Ancestral Quest and FamilySearch Family Tree - Overview

Sync Yourself

Once you have turned on the ability to Connect with FamilySearch, you will see a new menu item, FamilySearch. This menu provides access to the various features and screens for working with FamilySearch.

In order to use any of the FamilySearch features, you will need to login using your new FamilySearch user name and password. You obtain this information when creating your account on familysearch.org.

You can begin by synchronizing yourself with your own record on new FamilySearch. Because FamilySearch recognizes you from your login, this step is simple. Just locate your record within your own database, then click Link Your Record. Typically, this step is performed just once in your database.

After an individual has been synced with FamilySearch, you will see a blue tree icon at the right end of the name box within the Family and Pedigree views of AQ. This blue icon symbolizes that the person has been synced.

A white and gray tree icon at the right end of the name box within the Family and Pedigree views indicates that the individual is deceased but not yet linked to a corresponding record on FamilySearch.

Sync Individual

You can select any individual within your database, then from the FamilySearch menu choose Link (Sync) Individual. AQ will perform a search of the FamilySearch database and can return several possible matches that it finds.

Click on one of the results to see more details and compare them to the individual within your own database. If you find that this is the same person, click the Same button. You can compare other records and if any are also the same person, you can help clean up the FamilySearch database and Combine those records. You can then sync your record to the combined FamilySearch record.

When you perform a synchronization between FamilySearch and your own database, you can choose whether to share data or not. Typically, you will want to use the Link Only option, however you also have the ability to automatically transfer data or you can have total control over the pieces of data using the Manual sync option.

Review Individual and Synchronize Families

Once an individual has been synced, you can use the Review Individual screen to compare what you have locally (on the left) with the data found on FamilySearch (on the right). This is a screen that you will use frequently when working on FamilySearch; you can access and sync this person's Parents and Siblings or Spouses and Children.

The Synchronize Families dialog box can be used to exchange data between FamilySearch and your own database, as well as to combine duplicate records within FamilySearch.

Synchronize Groups

The Synchronize Groups tool can be used to process groups of individuals. You can then view those individuals that are likely to be Positive Matches and Possible Matches, as well as those that have No Matches.

Within the Matches windows, you can select those individuals that you expect to be the same between your database and FamilySearch. You can then further confirm your theories by clicking the Preview button; this takes you to the Link Individual with FamilySearch window (described above) where you can more closely examine the records to determine the accuracy of the match and perform the sync.

If the matching process does not come up with the desired results, you can perform a Search on new FamilySearch by entering the desired criteria. You can also search by FamilySearch Person ID or by Ancestral File Number.

Other Tools

In the rare case that a person you have in your database is not found on FamilySearch (after having performed several searches), you can submit that person's data to the family tree of FamilySearch. You can automatically upload certain types of data, or you can choose specific data to submit using the Manual Sync method.

Once individuals have been synced between your database and FamilySearch, it is possible that information for those persons may be changed by others on FamilySearch. You can check to see if any synced records have been changed within FS by using the Check for Updates tool. Similar in appearance and functionality to the Sync Groups window, you can easily check to see which records have been changed, then go view the changed records.

You can quickly and easily import lines of ancestors into your database from FamilySearch. This is not usually recommended, but it is a quick way to receive data that you can then work through and verify and/or clean up, as desired.

At any time, you may wish to unlink one or many or all the individuals that you have linked to FamilySearch.