Wow; hearing about your receipt of the photo of your great-grandmother almost made me tear up. A few weeks ago I had the same experience in reverse; I posted a 1950's picture of my Mother's aunt and it was found by her granddaughter! I am now learning SO MUCH from her!
Thank you, I consider every tree I go into a "Working Tree" unless they have documentation that makes sense to me, I'm going to change the name of my tree to "Working Tree" though, so others will know. I joined Ancestry because I wanted to corroborate with other relatives, we all know OUR own families best, so we're the best person to share information about our family and vice versus. PLEASE everyone make your trees PUBLIC. :-)
This video was abundantly helpful, as usual. Thank you very much. I do have my tree set as public, but I am one of the ones who is extremely embarrassed by my messy tree. I try to fix mistakes, but somehow the duplicates and bifurcations when there should be none, just keep multiplying. I keep thinking that if I just keep putting more info in, combining duplicates where I see them, and fixing parentage according to sources, that everything will eventually straighten out. So far, that has not been the case. I don't even know what to ask for in the way of help. I want to share as much as I can, but I worry that I am just promulgating errors with such a messy tree.
Crista- so true.. people can correct just as well if they are NICE about it. I'm so glad you decided to handle those mean communications graciously :) Love your videos, would love to see updates of some topics (how about 2017 Family Tree Maker tools vids?) thanks for sharing!
Hi Crista, Thank you for all of the education and information you provide us. I have a couple of questions about working with my online tree and also my Family Tree Maker. Question #1) In the online tree, is there a way to create a list of other members (contact info), so it is easily accessible to send messages to a group of contacts, that are all working on the same family tree? Question #2) I have just purchased FTM and am in the process of doing major clean up. I like that I can look for duplicate people, resolve place names, and other actions. Is there a way to look for people in my tree by relationship to me? I know that I have many people in my tree that should be 'trimmed' out of my tree. People that have no direct relationship to me or people that are the 'step father of your 3rd cousin wife's brother' type relationship. Is there a way to look for these people by relationship? I would like to use this type of list to 'trim' my tree of people that are not related at all or are not direct family. Thank you, Amy
Hi Amy, Thanks for the questions. 1. There is no way to do group messaging or create contact lists. I will pass this feedback along to the appropriate team. 2. There is a relationship report you can create in FTM called Kinship Report. You can get a list of everyone in your tree and their relationship to you. You can then use that to do what tree trimming you need to do. Hope that helps! -Crista
Crista, as always your presentations are excellent! I really enjoy watching and I learn something new with every video. I've just received my DNA results and I'm so looking forward to following up with my 'cousins'... especially since most don't seem to connect with my maternal side, and I have 'zero' info about my paternity--I was given up for adoption at birth, and my b-mom won't reveal the father's name--she claims he died before my birth?!... It's interesting, and quite the adventure learning about one's roots!
Christa, I can relate to the descendent number. My Mother had 100 first cousins, her mother has 14 siblings. My question is if permission is given can that person see living members of your tree? Your assistance is always appreciated.
The information about living people in public family trees on Ancestry is privatize UNLESS you specifically invite someone to view your tree AND give them permission to view living people.
Hi, Crista! Great video! I was wondering, I have a couple, Levi and Sarah, whom I’m descended from through three of their eleven children. They are my 4th and twice 5th GGPs. Should I trace that line all three times or just once? Thank you for your advice!....Sabrina
Would just like to mention to Crista, that occasionally, at least, living people DO show up on public trees. I found, much to my dismay, that a public tree that I don't have guest access to, showed the name of my living husband and that of his first wife's second husband as well as the living siblings of his first wife. I contacted the tree owner and she made some changes, but I'm sure I shouldn't have been able to see those names. Perhaps Ancestry.com should make sure that their settings are correct.
+Deborah Weeks When this happens it is because the tree owner has marked those individuals as deceased or they have put something in the death field. (Crista)
I opened an Ancestry account a few years ago and progressed well with the research. A couple of years later I started a new tree with a different user name. Is there any way to merge both of these accounts?
I am still unclear about attaching sources and then later being able to open the original source. Sometimes I find a source, such as the 1900 US census, and attach it. Then later when I want to view the original record, it is shown as a source but cannot be opened. Also, I often have the same source listed as an "Ancestry Source" and under "Other Sources." What am I doing wrong?
+Martha Stevenson Wright Where you see the source listed on the person profile under Ancestry Source, double click it to open up the source citation and then you can click to either View Record or View Image. (Crista)
I always thought that we were supposed to record EXACTLY what the source says, which was the reason for alternate information. If the census says the birth date was May 1950, but we attach the source and change the date to 5 May 1950, aren't we inferring that the census says the birth date was 5 May 1950....when actually that is NOT what it says? Am I incorrect?
+Roger Cox I record the details from the record into my notes. Plus it is included in the source citation. So, nothing is ever lost. However, a person was only born once and in once place. They only died once and in once place. I'm not going to put in a dozen different alternatives to those just because different records say different things. I'm going to follow the Genealogical Proof Standard, which states that I need to "resolve conflicting evidence" and come to a "soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion." All of the sources I used to come to that conclusion will be attached to that fact in my tree. Make sense? (Crista)
+Ancestry I understand the idea that people were only born once. But, I keep alternate birth dates in my tree for research purposes. In my family of Eastern European immigrants, people often reported their birthdays differently. I prefer to include those as alternate facts so I can review them for research purposes. I will sometimes change the "primary" designation depending on what I am doing. Example: I have birth certificates with actual birth dates for some people. But, sometimes they used alternate birth dates later in life for things like Social Security records. If I only used the real birth dates, I may never find later records. In that case, I will put the "real birthdate" as an alternate and put the Social Security birth date as primary so that I can find things like death certificates etc.
Wow; hearing about your receipt of the photo of your great-grandmother almost made me tear up. A few weeks ago I had the same experience in reverse; I posted a 1950's picture of my Mother's aunt and it was found by her granddaughter! I am now learning SO MUCH from her!
Thank you, I consider every tree I go into a "Working Tree" unless they have documentation that makes sense to me, I'm going to change the name of my tree to "Working Tree" though, so others will know. I joined Ancestry because I wanted to corroborate with other relatives, we all know OUR own families best, so we're the best person to share information about our family and vice versus. PLEASE everyone make your trees PUBLIC. :-)
Again... thank you Krista Cowan!!!
opps, Crista....
This video was abundantly helpful, as usual. Thank you very much. I do have my tree set as public, but I am one of the ones who is extremely embarrassed by my messy tree. I try to fix mistakes, but somehow the duplicates and bifurcations when there should be none, just keep multiplying. I keep thinking that if I just keep putting more info in, combining duplicates where I see them, and fixing parentage according to sources, that everything will eventually straighten out. So far, that has not been the case. I don't even know what to ask for in the way of help. I want to share as much as I can, but I worry that I am just promulgating errors with such a messy tree.
Crista- so true.. people can correct just as well if they are NICE about it. I'm so glad you decided to handle those mean communications graciously :) Love your videos, would love to see updates of some topics (how about 2017 Family Tree Maker tools vids?) thanks for sharing!
Thanks! Keep an eye out. I just had a conversation with Jack Minsky (from Software Mackiev) about recording some FTM 2017 videos. (Crista)
Great tips..thank you..
Hi Crista, Thank you for all of the education and information you provide us. I have a couple of questions about working with my online tree and also my Family Tree Maker. Question #1) In the online tree, is there a way to create a list of other members (contact info), so it is easily accessible to send messages to a group of contacts, that are all working on the same family tree? Question #2) I have just purchased FTM and am in the process of doing major clean up. I like that I can look for duplicate people, resolve place names, and other actions. Is there a way to look for people in my tree by relationship to me? I know that I have many people in my tree that should be 'trimmed' out of my tree. People that have no direct relationship to me or people that are the 'step father of your 3rd cousin wife's brother' type relationship. Is there a way to look for these people by relationship? I would like to use this type of list to 'trim' my tree of people that are not related at all or are not direct family. Thank you, Amy
Hi Amy,
Thanks for the questions.
1. There is no way to do group messaging or create contact lists. I will pass this feedback along to the appropriate team.
2. There is a relationship report you can create in FTM called Kinship Report. You can get a list of everyone in your tree and their relationship to you. You can then use that to do what tree trimming you need to do.
Hope that helps!
-Crista
Crista, as always your presentations are excellent! I really enjoy watching and I learn something new with every video. I've just received my DNA results and I'm so looking forward to following up with my 'cousins'... especially since most don't seem to connect with my maternal side, and I have 'zero' info about my paternity--I was given up for adoption at birth, and my b-mom won't reveal the father's name--she claims he died before my birth?!... It's interesting, and quite the adventure learning about one's roots!
Christa, I can relate to the descendent number. My Mother had 100 first cousins, her mother has 14 siblings.
My question is if permission is given can that person see living members of your tree? Your assistance is always appreciated.
The information about living people in public family trees on Ancestry is privatize UNLESS you specifically invite someone to view your tree AND give them permission to view living people.
Hi, Crista!
Great video!
I was wondering, I have a couple, Levi and Sarah, whom I’m descended from through three of their eleven children. They are my 4th and twice 5th GGPs. Should I trace that line all three times or just once? Thank you for your advice!....Sabrina
Just enter them into your family tree once.
Would just like to mention to Crista, that occasionally, at least, living people DO show up on public trees. I found, much to my dismay, that a public tree that I don't have guest access to, showed the name of my living husband and that of his first wife's second husband as well as the living siblings of his first wife. I contacted the tree owner and she made some changes, but I'm sure I shouldn't have been able to see those names. Perhaps Ancestry.com should make sure that their settings are correct.
+Deborah Weeks When this happens it is because the tree owner has marked those individuals as deceased or they have put something in the death field. (Crista)
Yes, that happened to me too, I'd accidentally put a person in as deceased.
I opened an Ancestry account a few years ago and progressed well with the research. A couple of years later I started a new tree with a different user name. Is there any way to merge both of these accounts?
Great question Katie, I'd like to do that as well. I hate getting hints from my other tree 🙁
I am still unclear about attaching sources and then later being able to open the original source. Sometimes I find a source, such as the 1900 US census, and attach it. Then later when I want to view the original record, it is shown as a source but cannot be opened. Also, I often have the same source listed as an "Ancestry Source" and under "Other Sources." What am I doing wrong?
+Martha Stevenson Wright Where you see the source listed on the person profile under Ancestry Source, double click it to open up the source citation and then you can click to either View Record or View Image. (Crista)
I always thought that we were supposed to record EXACTLY what the source says, which was the reason for alternate information. If the census says the birth date was May 1950, but we attach the source and change the date to 5 May 1950, aren't we inferring that the census says the birth date was 5 May 1950....when actually that is NOT what it says? Am I incorrect?
+Roger Cox I record the details from the record into my notes. Plus it is included in the source citation. So, nothing is ever lost. However, a person was only born once and in once place. They only died once and in once place. I'm not going to put in a dozen different alternatives to those just because different records say different things. I'm going to follow the Genealogical Proof Standard, which states that I need to "resolve conflicting evidence" and come to a "soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion." All of the sources I used to come to that conclusion will be attached to that fact in my tree. Make sense? (Crista)
+Ancestry
I understand the idea that people were only born once.
But, I keep alternate birth dates in my tree for research purposes.
In my family of Eastern European immigrants, people often reported their birthdays differently.
I prefer to include those as alternate facts so I can review them for research purposes.
I will sometimes change the "primary" designation depending on what I am doing.
Example: I have birth certificates with actual birth dates for some people.
But, sometimes they used alternate birth dates later in life for things like Social Security records.
If I only used the real birth dates, I may never find later records.
In that case, I will put the "real birthdate" as an alternate and put the Social Security birth date as primary so that I can find things like death certificates etc.
I have found that the death date and the burial date are different and that is to be noted.