Frequently Asked Questions

As a new user, I don’t see a place to ask my questions, so thought I would just start such a place.
I admit I haven’t watched the video as my computer won’t give me sound and there is nothing there to read.

First, If I upload my tree via GEDCOM, can I later upload another different GEDCOM to add info to my tree?

Or could I upload a updated GEDCOM to update my tree?

Ancestry does not allow that and I wondered if this site did.

Another Question: As a member, will I be able to view the trees that other folks have uploaded or only my own? I am not seeing anyplace to search for names in other trees. So maybe I will see only my own tree??

This forum is a fine place to ask questions.

Like Ancestry, we don’t allow you to upload a GEDCOM to an existing tree. The new GEDCOM would result in duplicates that would need to be merged afterward. The system could identify and automatically merge exact duplicates (people who hadn’t been changed), but if you’d changed someone’s name or birth date in the new GEDCOM, then identifying whether the new person is a duplicate or a brand new person is more difficult. We may do this in the future, but it’s not easy.

Currently you can only search your own trees. Being able to search the deceased individuals in other people’s public trees is a feature we plan to add later this year.

Questions as a new member: Does one just reply in the topic thread to ask a question related to the topic?
Is there a homepage for the community forum and how do I get back to it? How do we request that more detailed instructions you have provided be added as a short get started video? The explanation you gave on a few topics helped to clarify what I needed to do or understand.

Yes, replying to a topic thread to ask a question related to the topic works fine. To get back to the forum homepage, click on the “Home” icon or “rootsFinder” logo. The homepage is just the list of topics.

We’d love to hear what additional instructions need to be provided in the videos! Please start a new topic for that one and list additional instructions that would be useful.

Welcome to RootsFinder!