Dead link (404-NotFound) at Ancestry.com

Question

I see a lot of profiles created from GEDCOMs with dead links to Ancestry.com  like this  http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=19484850&pid=949731859  (404 error page not found)

Is it ok to delete that link or do i just have to put a note on it that page is gone?

After all the page history is still there if someone wants to scroll back and look at the dead link

Thanks

Comments

I hate those ugly links when I see them, but I leave them so not to mess with the profile managers feelings!

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yes i know what you mean.  I have even thought about changing them to Tiny URLs or bit.ly  since they "say" they never expire- at least as long as they stay in business.   but then of course you have no idea what they are pointing to.  At least this way i know it was once an ancestry tree with a person ID

Answer 1

Hmm, i did some testing and found that you can convert the dead link from this

 http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=19484850&pid=949731859  

to this by substituting the tree ID and the person ID

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/19484850/person/949731859/

so it appears that Citation redirect is the problem.  Could one of our programmers go through the "Tree" and do a find and replace to fix all those AMTCitationRedir.aspx?   with  the new references?  I found 300 profiles with this problem using google search  site:wikitree.com amtcitationredir.asp      It would be a fun REGEX to write but my brain is not enlightened enough to do it.

Comments

Correct! See the following:

1. Can I delete sources from Ancestry.com where the link is no longer valid?
2. What to do with a broken link?

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Also, there is currently over 266,000 references to "AMTCitationRedir.aspx" on WikiTree. Our resident guru, Aleš has already tried to work on this; however, it was disabled shortly after implementation.

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That is great but I would add that that link is taking me to the sign up page for Ancestry, also it’s a link to a tree, thats great to include on the profile but not an actual source. Is it worth the time and effort correcting these? I would commit them to the bottom of the profile under Acknowledgements and delete any duplication as often the same tree page is linked to every life event.

Sorry, just my two pence worth,

Lizzie :-)

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Or even worse... https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Vandervoort-105

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Oh WOW

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Are you volunteering Steven? Lol

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thanks Lizzie- sorry i forgot that i was getting to the person ID on Ancestry because i was already signed in.  yes this is worse since it would require someone to go to a participating library or have a subscription to see the link.  and to think there are a quarter million of these links in "our Tree"  wow-  that's one of the reasons i have been working so hard on Wikitree.  We have a lot of people in our weekly genealogy class at the Senior Center who can't participate in Ancestry.  And-  Wikitree has such a great international following.

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Hi L. Ray,

I’m sorry I just saw your last comment, I LOVE that you are working at the Senior Centre to help those with no subscriptions to paid sites find out more!

What paid sites do for you is guide you to potential family members with source suggestions....they seem like a wonderful hand to guide you, but also they lead you to some absolute messes of family trees that have accepted every suggestion from the moon and back!

I think many wikitreers would rather help your and your members find sources through Familysearch, as an example of a free website.

Let us know what your genealogy class member think? You could add more G2G questions, wikitreers could help them out?

It’s not the easiest route... no suggestions.... you do the work.... but we are here to help and I hope your class like the sound of that?

And you sound like you are in love with wikitree just like me so we can help member learn to replace Ancestry citations with Familysearch?

Lizzie

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Thanks Lizzie- this will be fun to show people an alternative to the one world tree at FamilySearch and the paid services like Ancestry.

I am so glad i found Wikitree

Answer 2

To convert it to a live link and future-proof it against changes in structure by Ancestry, you can use the templates on https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Links_to_Ancestry

In this case since it is a link to a tree rather than a record it would become {{Ancestry Tree|19484850|949731859}}

Comments

what a great template!  I never thought to look for one- i guess i need to study the list at  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Templates   I haven't been at this long and so far i have just stumbled on them in other profiles.

THANKS