperson.php?personID=I127591&tree=Tree1

This page makes me think the date of death on this Profile could be wrong.

All the best and happy sleuthing.

Answer 4

I just joined here 2 days ago, and want to be helpful. I've done genealogy research since I was a young teen, which was...a long time ago. I've been on ancestry.com for 12 years off and on, so a lot of my sources are there. I did not even try to upload my GEDCOM because I wasn't sure how that would work- but there would have been many problems if I had! I'd like to ask a follow up question.. Is what I have done to cite sources on Dolloff-230 an acceptable compromise?

Comments

Your ancestry sources look good.

You may want to look at this page on how to WikiTree format the links to the ancestry images.

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Links_to_Ancestry

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And the Sourcer browser extension automates the process of creating Ancestry links