Margaret O'Brien This article gives you detailed examples showing how to use Ancestry hints when building your family tree. Sometimes, the number of hints can seem overwhelming. We’ll look at ways to work efficiently with the most useful types of hints. We’ve also got advice and strategies for evaluating hints so that you’re not led astray by … Read more
This article examines how accurate are Ancestry hints by taking a detailed look at how they work. As well as understanding how Ancestry generates hints, we describe how the system can go wrong. Many Ancesty customers have a love-hate relationship with the green leaf hints, which can provide invaluable insight or be wildly inaccurate. We’ll … Read more
This article is about researching your DNA matches through your Ancestry family tree. Do you look at your thousands of matches and wonder why you don’t recognize any surnames in their pedigree? If you’re interested in finding your connection with DNA matches, then you need to follow a specific strategy when building your Ancestry tree. … Read more
How do you send messages to DNA matches that are more likely to get replies? Why don’t Ancestry users respond to your messages about their trees? Ancestry don’t mention this in their marketing, but there is one big drawback to the message sytem: many Ancestry members do not respond to messages asking for information or … Read more
The Ancestry Card Catalog is a somewhat hidden feature. But it can be a very powerful part of your family research. Back in 2009, an Ancestry staffer was surprised that many hobbyists she met at a genealogy conference had never used the Card Catalog. I doubt much has changed since. This article will show you … Read more
This article shows you a cool Ancestry advanced search feature. Specifically, we dive into filtering your search results by category. Ever feel overwhelmed by thousands of results coming back from your Search? This Ancestry advanced search strategy will help you mine those massive record lists. Advanced Ancestry Search Filters By Category Our previous article went … Read more
This article takes a detailed look at the basic and advanced search forms that let you perform the most common type of searches on Ancestry.com. These are global searches through most of the Ancestry record collections. The Five Types of Ancestry Search There are five main ways of searching through for records in Ancestry. Five? … Read more
This article looks under the hood of the Ancestry Search Engine to explain some of the more crazy-looking search results. A basic understanding of the Search Engine will help you get the best outcomes from your searches. Why Are My Search Results So Broad? Let’s take an example where you enter a search for John … Read more
This article is about the best ways to enter place names in your Ancestry tree.. Conventions and guidelines aren’t about foisting annoying rules on tree owners. The purpose is to give: You a convenient and consistent format for noting facts in your tree Others the best chance at seeing common lines and co-operating with your … Read more
This article is on how to enter names into your tree in ways that give you the most benefit from Ancestry. Let’s start by saying that naming guidelines aren’t about foisting obscure and annoying rules on tree owners. It’s about giving: You the best chance of remembering how and why you noted facts in your … Read more