Bugs & Questions about Smart Copy

Todd - did you try it from the "facts" view?

(http://person.ancestry.com/tree/71349460/person/30234995204/facts )

(I don't think that would work either -- but if you manually strip off the last bit of /facts you will have http://person.ancestry.com/tree/71349460/person/30234995204 .... Nope, does not fix it ... I don't see anything in "tools" either ...)

Bummer.

Jeff - I haven't tried the "revamped" view of Ancestry yet but I'm sure it's the new format "layer".

Thanks, Erica. I can't imagine I'm the first to try this with SmartCopy the new format (?). I also looked for some kind of option to use the old one but I saw nothing.

So curious if this can be fixed on this side or if Ancestry is not allowing its fish to be easily cooked elsewhere.

Maybe we could try having a shared online GEDCOM system between genealogical sites which could be a solution?

re: "Scraping" a web site (such as Ancestry)

Since Ancestry doesn't provide a programming interface, SmartCopy has to "interpret" what is on the web page one sees when viewing that Ancestry page. When that format changes, SmartCopy will have to be changed to 'understand' that new formatting. Depending on how that web-page is actually 'written', that can be a somewhat tricky thing to de-cipher. The source code for SmartCopy is available (see the Project for where to find it), so if someone reading this has the skills to help, I"m sure Jeff would appreciate it. This is purely a volunteer tool!

re: GEDCOM 'sharing' -- interesting idea ... and one that can be currently done "by hand" by downloading a GEDCOM file, then uploading it to one of the sites (such as MyHeritage) which does have a working SmartCopy interface. Wikitrees might be another.

I would suggest, though, that when this approach is taken, to:
(a) if possible, create a GEDCOM with the smallest subset of profiles that contain the ones with information/profiles 'missing' on Geni,
and
(b) delete that uploaded tree after the information is copied over to Geni (so it doesn't hang around as yet another set of duplicated information which will grow 'stale' over time).

v1.51.1 - Private User ... is there a possible leap year bug here? (no errors noted with 'inspect popup')
http://www.myheritage.com/research/collection-1/myheritage-family-t...

(a) the parsing does not recognize the birth date
(b) when I put the date in SmartCopy by hand before the 'Submit', it gets set in Geni as m/d/yy ... 2/9/94, as I recall (I'm not sure about the year value, other than I'm sure it was only 2 digits).
(c) when I put the date (Feb 29 1894) explicitly into the Geni profile, it accepts the value correctly.

The Ancestry parser seems to be working fine on my test pages, but there are some URL's that it doesn't like. So I've improved the url detection so that it will try to remove things like /facts that cause it to fail. Let me know if you continue to have issues and what you're seeing / links your using.

Todd - when I sign into ancestry I'm getting a splash screen to re direct me to the new format. So far I've declined so I stay in old format. They have probably buried the "revert" somewhere -- you might be able to get to it again by deleting your ancestry cookie, re signing in, & declining the splash page.

But in any event we need to show Jeff & the SC helpers what will be inevitable ...

Dan, I've filed a bug report with moment.js, which is the library used for validating the date.

If you have comparisons of the new Ancestry format, point them out to me. I've tried to find where to enable or disable a different view on the trees I have access to on Ancestry and don't see any option for a new format. Maybe I'm running the new format.. I don't know.

1894 is not a leap year... that's why it didn't work. Dyslexia - I was thinking 1984.

Jeff Gentes:

* If you are an Ancestry paid subscriber you can switch back and forth from New Ancestry to Old. I just sorted this out - it's very simple. Just go to your name-pull down menu and select "Classic Site" (However, in the final step of this process it says "soon the New Ancestry will be the only one...."

It only takes a moment to switch back and forth....

* With new Ancestry I tried using SmartCopy again just now with the same Ancestry profile I included earlier. No go...

Dan Cornett: Indeed, I've used the MH bypass before, but it was only to import my Ancestry profiles, most of which I had imported from Geni.. which of course means that Geni gives me hundreds of "SmartMatches" that are their own source and add nothing.

So for now I will used Ancestry Classic and if the New version becomes the only one I will, again, adapt.

Thanks to all.

Ok, I see the new site format now... ok, I'll try to work on it.

re: Feb 29 1894 ... you're right, not a leap year. 1894 eminently fits with the profile (e.g. childrens births); I suspect the day was a typo...

Todd Michael Edelman & Erica Howton - I just released an update that should hopefully work with the new Ancestry format.

OK, seems to work but in the new(?) field "Helpful person not closely related to family" it added "Jeff Gentes".

Todd Michael Edelman, I'm not sure what new field your talking about or where it got that information. My name is not in the SmartCopy code, nor is a statement regarding "Helpful person not closely related to family". So I have no idea where that came from. Can you point me to the profile where it added this information or describe where you're seeing it?

Hi, Jeff. That was an indirect compliment in the form of a joke. :-) - Todd

Haha, oops - went over my head. :)

Needs to be a feature! :)

+1 lol

When using SC on Ancestry trees, if the profile name is initial first then middle name last name, then SC is parsing the second name as the first and the initial as the middle name. I have had this happen a few times.
See the following example - J Gerard Murphy added from http://trees.ancestry.ca/tree/69919116/person/42205400782

Ancestry name is J. Gerard Murphy but in Geni as Gerard J. Murphy.

Thank you.

Kim, that change was intentional (or at least written into the original script I used for reading names). I can exclude that change if the group feels that is the better option. The idea was to focus on the name they go by, but we could put that into the display name field.

OK, at least I know it expect it now. Personally, I would prefer the name to load as listed, then I could choose to change the display name if I want. I have many examples of this in my own family, the most relevant being my brother - named Gale Cameron Fraser, but always went by Cameron, but it is important to keep the names in the correct order as the initials are GCF for 3 generations so changing the order changes the significance of the names. (Only reason named Gale was to keep the G initial.)

Jeff, my family (often enough) used first initial, full middle name. I'd prefer the complete names, in order, and then edit in the actual "best known as.".

My name is Ralph Angus George Wood-Salomon, if you call Ralph Wood-Salomon, I would not know who you are calling, if you call George Wood-Salomon again I would wonder who is that, I have always gone by Angus Wood-Salomon.

I agree, that for SmartCopy, that 'reverse if first name is an initial' should be skipped (removed). I can understand it for a general name parser; however, preserving the 'source' name order is probably preferable for genealogical purposes.

I would like to keep it in the correct order as listed on the source.

Anyone have a example I can test against. Kim's ancestry link is private.

Jeff:

You can test with Lily Grace Forrest her husband in Ancestry is H Ward Forrest.
http://trees.ancestry.ca/tree/2901918/person/-1804232843

Thank you,
Kimberly

Kim, I don't have access to the tree.

I sent you an invitation.