RM 8 Import Questions

After sharing my experiences with RootsMagic source templates and how I name sources, a reader asked about my experiences importing data into RootsMagic 8.

One question – have you tried importing info into RM8 yet to see if the source citations move over correctly – especially if you have used the free form template?

My initial response was going to be ‘no.’

• No, because my citations are based on the templates and not free form.
• No, because I tried importing a copy of my RootsMagic 7 file in the early days of the preview and it was linked via TreeShare to my Ancestry tree. My current Ancestry tree took about six months to get indexed by Ancestry. Since indexing not only impacts the web hints but also DNA ThruLines, I do not wish to go thru that process again. Thus, I don’t want to do anything that might jeopardize the link between my RootsMagic file and my Ancestry tree.

Prior to today, most of my experimentation in RM8 has been with files whose creation goes back to the exporting of portions of my RM 7 file via a gedcom file and then the importing of that file into RootsMagic to create a new, smaller database.

Thus, I decided to do some more experimenting to test the following:

• Import of a RM7 file into RootsMagic 8 preview version
• Impact of RM7 to RM8 import on free form citations
• Impact of RM7 to RM8 import on source citations

Since I still don’t want to work with my primary file, I searched my RootsMagic folder for an ‘older’ file that I could use for the import. In that search, I found a McPheeters file which contains the descendants of Alexander Crawford and his wife, Mary McPheeters. I’m not sure why I have this file since this family is in my primary file. Since it is a ‘duplicate’ set of information, I’m comfortable experimenting with the file.

So, my first step was to create some ‘Free Form’ citations. Thinking that the easiest way to create these citations would be to find an individual that already had citations for census records. Thus, I elected to work with William Crawford, son of James Crawford and Nancy Sawyers and great-grandson of Alexander and Mary McPheeters.

Since I have this family line in my primary RootsMagic 7 file, I also have them in my Ancestry tree, Heartland Genealogy. Thus, I did a treeSearch to locate William Crawford in my online tree.

I had already located Ancestry sources for the 1850, 1860, 1880 census records along with the Find a Grave index and his Texas death certificate, I opened the record for each of these sources in a new tab.

Since I don’t use ‘Free Form’ citations, I’m not sure how others generate their citations. For this demonstration, I elected to take the ‘easy’ way and copy the source information directly from Ancestry. Thus, I scrolled down on each of these pages to locate the ‘Source Citation’ section.

Then in RootsMagic 7, I added a new source for each of these facts using the ‘Free Form’ template. Again, taking the ‘easy’ way, I just copied the information from Ancestry into the boxes in RootsMagic – AND I’M SURE I DID IT WRONG. I just needed ‘text’ in the boxes

Then I closed the file in RootsMagic 7 and switched to RootsMagic 8.

• Go to File menu and select “Create a New RootsMagic File’
• Select ‘Import from RootsMagic 1-7, GEDCOM, or another Program’
• Select RootsMagic versions 1-7
• At bottom of screen, click on the folder icon to ‘Browse for File’
• Locate file on computer
• At bottom of screen, click on the folder icon to ‘Browse for Destination’
• Locate place on computer to store the file and give the file a name, then click save
• Select desired ‘File Options’ and click OK
• WAIT for file to import

Once the file was imported, I searched for the William Crawford that has the ‘FreeForm’ citations attached. I then clicked on ‘Edit Person’ to open his information. Scrolling down, I located the ‘1850 Residence’ fact since it is one of the facts that I attached a free form citation to and clicked on it. That opens the ‘Residence’ fact on the right side of the ‘Edit Person’ screen.

Then, I looked at the ‘Sources’ section on the right side of the screen to location the ‘freeform’ citation and clicked on the > to the right of that citation. This opens the “Edit Citation” section on the right side of the window.

To see whether the import from RootsMagic 7 to RootsMagic 8 affected the ‘Free Form’ citation, I need to look toward the bottom of the Edit Citation screen. This is where the Footnote and Bibliography are shown for the citation. To make it easier to see the footnote and bibliography, I clicked on the Customize button.

Going back to the same file in RootsMagic 7, I opened the source to view the footnote and bibliography in RM7. I’m not a good ‘proofreader,’ especially when it comes to the punctuation of a footnote, but the information in RM7 (shown below) appears to be the same as that shown above in RM8.

Since I have worked with several RootsMagic 8 files to figure out how my sources and citations are converted, I can say that I have not observed any issues with my source templates, sources and citations in the RootsMagic 8 versions of those files.

From my experience, I would conclude

• one of my RootsMagic 7 files imported without issue into RootsMagic 8
• based on my limited experience, Free Form citations were imported into RootsMagic 8 correctly
• my source templates, sources and citations are converting to RootsMagic 8 without issue.