3 replies to this topic

[Rick Landrum]

Quick Question regarding media files loaded to RM from Ancestry by Tree Share and/or Web Hints

 

I've noticed that when I load an event from Ancestry Web Hints to RM the media file appears to sometimes be duplicated. This happens when multiple hints are accepted for the same person. The events are different, but Ancestry has the same media image loaded for each.

 

Here is an example:

 

Person A has a death and a probate event that were brought in from A.com using web hints. The result is as follows -

 

      Media image #1 listed in media gallery as "005783047_00133.jpg" attached to probate source, attached to death event

 

      Media image #2 listed in media gallery as "005783047_00133 (005783047_00133).jpg" attached to probate source, attached to probate event

 

Not only does this get "messy" and confusing, but it seems it could ultimately considerably swell the size of my media directory.

 

Another example would be if a large family of say 10-12 people are all listed in the same census record. If you load a source with the census image for each individual, the media image will be duplicated 10 or 12 times in your media gallery.

 

If I loaded the census records to RM directly, I would point all the sources to the same media file.

 

Am I missing something? Is this how this is supposed to work?

 

Any thoughts appreciated

 

Thanks

Rick

[Renee Zamora]

RM and Ancestry have no way of knowing what the media is. If at all possible you should add everything from the Ancestry source to where it needs to go in RM before clicking on Accept Changes. If you update separately you will get duplicate sources and media. 

[Rick Landrum]

Renee,

 

Yes, I get that, and it will work for one person/ event at a time.

 

But just to be clear (could have said this better I guess)

 

Let's say I load a census record from Web Hints for person A today. The source will usually have a media file attached.

 

Now, in the future, I add the same census record from a web hint for another family member. The source will be the same except for the person's information being cited. The census record media image will be the same as for the first person. However, Ancestry passes the media file a second time. Now I have two copies of the census image in my Media Directory, with slightly different names. And so on.....

 

I guess it could be argued that I should check somehow to see if the image file already exists, but this is very difficult to do because of  the non-descript  file naming used by Ancestry. 

 

When I am loading a record, and media file, myself from scratch, I search my media directory to see if I already have the media loaded. (Of course, I do use a naming convention that allows me to easily search for the file). Once I add in files with Ancestry's naming, it is next to impossible to do this.

 

I just thought Ancestry would recognize their media file name in my media directory before reloading the media file subsequent times.

 

Thanks for the input.

Rick

[Renee Zamora]

Yes, that behavior would be correct with other people in the database. The Ancestry API has no idea the media is already there and shares it again. If you were updating you could uncheck the box "Add hint to selected fact", which would be the source and its media.