VoCo Mojo: Tuesday's Tip - How to sync your WikiTree watchlist with FamilySearch

+18 votes
350 views

Hello fellow WikiTreers, from the Volunteer Coordinator Project!!

Time for a tip:  Did you know you can sync up your WikiTree watchlist with FamilySearch?  For your matches, it will populate a "Research" link on their WikiTree profile. You can see an example on the profile for my 6x ggf, John Shotwell III.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page, just above the google search box. 

To do this, you first need to have a free account on FamilySearch. Once you've gotten that, go to your watchlist here on WikiTree by clicking on My WikiTree at top right, then selecting "Watchlist."  Once your watchlist comes up, click "FS Matches."  It will then take you to a login page where you can login to both sites on one page. Then, it will show you matches between people on FamilySearch and your WikiTree watchlist. You can choose to confirm the match or make it an uncertain match.

This is a fabulous tool for sourcing!!!  It populates directly onto the person's profile, so you and anyone else can check regularly for sources. I just discovered this a couple of months ago; I go in at least twice a month and re-sync my list to get the updates.  I've found a LOT of great sources from this.  You can too!!

So, give it a try and let me know here if it helped you!

WikiTree profile: John Shotwell
in The Tree House by Summer Orman G2G6 Mach 9 (94.2k points)
retagged by Maggie N.
John,

I have never heard of this.  How do you sync up your WikiTree watchlist with FamilySearch?  I am a member of FamilySearch.

Thank you so much!

Taylor
Taylor,

The instructions are in the original post, but here they are again:

Go to your watchlist here on WikiTree by clicking on My WikiTree at top right, then selecting "Watchlist."  Once your watchlist comes up, click "FS Matches."  It will then take you to a login page where you can login to both sites on one page. Then, it will show you matches between people on FamilySearch and your WikiTree watchlist. You can choose to confirm the match or make it an uncertain match.
Summer,

Thank you so much for providing directions on how to sync up Wikitree watchlist with FamilySearch.

Truly appreciate it.

 

Taylor

5 Answers

+10 votes

GREAT POST, Summer !  I highly endorse letting FamilySearch find sources for your WikiTree profiles !

I wrote about my way of doing it but others may have niftier ways (-:

http://genealogyworks2.blogspot.com/2015/11/why-i-use-familysearch-matches-tool-at.html

 

 

by Maggie N. G2G Astronaut (1.3m points)
Thanks Maggie!  I just realized I had never seen a post about this...I didn't know if it was something widely known or not.  I absolutely LOVE it. It has really helped me find sources, even for some of the most difficult people on my watchlist. It's been a big help.  I needed to share this with others!
+7 votes
Hmm... pros and cons...

My watchlist is a bit out of control, so I wish I'd known about this awhile back. It's going to take me a bit of time to check each and individual profile and each and individual match to get the maximum use from this, but it is interesting.

However, it doesn't appear to be difficult to do - just time consuming. I'm going to set up a few, check them out, and see how things work out. I'm already flying off on a tangent on a profile that I had no data on... and now it appears I might have a potential match.

Short term pain for long term gain. Good stuff!
by Scott Fulkerson G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
It is definitely time-consuming, that is true.  I groan every time I have to do it, LOL!!  But it is so worth it!
+6 votes
Also, review the previously set matches . If there were two matches, make sure that both still come up with a link to a FamilySearch person. If one just spins and spins, that's an indication that it may have been merged away over on the FamilySearch side.
by Debi Hoag G2G6 Pilot (393k points)
+5 votes

I gave it a try.  On Family Search they give no reciprocal link to WikiTree.  My sourcing on WikiTree is better than there sourcing.  It seems we get nothing. See Anna Christina Abrahamsdotter

by Norm Lindquist G2G6 Mach 7 (74.1k points)
+4 votes

Did this. 

When I clicked on "Link FS profile" after having made a match, I had to login to FS *again* and then I got this error message:

Sorry, some required information in the historical record is missing or unreadable. A Family Tree Source cannot be created without it.

by Jillaine Smith G2G6 Pilot (895k points)
I tried another one and it went through. But it's not really linking the Wikitree profile and the FS profile-- it's posting on the FS profile a source citation that links to Wikitree. I can't in good conscience provide such a "source" since a Wikitree profile is at best a container with hopefully good sources on it. Besides, I have no interest in working on FS profiles. There's enough to do over here.

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