The data I would most like to synchronize is the Family Search profile identifier and the URL for the profile “Details” page. I keep both in my local database.
The identifier is quite easy to copy/paste. If you click on it in FS, they will copy it to your clipboard. Switch over to Gramps and paste it into an attribute. The URL is only a few more clicks to get onto the Internet tab in Gramps.
Both of those data items are subject to change. Many times I have followed a link from my database back to FS only to find that the profile no longer exists. In almost all cases it was merged into another. I then have to update my database with the new profile ID and URL.
Repeat the above for Find A Grave.
I need to look at the Controlled Edit Tree feature. There are a few profiles I would like more control of, mainly my immediate family.
Someone recently added a new profile for my father which listed him as “deceased”. He is still alive at age 91. A while back someone merged my maternal grandfather with another person of similar name. It took me several hours to undo the damage.
I would be interested in looking at such a tool but as already mentioned in many posts, while FS is an excellent source for actual records, it is far from perfect when it comes to the transcriptions of some of those records and as for the way many people are connected up to make trees Given that I’d only find a Gramps/FS sync feature if I were in complete control.
I suspect it would be beyond the scope of a Gramps/FS sync tool but it would be really, really, handy if it could bypass the need to visit a Family Search Center in order to view certain images. My nearest FS Center is not far away but urban traffic means it takes about 30-40 mins to get there, plus it’s only open for a few hours one day a week.
Meanwhile, the way @StoltHD describes how Legacy works with FS sounds appealing so I will investigate that approach.
In the Legacy variant at least, you will link the persons profile ID to your local person, I am not sure where Legacy store it, never actually thought about it, because I only use it to download and upload selected information.
And in that interface, any merges will be handled, so you will get an “update” in the Share Data as I recall… (don’t quote me on that, it can be that I remember wrongly).
And as you see in the Print Screens i added, you also get a change history for all the changes done on FS.
The changes people do that is not correct is a problem, but I have experienced that if you write a good argument for why you change the information back, and include that you are a close relative to the person, the “idiotic” edits by people not knowing what they are doing stops…
But it can be that I have been lucky…
If you need to change back a profile merge or an added profile for a person, you still need to do that on the FS site, and yes it can be some job to get it done, but remember to write a note of why the old info is wrong and why your info is right… that it’s your father, would be a great argument, but he shouldn’t be public on FS, because he is still living…???
I have not looked at the “private tree feature on FS, so I don’t know anything about it…
I’ve sadly been very distracted and involved in other aspects of my life as of late, all of which have kept me from working on genealogy, but I had to respond to this topic.
I would be thrilled to see Gramps gain integration with FamilySearch – it’s an idea I fully support and would greatly appreciate. While I don’t have the coding skills to contribute, I deeply value the vision behind it.
I think that the LDS ordinance support and the FamilySearch integration can be separate items.
When trying to trying to get feedback on Gramps at a LDS Family History Center, I met with exceptional resistance. (And that was before disclosing that Gramps is missing support for a standard ordinance.) The very idea that software developed outside the church could track Ordinance status seemed offensive to the people there.
I don’t think we need to be taken to task for not recognizing Initiatory as an LDS ordinance. The old Personal Ancestral File (PAF), the LDS’s own software, recognized only Baptism, Endowment, Sealing to Parents and Sealing to Spouce as ordinances.
My point was that I met the resistance and doubt that non-LDS could possibly code Ordinances properly. (And that I was glad that the Initiatory never came up. It would have reinforced their opinion.)
I believe that PAF was discontinued before the Initiatory ordinance was added to their recordkeeping checklist.
There is a big cultural difference between their FamilySearch Labs, the FamilySearch.com organization, and the LDS Family Centers.
I am guessing that someone from the Labs approached you. The FamilySearch.com organization validates the innovative forays undertaken by the Lab and its interns. They are tentatively open to, but wary of, new tech. The local LDS Family Centers are more conservative. It may take a blessing from the Seventy to be found acceptable there. (That is an outsider’s experience. I may be way off.)
If it is someone from the Labs, they are mostly staffed by idealistic students of the Brigham Young University, proctored by an Elder. In many cases, these interns are looking for class projects or just want to see the technology modernize. So that is generally benign.
I was just on the user side. This has been inherited from gedcom file format and maybe some users still have such records into the Family Tree. Should Gramps write a converter or is there any specification for a migration stuff? Is there any support with the FamilySearch stuff, etc.
Only some questions about data recorded (or designed) for LDS and maybe deprecated and still into some gramps Family Trees. Also, should these “LDS tabs” move to pseudo-synchronization tabs ? If so, any converter will be welcome…
Gordon Clarke contacted Sam who forwarded the email to me. I’ll get back to him tomorrow to let him know that I have posted on this forum. I was waiting for a response from Enno and then I was just very busy so it has taken some time. Another post reminded me of this.
I’m sure that FamilySearch can advise us on the requirements for LDS ordinances.
Wasn’t there a mention on discourse some time ago that Gramps couldn’t sign up to the Familysearch API terms of use, because Gramps did not have a corporate structure which could enter into an agreement like that.
I rather expect we will bump into that barrier again. There’s no reason to expect Gordon (@clarkegj) to know about our project’s organizational structure. These are preliminary contacts about feasibility and interest.
But there (at least) 2 ways around that:
@bmatherly posted recently about incorporating to resolve some other issues about the assets the project may need to convey as volunteers come and go. That would create a signatory power.
Any FS API addon for Gramps could be developed in their GitHub repository and maintainer responsibility assigned to FamilySearch. They would be able to ensure it complies with their policies.
Given that I’d only find a Gramps/FS sync feature if I were in complete control.