Deleting and Reloading Ancestry Tree - Potential Issues

[farmeroman]

I want to update my Ancestry tree which has got hopelessly out of date with my own tree, which is not GEDCOM compatible (don't ask what format it's in).

Updating it on Ancestry is not very user-friendly, so I have downloaded it as a GEDCOM file and uploaded the file to a free software package which is easy and fast to update, and when complete I intend to delete my current Ancestry tree and upload the new GEDCOM file. I'll also be deleting my trees on FindMyPast and MyHeritage and doing the same there, although I'm not bothered about issues on those sites.

Before I do that I want to be sure of the implications for my Ancestry account (if any). Has anyone done this and were there any major issues to be aware of wrt to (e.g.) DNA matches, etc? I assume that tree and DNA matches will automatically be updated by Ancestry - Is that correct?

FWIW I don't store any documents or photos with the Ancestry tree; it's literally BMD dates per person.

[LizzieL]

I've done this a few times. I have my "live" tree on FTM software on my computer, 
I make a Gedcom  from the live tree (and give it a new name), then just upload it as a new  Gedcom to Ancestry. I keep the new tree private until I have checked it is is OK, I delete the old one  and rename the new one to be the same as the old name and make it public (though you needn't rename it if you don't want to of course). Then I set myself as the home person again and link it to my DNA results. All the matches came up and all the thrulines were back. I didn't have documents or pictures attached to my tree. I haven't got links to my sources on my Ancestry tree either but they might all disappear.

[farmeroman]

Ah, that's exactly what I was hoping for. No links to sources on mine either.

Cheers!

[Biggles50]

What software are you using?

I’d unlink your DNA results to your family tree.

You will then be like the tens of thousands of others who have their DNA results there that show to matches as having an Unlinked Tree.

[phil57]

Why delete your tree before re-uploading it? Upload the new tree with a different name, and once you are happy that all is OK, you can then delete the older one if you wish. If you have a DNA test and/or manage one or more for other people, you have to go into each persons' DNA settings and link the test to their "person" in the new tree, and you have to confirm who you are in the new tree as well. After linking your test(s) to the new tree, it can take a few days for Thrulines to repopulate.

I do this fairly frequently, as my main trees are managed in Family Historian on my PC. I just upload to Ancestry and other sites for hints and DNA matches, and upload new trees periodically as the tree in Family Historian grows and changes. I think I currently have three full trees on Ancestry, all with the same name but suffixed by the upload date, e.g. "Smith Family 010124", "Smith Family 310923" etc. plus a couple of hypothetical trees for specific research branches where I test for Thrulines etc. to try and resolve or progress issues.

The only problem is that any hints that you have previously accepted or rejected will reset, as the information that you have accepted or rejected them is stored by Ancestry against each tree. I don't know if this can be avoided by deleting and uploading a new tree with the exact same name though. It may not, as by deleting the tree before uploading a new one you are probably deleting all those stored links. But I don't find it an issue.

[farmeroman]

What software are you using?

I’d unlink your DNA results to your family tree.

You will then be like the tens of thousands of others who have their DNA results there that show to matches as having an Unlinked Tree.

Software? Usually none, but for editing my Ancestry GEDCOM file I'm using the free Ancestris 11, which allows me to do exactly what I need to do.

I've never felt the need for any other software; I designed my own Excel format for my tree which displays the relevant (to me) information for each person (4,000 and counting) and I reference all documentation (BMD certificates, parish records, wills, censuses, etc.) in Word documents per family name with embedded relative paths to the documents so that the whole lot can be transfererred to other family members on a USB drive with all links intact. All my documents, photos, etc. are held locally (nothing is held on Ancestry, FindMyPast or in the cloud) and changes are backed up daily to a NAS drive.

[farmeroman]

Why delete your tree before re-uploading it? Upload the new tree with a different name, and once you are happy that all is OK, you can then delete the older one if you wish. If you have a DNA test and/or manage one or more for other people, you have to go into each persons' DNA settings and link the test to their "person" in the new tree, and you have to confirm who you are in the new tree as well. After linking your test(s) to the new tree, it can take a few days for Thrulines to repopulate.

I do this fairly frequently, as my main trees are managed in Family Historian on my PC. I just upload to Ancestry and other sites for hints and DNA matches, and upload new trees periodically as the tree in Family Historian grows and changes. I think I currently have three full trees on Ancestry, all with the same name but suffixed by the upload date, e.g. "Smith Family 010124", "Smith Family 310923" etc. plus a couple of hypothetical trees for specific research branches where I test for Thrulines etc. to try and resolve or progress issues.

The only problem is that any hints that you have previously accepted or rejected will reset, as the information that you have accepted or rejected them is stored by Ancestry against each tree. I don't know if this can be avoided by deleting and uploading a new tree with the exact same name though. It may not, as by deleting the tree before uploading a new one you are probably deleting all those stored links. But I don't find it an issue.

TBH I'm not too bothered about hints; I usually just ignore them these days anyway because they're mostly "we think we've found so-and-so" who I've known about for 20 years. My main concern was DNA matches, but if it repopulates them after a few days that's fine.

I'll probably load it under a new name, then delete the old one and then rename the new one to the orginal name.