The Slow Process of Updating FamilySearch Profiles for 1,000 Men - Civil War Pt 9

Devon Noel Lee

7 min read

Syncing cycle showing RootsMagic and FamilySearch with turtle to represent how slow the process is.

If you've been following my 10-part series on researching the men who served with my Civil War ancestor, welcome to part 9! Just one more to go. To recap:

I began with the question, "Who were the men that served with William James Townsend in Company K, Ohio 133rd Volunteer Infantry?"

To answer that question, I created a sortable spreadsheet to analyze biographical details about these men. It's easier to analyze a group of people in a table than a family tree.

Unfortunately, I didn't capture genealogy source citations on my first research pass. So, genealogy guilt hit me like a semi-truck, and I 'retraced' my steps to capture those citations like a good genealogist.

Within 2 months, I resolved the guilt and created a well-cited spreadsheet. Then, the biggest "genealogy tangent" happened, initiating a very LONG detour. Sharing my research involved converting the spreadsheet to a gedcom file and then uploading that data to online trees, particularly Ancestry and FamilySearch.

This tangent took 7 months of valuable research time, and I repeatedly asked myself, "Is it worth it?"

In the previous post, I pivoted my syncing strategy to focus on using Family Tree Maker and Ancestry. On Ancestry, I linked digital sources, cleaned up facts, and found overlooked sources. I leveraged Family Tree Maker as my backup and location-cleanup tool.

Today's video tackles the time-consuming challenge of sharing data between Ancestry, desktop software, and FamilySearch.

Why Is Updating FamilySearch Profiles So Time-Consuming?

The nature of FamilySearch Family Tree makes it a beast. Some users complain about FamilySearch's accuracy, and while I wish I had access to user stats, here's what I know: if you have more than a few hundred people in your family tree, you probably won't relish the idea of spending 6 months validating it on FamilySearch.

FamilySearch keeps track of your contributions. I started in 2012 when the platform replaced "New FamilySearch." (Anyone remember that?) In 2012 alone—with five kids under 10, mind you—I managed to contribute 601 items: 391 sources and 210 profiles. Not bad for a platform that opened to the public in 2013!

Over the years, my contributions grew steadily until 2016, when they dipped. Why? I launched my YouTube channel and started writing stories about my discoveries. My recent spike in contributions is thanks to my research on the Ohio 133rd Regiment.

The takeaway?

Updating to FamilySearch profiles takes serious time. For many, that time involves syncing research you've already done elsewhere rather than finding something new. And truthfully, which is more fun?

Partial Sync Feature for Ancestry to FamilySearch Available to Latter-Day Saints

If you're an LDS Ancestry user, you're in luck! Ancestry offers a partial sync tool with FamilySearch. Here’s what you can do:

Add new people to Ancestry from FamilySearch.
Update birth, marriage, death, and burial info.
Transfer sources between the platforms.

But there are limitations:

You can't add new people to FamilySearch.
You can't share "extra facts" (like residence, military service, pensions, or events) with FamilySearch.
While you can transfer sources, they don't stay linked to the events they link to on Ancestry. (See the previous problem).

Pro Tip: To streamline the process, if you have access to this tool, share data with FamilySearch while updating Ancestry profiles. This can save time when you later sync with RootsMagic.

Process of Updating FamilySearch Profiles Using RootsMagic

Regardless of your access to the Ancestry-FamilySearch sync tool, here's how to clean up and update FamilySearch using RootsMagic.

Reason Statement Cheat Sheet

FamilySearch asks for a reason every time you make a change. To avoid repetitive typing, I created a "Reason Statement Template" in Notepad.

These reason statements relate to sources I attached to the FamilySearch Profiles

Rank obtained during service in the Ohio 133rd Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War
Evidence of residence during 1860
Evidence of residence during the Civil War
Evidence of service during the Civil War and filing a claim for financial compensation via a pension
Evidence of service during the Civil War and residence during 1890
Evidence of service during the Civil War and admittance in a Soldier's Home for treatment
Evidence of obtaining a higher educational degree.

The following relate to FamilySearch family tree clean-up tasks

Redundant duplicate marriage event
Redundant duplicate name
Redundant duplicate source
An event without a date or source

Notice they're brief and generic, but leave a little notice that I’m familiar with why I’m changing to FamilySearch. Now, I do have a blog post from several years ago entitled “Guiding Principles for Writing Reason Statements,” and I still stand by that. However, for this project and the fact I was trying to add 6,000 sources to FamilySearch, I didn’t try to be verbose in my statements.

FamilySearch Biographical Fact Cleanup

With my cheat sheet ready, I used RootsMagic's compare tool to update FamilySearch profiles. Here's the process:

Names:

Updated incomplete names (e.g., "Wm J Townsend" became "William James Townsend"). I also added ranks, except for Private, Musician, and Wagoneer. If a descendant of these men wants to add those ranks to their ancestor’s name, I’ll leave that to them.

Vital Information:

Using RootsMagic, I updated the FamilySearch profile for birth, death, and burial facts. I wrote a Reason Statement without the use of a cheat sheet. The reason is I tied the changes to specific records such as “Based on the pension application” or “Based on the Headstone Application.”

With 'burial locations', I leveraged RootsMagic to move the Cemetery names to the place details field. Once that was correct, I updated the place name on FamilySearch. This helps to create more standardization on FamilySearch while preserving the cemetery location. Additionally, once the source is linked to the fact, the cemetery name will pop up (in most cases).

Other Information

This section drives the FamilySearch timelines, anchors your ancestor’s sources, and generally differentiates a well-researched profile from a poorly researched one.

I wish you could transfer events beyond BMD using the Ancestry-FamilySearch tree share tool.

Often, I would simply add new event facts for:

Military enlistment and discharge
Pension
Residence in 1890
Residence in 1863

These were easy as they are a simple “Add to FamilySearch (as a new event” option.

Many profiles already list residence facts in the years 1850, 1860, or 1900. So, I used the “Replace in FamilySearch” option but had to scroll through to find the correct match. Then, I added a reason statement about the update and clicked “Ok.”

In this section, I frequently encountered duplicate events, especially marriage events or events that lacked sufficient details to be useful to other researchers. These errors often stem from unfamiliarity with the FamilySearch platform or a lack of attention in updating profiles. As a result, I deleted these events and provided a reason statement explaining the removals.

Relationships and Duplicates

Relationships: Linked wives and ensured all relevant relatives were connected.
Duplicates: Invariably, I found duplicate profiles for the men and their relatives in the FamilySearch family tree. After careful review, I merged the relevant profiles before moving on to the source cleanup.

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Processed Relevant Hints

After enhancing the profile, I focused on the hints provided by FamilySearch. I only reviewed those that were relevant to my research question. Two newly discovered collections included pension payment cards and a widow remarriage index card. Upon noticing these hints, I attached them to the profile and then updated RootsMagic, Ancestry, and the spreadsheet with my new findings.

Update FamilySearch Profile Sources

Even if you have the FamilySearch-Ancestry transfer tool, source clean-up work needs to happen.

For citations transferred from Ancestry, preserve the URL link and then update the citation box with your copy of the citation either from RootsMagic or the spreadsheet.

If you don’t have that transfer tool, you'll need to use the RootsMagic Source Compare tool to ensure the citations in RootsMagic are updated for sources that aren't available on FamilySearch (for example, the Roster or the Ohio Soldiers’ Grave source).

For citations contributed by other users to FamilySearch, ensure that they accurately address the research question.

If a source is a link to a collection on FamilySearch, you can not update the citation. So, ensure any FamilySearch source (namely the census records) is linked rather than import a redundant citation from Ancestry and/or RootsMagic.

After compiling all the sources, complete the cleanup process as follows.

Added a “Date” to the Date field to ensure the sources sort by year created
Tag the sources from the citation screen to create a link from an event to the records comments that document them, or
Use the Details tab and use the source tagging feature there> I found it provided more clarity to ensure all the sources for a fact were linked.

The biggest time drain in syncing your tree is tagging sources to events. I have yet to figure out how to do this quickly. But remember, quick is not the name of the game with FamilySearch.

Update FamilySearch Profile Collaboration Tools

Finally, I reviewed the notes feature using RootsMagic. If I needed a new note from FamilySearch, I imported it. If I had a new note to share, I shared it. But, typically, I added a new note to FamilySearch if needed an then downloaded that to RootsMagic.

Update Civil War Research Spreadsheet

Unlike Ancestry, not everyone in my spreadsheet is currently on FamilySearch. I don’t have enough information about these men to know if their profiles are in the tree or if I should add a new profile. Someday, when I revisit this project, I want to know which profiles have not been added to FamilySearch.

So, in my spreadsheet

Men on FamilySearch who I’ve processed are colored in the spreadsheet
Men not found in FamilySearch are colored red

Now, I can craft source citations for the new discoveries so that if I find a place to share the spreadsheet, it’s well cited.

Is Updating Multiple Genealogy Websites Worth It?

After months of updating Ancestry and FamilySearch, I'm finally ready to write about William James Townsend. My goal? To hold a published book in my hands by Christmas 2025.

After sticking with me through this research over my shoulder series, the questions we should consider are:

Are tangents a bad thing?
Which tools are right for a group project rather than a single family?
What are the best ways to share your research with others related to members of the group?

For these questions, I’m going to open the floor to you for a discussion.

In the next post, I'll share my final thoughts on this process and your ideas about group research versus traditional family research.

See you in part 10!