I really appreciate your enthusiasm and exuberance, Crista! I think if you were a teacher, your students would say, "I never cared about family history, but Ms. Cowan brought it to life!" I am looking forward to this series!
In 2019 my Daughter took a DNA test through Ancestry to see where her ancestors were from. Here is the short story. She was contacted by a 77 year old man who was looking for his bio parents. He had never even known his parents were not his bio parents. In his 40's , after his parents had both passed he was told by an uncle he was not their child and he had just been given away. There was no adoption, no paper trail or anything. Here is where I will make this short. He is my half Brother. Would love to share the whole long story with the people there who do these stories. Spent 2020 finding his dad (my dad) his mother and all of his siblings (13) and the Dads of the others that had just been given away like he was.
I just found a half brother too. He was raised an only child by his grand parents. I wrote to him and now he knows that he has 6 sisters. He is my father’s son from a first marriage. We hope to meet in the near future.
Incredible! Love hearing these stories. I wish I would have tested a few years earlier because then I might have met my biological father. I wasn’t looking for a different dad, I never knew the man that raised me and my 3 older sisters, alone and without moms help, was not my biological father. But after my 3rd DNA test, the truth came out, a little too late if I wanted to meet him. I never would have thought my dad was not the same dad my sisters had.
@@Ardna53 yes, I have listened to it a few times. It’s helped me realize I’m not the only one who has received results that were so unexpected. Kind of a relief, in a way, my feelings have changed on the entire situation as far as who my family is and nothing can ever change the love and respect for my dad, the man who raised me. I try to think of it as being lucky because my family is bigger than I ever expected, my tree will be so colorful, and full.
I love how you do these videos and really wish more people would watch them so then....just maybe....people would stop complaining about how much ancestry costs! If they knew how much goes into behind the scenes and thought about how much they would be spending if they had to go get all these records on their own then maybe....just maybe (but knowing people probably not) they would stop complaining! I think people are just programmed to complain now a days! Thank you Crista for all you do to help keep us informed! I appreciate it.
Well I'll never stop complaining about how much Ancestry costs. They have a near-monopoly which they exploit to the hilt, the site is clunky and forever experiencing problems, and the customer support is almost non-existent.
Have you produced a video that tours your facility and shows what goes on behind the scene? For example how large is your building and how many people work there? Is the facility (lab) that processes the DNA samples on site or is that part in a different place? How is the information processed are there facilities that process the actual historical documents in house or do you have teams that go outside in the field and gather the images prior to them being presented as leaf hints. Those kind of things would be interesting to know about .
I've been doing genealogy for about 20 years so I consider myself a mid-level researcher. I've had a subscription to Ancestry almost the entire time. While I believe you are at the point of being too expensive for most researchers, I do appreciate your service and what you have to offer. I am happy with most changes you have made in the past with the exception of the Gallery and the format change to viewing hints. Both of these changes make it more difficult and time consuming for researchers. I am also appreciative that you seem to be sincere in wanting to make Ancestry a better experience for your users.
Civil and criminal court records would be a great addition to Ancestry. The two main counties that I do research in have microfilmed them, but you have to travel to the county or state archives to view the microfilm. Does Ancestry have any plans to expand the types of court records?
Keep up the great work! Of all the genealogy videos on TH-cam I find your videos particularly good; well structured, relevant content and excellent presentation. I spent the period of the pandemic trying to identify who my father was my mother having passed away without revealing any information. I was successful but am struggling to break through a brick wall on an Irish ancestor. Strategies to employ in these situations would be very topical for me and I suspect others.
I started genealogy years ago because I asked my Mom if I was adopted. I didn't look or behave like anyone in my immediate family. Mom began digging up old pictures for me. I began asking my Dad questions. I was shocked at how little he knew about his family. Finding death certificates was such a treasure and a unique opportunity to ask him questions, to discover he knew more than he thought he did. Over 40 years later, he has since passes. But I'm still researching some of those conversations. What I really need help with is research in Europe. Germany, Poland and perhaps even Russia. I'd like to simply watch you do, what you do best, which is genealogy.
Hi Christa, I’m a long time Ancestry member and seen many changes. I appreciate that the company follows a continuous improvement model. But I have to say there is one change I really dislike - I’d be curious to know if others feel the same. It’s the change to the Gallery where records are now divided into two: Content and Sources. I find it simply doesn’t work - Source records end up in Contents and Vice Versa. It means that there are two records sets to look through rather than finding everything in one spot. I would love if that was returned to how it used to be. Thanks!
Hi Caroh - I'm curious to understand more about this. I'm not seeing the two mixed up. The one tab contains what I save from Ancestry databases and the other contains what I have uploaded to my tree myself. Is that not what you are seeing? Do you have a specific example you can provide?
@@CristaCowan Hi Crista, thanks for responding so promptly. That is really helpful. I had no idea that was the difference between them! I thought one was photographs/images and the other was documents. I never knew where to look for what I was after. I've just looked at the individual for whom I have uploaded most records, and it is as you described. Now I understand - thank you!
Sometimes it's hard talking to just a camera. But, I love imagining that I'm sitting over a cup of tea with you just talking about our families and genealogy. 😊
@@CristaCowan Grrrrrl, you have NO idea what a dream that would be (for me that is, lol) especially since I ended up a young orphan and I’ve learned SO MUCH from you and Ancestry. Hugs from Oregon!
One of my ancestors was a minister in the Rev War, and he is mentioned twice in various Rev. war journals. I felt like I was able to actually learn what he was like as a person.
I would like to hear how your product managers gather and prioritize the ideas for future enhancements. Do they interview customers? How can customers submit ideas? How do they decide which ideas to pursue?
I actually would love to know more about DNA in general, Ancestry DNA, matches, and sideview though I don't know if you'd be able to talk about some of them. 1. Will Ancestry ever do mt-DNA and y-DNA testing again and if so how would that work for people who've already done autosomal DNA testing with ancestry? Would they need to re-do the test or could their existing sample be used? 2. Do you think there will ever be a time when, without having to test a male relative, DNA testing in general could be at a point where for females their paternal y-DNA haplogroup group can be determined or at least predicted, maybe based on DNA matches and their trees? 3. Will Sideview eventually tell us which parent is which and maybe even get as far as breaking down grandparents if a parent has tested? Also, if say a mother and child have tested will Sideview eventually use that to be able to definitely say for the child's Sideview that Parent X is the mother making it easier? 4. Will sideview be able to eventually help when it comes to grouping matches, such as determining list A of matches are Parent 1 or Dad's side and list B is are Parent 2 or Mom's side? 5. With Thrulines do you think this feature could grow to maybe making predicted branches of trees? For example I have a 4x Grandfather who I'm trying to find parents for and based on matches I believe he's related to his slaveowner somehow, so based on the family trees of those matches and my own could there come a time when Thrulines doesn't just show a potential direct relative but lays out a whole family tree to show where two matches may possibly be linked? 6. Will more filter options become available to filter through matches with? For example if one parent has tested, there's a filter to see all matches from that parents side so how about a filter for those who don't match to the one tested parent? Or being able to select both public and unlinked trees at the same time?
Hi Suzanne and thank you for reaching out. We are very sorry for any frustration caused by the fact that it is not possible to merge trees on Ancestry. While it is not possible to merge them, there are ways to combine the information. Please see the guide we've linked below for more information. We will of course also forward your feedback onto the appropriate team. support.ancestry.com/s/article/Unable-to-Merge-Family-Trees?language=en_US It is also possible to change the tree your DNA is attached to. See the following article. support.ancestry.com/s/article/Linking-an-AncestryDNA-Test-to-a-Tree?language=en_US Please get back to us if you have any questions.
I'm glad I caught this video today. Recently I found myself wishing there was a way to indicate that significant dates in a person's family tree record are verified via a document. While the record will count the number of sources attached to the event/date, it doesn't attest to the accuracy of the data shown. All too often you find conflicting dates from other people's family trees that end up being incorrect once you are able to verify the correct date via documentation. I wish there was a box you could check next to the date to indicate that the date is indeed verified and correct in your record since each time you get a new hint it can call into question the accuracy of your existing data. I am wondering if the Ancestry team could find a way to help us ensure ourselves (and each other) that the data is correct and supported with documentation. Maybe this is a question Ancestry Ann could address?
As someone who worked in database tech, I love this. It helps me understand why certain results are pulled, what flaws in indexing or old scans exist and how that impacts results. Also how our own information we input, can help or hurt the AI pull more accurate results. Most big data has to incorporate old data with fresh data and the engineers have to know why or what was done in the past and what we want from it now, a tall order. Can we get improved titles or descriptions that we could hover to see similar named databases? When titles and contents overlap, so we can keep track of which one we searched or what is slightly different in the data= why they are separate. thanks for all you do.
I feel like I have playing at genealogy for a decade. I started watching you and realized I need to fix. So I am slowly fixing.. This month finally ordering a pile of birth/marriage/death records from local records. I want to thank you almost monthly for sharing your talent.
I am so excited about the new series! I just can’t get enough of climbing my family tree & learning! You, Crista, are a big part of my interest ! You are amazing & so interesting, I’m sure the new series will be so very interesting. I am an adoptee & learned of my birth families in 2018 & have been finding new family ever since! I am from Indiana & our records were sealed until July of 2018. Not anymore & I can’t tell you how much I have used Ancestry & your expertise in finding my roots.💜
I would love to someday see journals (from war time, etc. recorded) I am so lucky that some of my ancestors are mentioned in the journals of others! The only way I knew was other people had read about them in the diary.
Crista, really excited about this new series! Always loved the Barefoot Genealogist have missed seeing you and your sharing. Thank you for all that you do! Cheryl Haubert
1. Are adoption records made available to us and if so when are they made available (ex. After death of the biological parents etc) and how were they indexed? 2. Are the drummond island voyagers recorded and if so are there certain records of their voyage we could search for? 3. Are the candian residential school documents like their attendance lists made available for us? 4. Are the photos and letters we upload to our trees kept in your records also so that future generations of our tree will be able to search for them? Or are they deleted if we delete our trees? 5. Who is in charge of the feature that creates the charts and posters? 6. How do you pick who will take part in the shows like "who Do You Think You Are? Do you just pick out interesting people, interesting trees that are already started, or do they ask to be part of the show?
I would like to know how Ancestry decides which records will be filmed next. How long is the current list - years? Is there a way for users to influence what records are placed on the list?
I've used ProGenealogists for my grandmother's adoption research. I highly recommend them for difficult resarch. Big shout out to Kory! He got the adption file from 1893!!!!
I would be interested in hearing from a member of the systems development team, how they tap into user feedback to improve the web interface, and how they make sure that they are addressing UX in their work.
How exciting to meet other individuals working there and here about their expertise. I started recording my family information on Family Tree Maker. I would mail blank pages to family members to fill in and then input the data. Thirty years later, I am still accumulating information, have done trees for a few friends.
Crista, you have outdone yourself (not an easy task). These were so interesting and informative. Hope we get to meet at Roots Tech. I'm planning to be in SLC. Elana
Hi, @elanabroch! We're so glad you enjoyed Crista's presentation. We also hope you were able to come away with some of her wonderful tips and ideas to help you with your genealogical research. Have you made any fascinating family history discoveries lately you'd like to share?
So, I’ve been looking into my background and apparently I’m 1/5 English ( The U.K.) and 1/5 Native American. What a combo 🤣 it does explain a lot though, hehehe
Re the session on WDYTYA, I would like to know more about how the stories presented are chosen. I have heard that more clebrities’ family histories are worked on than actually end up on the broadcast. What is the proportion of trees worked on per broadcast? Does the celebrity have final approval of whether their info will be broadcast? Do they have right of refusal to prevent their story from being told in case something unexpected is discovered? Are the producers looking for a particular storyline for each show, for example certain ethnicities or geographical settings or historical time periods? Thanks for asking
Hi Ericka - I'd like this particular series to remain focused on the behind the scenes here at Ancestry. So, my guests will only be Ancestry employees. But, I do have an "Experts" series planned for later in the year with guests from the genealogy community.
Hi, Carol. We're sorry for any disappointment you've experienced as Ancestry does not currently have the 1921 Census available. We are still excited about about the census being available to family historians and we look forward to its launch and the many discoveries it will reveal for people in the UK and beyond. As with other significant collections, we hope that the 1921 Census can be available on Ancestry in time. We hope to have more updates about this in the future for all of our members, be sure to stay up to date on our social media pages (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and on the Ancestry website. We're happy to answer any additional questions you might have too, we wish you a good day!
Crista, caught your presentation by chance and I do like what I've seen so far. I've tried by different methods to get information about my ancestors in the city/town of Mantua, Cuba. Not sure if it is something accessible to you and your staff. I also have Basque blood on both my parents side. Not sure how common that may be. Thanks for your help. Conchi.
Thanks very much for watching, Conchita! We do hope you've enjoyed Crista's latest installment of her Barefoot Genealogist series. We appreciate your query! Finding records from Cuba online can be a difficult task. The archives there don't respond to requests for records from outside of Cuba. A good strategy would be to speak to older family members to try get as many names and dates and place names as you can. If you have any known living relatives in Cuba as well, writing to them to learn more may be helpful. By uncovering names and dates you may be able to then get in touch with Catholic Church parishes there. We wish you every success in your continued research!
Hi Crista, Just wondering why when you do a search from someone’s profile why the exact matches don’t always filter to the top. I always get different variations of the name mixed in, instead of after the exact matches.? Also is there any chance you might be adding filters to that search eg date ascending etc. So if I am doing electoral rolls I am doing them in date order, not all over the place. Easy to hover and see the location if it’s a common name in date order so the multiple dates are next to each other. Especially with Parents and Children with the same name in the same area. Thanks.
Hi Shelley, thank you for the question. You can download your family tree to your device by following this guide, support.ancestry.com/s/article/Uploading-and-Downloading-Trees?language=en_US
As a previous poster mentioned, Ancestry will soon be beyond my ability to maintain membership. I use Ancestry for its search function and DNA. All of Ancestry's records can be found elsewhere, but with more effort. I don't look at other people's trees - they are more wrong than right. I don't like the new changes. The new main page is too cluttered - it needs to be the second search page. Too many times changes are made just for the sake of change and not to make anything better.
I was involved in the indexing back then. Is there still a need for the help? If so where do we go to sign up? I have been on ancestry for a long time and appreciate the history of the company. I also have helped others with their own family research. 👍👍👍
Hi, Liz! Thank you so much for your willingness to help with reviewing the 1950 Federal Census for errors. We still have a lot of work to be done to get the work completed. The link below will allow you to volunteer through FamilySearch to help with this project. Have a great weekend! www.familysearch.org/getinvolved/1950?cid=sem-cen-13175&cid=sem-cen-13175&gclid=CjwKCAjwoMSWBhAdEiwAVJ2ndmsPUrRHNEO2EGC_udsnGyTZP3VG1pObe5q61mW5kehfFqSs6myRxRoCqa4QAvD_BwE
If you have an LDS-Membership subscription to Ancestry, you have access to all but 10 of the 33,000+ databases that are available to anyone else on Ancestry with a World Membership. (And those you can access by pay-per-view.) Is there something in particular you think you should have access to that you don't?
Is there a possibility of Ancestry expanding to the far east and west for those who live too far away from the headquarters in Utah? I think that would help those researching on both east coast and west coast.
Hello and TYVM for this! I have a question... I'm a member and have a lovely tree going. I want to know if there is any way to see if anyone in my tree is doubled up? I know how to merge once I've found one but I need to know if I can see a lit of all my people who have a similar profile? Is this something Ancestry is looking at for the future?
HI Suzanne and thank you for reaching out to us. We are anxious to help you. While our system is unable to highlight possible duplicates in your tree, we will certainly forward this suggestion as feedback to the appropriate team. In the meantime, we'd recommend checking out your list of all people where you'll be able to see if the same person is listed more than once. For the moment, this is the easiest way to identify profiles that you've added more than once. 🙂
What should I do if a Canadian Church record index is totally wrong? I knew when and where my 2nd great grandparents married. Searching the correct church and date I was able to find their marriage record. I was also able to find a few of their children's baptism records. They are not in the index at all. The people listed in index are not in the records.
Great video and I look forward to this new series "Between the Leaves". Here are questions for consideration when it comes time to discuss future video topics with the Content Acquisition Team and Content Production Team. These questions revolved around digital images, index-only records, and image redaction of specific content. 1. West Virginia death certificates are an index-only record on Ancestry. Images are, however, available for viewing on the West Virginia Department of History website. In comparison, FamilySearch also has an index-only when researching West Virginia death certificates; however, FamilySearch will provide a link for that index taking you directly to the West Virginia website to the actual image. In comparison to those differences with West Virginia, death certificate images for Missouri are available for viewing on the Missouri State Archives website. On Ancestry, images to Missouri death certificates are available by clicking the link which takes you to the image on the Missouri website. What are the background technicalities, comparing these two states as examples, for Ancestry providing an index-only for West Virginia, and providing a link to an otherwise index-only record for Missouri death certificates? 2. Keeping along the same context of images, the next area to discuss would be image content updates. We'll use another set of death certificates as an example. Ancestry provides death certificate images for Pennsylvania through 1968. Pennsylvania death indexes are available on the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website through 1971 since the 50 year requirement has been met for access through 1971. What is the process for updating newer images to existing image record sets? For example, using the time period 1969-1971 for Pennsylvania death certificates which are now available, would Ancestry contact Pennsylvania for the records or would Pennsylvania reach back out to Ancestry to advise newer images are available? 3. Following many genealogy social media pages, I see many comments about people's perspectives in how they think images should be fully visible and unredacted. Keeping on the same topic of death certificates, help viewers understand how certain image redactions isn't something that Ancestry is doing. Example number 1 for image redaction: Ancestry provides death certificate images for North Dakota; however, the cause of death is blocked out. Many commenters on social media pages tend to think it's Ancestry who's blocking that part of the image. Example number 2 for image redaction: Ancestry provides death certificate images for Virginia; however, the social security number is blocked out. Many commenters on social media pages tend to think it's Ancestry who is blocked that section of the image. 4. Final question to ask, and this may be something that could be answered by someone else other than the specific Content teams, however, I'm curious to know Ancestry's definition of a "record". For example, there are 17 U.S. federal decennial census' available on Ancestry (1790-1950), would each of those census years each be considered "a record", meaning 17 records in total? Thanks so much!
Thank you for your suggestions. We did get to your question number 2 in our latest video, published on Tuesday. To answer your question number 4 - Ancestry calls each set of records (like the U.S. Federal Census) a "Collection." We call each individual census (like the 1950 U.S. Federal Census) a "database." We call each individual person enumerated in the census (like John Smith, living in Eugene, Oregon in the 1950 census) a "record." So, for example, there are 155,891,796 records in the 1950 census database.
I'd like to hear more about how Ancestry DNA deals with floating trees I have developed from DNA matches who don't yet fit in my personal tree but reside in my Ancestry file. Some of us are creating research trees in our personal family tree files in the hopes of finding the nexus between our floater DNA matches and our own trees. I suspect the Recommended Common Ancestor function looks strictly at home persons and ignores floating trees, but will Ancestry eventually look at those floating trees to help find the connections? I would be interested in more information about how Recommended Common Ancestors are created, how often the system is reviewed for new matches, etc. If there was a service at Ancestry that tied those loose ends together for me, taking my DNA floaters and helping me find their homes, I would gladly pay for it. As I said, I suspect all my work on DNA shared matches who don't yet fit into my tree is not part of the recommendations review process. I love this show idea and hope it goes well for you. I'm a long time Ancestry user and consume most everything you put on TH-cam and in your fine products.
Oooh - I love this suggestion. I'll have to see if that's something we can fit into the episode with Anne or if I need to add an episode with one of our other product managers. Thanks!
What resources do you find and make available in the areas of papers collections. I have an ancestor who died in a farming accident in Hampton, Connecticut, March 20, 1801. He left a 8 children and a widow who was pregnant with their 9th. I’ve been able to locate information on most of the children, but I have been unable to find anything regarding his widow. Pretty much all I have ever been able to find out about his widow is that her name was Abigail. The family actually lived in Lebanon, Connecticut. A specialist at Family Search suggested I look for letters of John Trumbull’s daughters who they said would have most likely written about the tragedy. I have been in contact with the Manuscript and Archives department of Yale University. They seemed to indicate that the only documents available for the Trumbull family seems to be those related to their political correspondence. Do you know if there are collections of family correspondence that would include more of the local news and commentary, particularly that of women? If there is, do you have any plans to acquire and digitize it?
Love hearing you speak and love the ancestry portal. Any plans to extend document research/indexing in Asian countries specifically the Philippines? Learning family history and genealogy is a common area of interest for both myself and my mom. This whole journey makes me want to plan a trip to the Philippines to explore family documents, church documents etc.
Do you have anyone working on Eastern European records? My grandparents immigrated from Poland and Lithuania at turn of 20th century. I would like to know what records, if any, might be available. Ancestry is invaluable for me as I immigrated to UK and have done most of my research online with only targeted research when visiting family in US. Thank you
Hi Kathy - Are you familiar with the Card Catalog on Ancestry? A quick search there reveals that Ancestry has more than 24 million records for Poland and more than 2 million records for Lithuania.
I noticed that a hint I received for an ancestor was actually information for someone with a completely different name. How do these hints get linked to my ancestor? I have also found that the Yearbooks hints are not photos of my ancestors, but someone completely different. How can these be corrected?
I have a general question: My 13th great grandfather came from Lanarkshire in 1663. He finally settled in Groton, Connecticut. He changed his surname! So I don't know what name he came with or ship name. So how would I find records listing his ship name and ultimately his surname back in England? I've searched his siblings, and all have managed to hide the surname, supposedly to protect from treason or Cromwellian lashback. I'm afraid my relatives have settled for the "grapevine" and heresy history, but I want better proof. Where do I go to find this?
@@CristaCowan because he and his brothers were running from Edward II, I believe. They were Cromwellians, at one point. They did very well here, but their past is shaded in intrigue and mystery.
Asan African American, I would like to know how to separate the Caucasian ancestry and names for the African American names to make it easier to navigate! I’m having issues with trying to find out my lineage for my Great grandfather on one side of my family!
Hi there, and thanks so much for watching. That's a great question, and we'd be happy to help! To provide hints, we compare the information you enter into your tree, such as names, locations and dates and then compare this to our major databases, as well as family trees built by other members. Ancestry Hints can be an amazing tool to allow our member to go down lines of inquiry not thought of before, or help our members collaborate with one another when researching the same person to make new connections, for example. If you'd like to learn more, please feel free to check out the following guide: support.ancestry.com/s/article/How-Ancestry-Hints-are-Updated?language=en_US We hope this information helps a little, and we wish you all the best in your continued research!
I have been researching my family for over 30 years. I have had issues finding documents for my ancestors from Dominican Republic and Syria/Lebanon (western levant). Would you be able to give me any tips that would help locate them online?
What were the sources of the first data Ancestry obtained? The records that were aggregated into that big database and indexed back in the early days of the company?
Our ancestry acct is under my husband's name, and I must correspond with others thru his name instead of my own . Is there a way to identify with my tree under my name instead of his?
Your tree can be named whatever you want it to be named. However, the account owner is the one whose name will appear as the "from" person in all messages sent from the account.
The "relationship to me" field under the person's name/Birth/Death does not distinguish between half and full relationships; for instance, my paternal half-1st cousin is labeled "paternal 1st cousin". Your service desk did not know if there are any plans to correct this. Do you know? If not, who should I ask? (Thrulines does properly label half-relationships.) Thank you.
What does Unassigned mean on the Ancestry DNA Matches? It just started showing up and never showed it before. Even on my brother and children. Also why would the DNA Match show someone as a 5th-8th Cousin, but they are shown as my half third cousin on my tree. As far as I know my great grandfather and her great grandmother were full siblings. We only share 17 Cm.
Hi Orion - I'm not sure I've ever seen the word "unassigned" on an AncestryDNA Match. Are you still seeing it? As for your half 3rd cousin - random DNA inheritance can be a confusing thing. A half 3rd cousin can typically share anywhere from 0cM to 150cM of DNA, with an average of about 45cM. The fact that you share on the low range with this particular cousin is why it is being labeled as a more distant cousin. I suspect if you looked how many cM of DNA your siblings share with this match or how many cM of DNA you share with the siblings of this match, you would see a wide range. However, if you all share in the low side of the range, that could be an indication that there is a half relationship between your great-grandfather and their great-grandmother. The next step would then be to investigate your matches to see if you match descendants of both your great-grandparents paternal AND maternal aunts and uncles.
@@CristaCowan Thanks Crista! I love watching you on TH-cam! I'll go through the steps you outlined. The unassigned went away. I'm not sure what caused it. It was weird. I look forward to watching more of your videos. They are very informative. Best Regards.
1) How do you decide which country to delve into/expand next? 2) Could you include expiration dates for content? For instance, a new record is found and by the time its confirmed, the original has expired.
Hi Therese - Are you familiar with how to use the Card Catalog on Ancestry? We've got nearly 50 million records for the Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, and Slovakia.
Thank You. I went to the catalog but I didn’t see the district of Benesov , Town of Trhovy Stepanov. Nor can I find anything from the town/district of Rakovnik. I am definitely not a pro on the Catalog.
@@thereseacklen1624 Try searching the Card Catalog for just the name of the country - some of the records have been aggregated into countrywide databases. And try all three countries to see what records have ended up where due to boundary changes.
Your videos are very, very useful. Unfortunately my Ancestry experience has been worse than awful. I've texted, called, emailed, sent photos of the errors and even sent snail mail (5 pages). I wish there was someone in Ancestry who cared to fix the obvious problems. Maybe you can help...
@@AncestryUS it is in regards to the ethnicity tool. I have a pretty solid idea that I know wat parent the one refion comes into play but is there a more definitive way to determine through DNA matches?
Perhaps you could ask Ann Mitchell how members can propose available content for Ancestry? I approached you on Twitter about this about a year ago or so, but your suggestions didn't lead to a result. If there was a formal process for recommending particular content and pointing to where it can be found, etc, that would be useful. I suppose if it is not an option on the site that there is a reason for that, so I'd be curious to hear more about that.
Anne is a product manager over our family trees part of the Ancestry experience. But, I might be able to fit this question into my discussion with Quinton when we talk about Content Acquisition. Thanks!
I’ve been told ancestry acquired records from Kent Street Reformed Church in Brooklyn, NY but I can’t find them in the catalog. Can you help me find them?
Thanks very much for getting in touch with us, Joan! We're sorry to hear you're having trouble locating the exact records you're searching for but we're always happy to help as best we can. We could find the following record collections that may be of some assistance to you: www.ancestry.com/search/collections/catalog/?keyword=Reformed&location=35_2 We wish you all the best in your continued research!
Content Aquisition question: wondering if any plans to get more records from Romania and/or Slovakia? I have family who came from parts of Hungary that are now in those countries and records are not available to research as of yet where I need them.
Hey Susan. It's great to see that you are continuing your research and looking to learn more about the type of record collections available to the researcher in the future. We're honored to be home to over 30 billion records and counting spread throughout the world. The level of access to historical documentation varies from country and even state/province as there is not one global approach to how such records are released. You can stay up to date with out latest releases by saving or bookmarking this link to your browser : www.ancestry.com/cs/recent-collections . Such availability is often governed by whether we are permitted to transcribe records as well as licensing issues. We can assure you that we are committed to seeking out and making available as many collections as is possible as the more documentation we have, the more success our members can expect. Should you like to check out our current collections for Slovakia, Romania and Hungary then we would invite you to click here and select the country or jurisdiction which interests you to see what is ready to explore : www.ancestry.com/search/collections/catalog/?location=1652381 . We hope this gives you some worthy options to explore but please call by and see us again anytime you need a little support.🌳
@@AncestryUS thank you! Yes, I have searched all of the records currently on Ancestry and check each month for new ones. Nothing currently on there is in the local my family was from so I'm not finding what I need. My brick wall family comes from what is now Cherechiu, Romania and I've not found any online records for that location.
Hi, Kathy. We will be happy to help share some good resources for researching. We have a great article that has some great tips on ways to get past that brick wall in your research. You can access that here: support.ancestry.com/s/article/Overcoming-Roadblocks-in-Your-Research?language=en_US
Is the World Archive Project you mentioned still active? I am looking for opportunities to volunteer my time to help add to the content available on Ancestry. Would love to learn more about this topic.
Hi Crista, I'm not the greatest with technology but was wondering if the Ancestry App could show relativity through the matched dominant region/%/heritage. For example; when a new 'relative' is matched with me, could the app catergorise this match with all others matched to me of the same group of people with the same match? The app probably does this already and I'm not using it correctly. Thank you
Hi there - I'm not quite clear what you mean by "categorise this match with all others match to me of the same group of people..." Your matches are delivered to you based on how many centimorgans of DNA they share with you. You can then use the Shared Matches with that person to determine which branch of your family tree they match through.
@@CristaCowan Thank you for your reply and once again it maybe my understanding or lack of... My specific example is that many of my matches share similar regions and or heritage. For me, it would be great to see that the match is more likely through your English heritage...(given that names these days have been changed or can't be connected to family trees).
@@dbk3336 Ah. Got it. You want to filter your match list by ethnicity or community. I have submitted that as an enhancement request to the team here at Ancestry responsible for that portion of the website. Thanks!
Hi Suzy - The key to Germanic research is to know where in Germany your family is from. Since Germany was not a unified country until 1871, records prior to that time were kept entirely at a local level.
When I got my account no one said I should not make 2 trees so I made a tree for maternal line and another for my paternal line. When my DNA result came out I found that I could only attach one tree. Does Ancestry plan to allow the combining of two tree whose source (me) is the same? Or can I switch the tree attached to my DNA?
The best way to merge trees is with a desktop software program for genealogy. The two that sync with Ancestry are RootsMagic and Family Tree Maker. You can import your two trees directly into the software, merge them, and then reupload the new, merged tree back to your Ancestry account.
@@CristaCowan It took me a long time but I finally got the courage to merge my two ancestry trees so that all of my data gets attached to my DNA function (has limit of one tree). I purchased FTM2019 and imported my two trees (L&M Trees). FTM gave me a death date so it pseudo killed me. I removed my death date. In FTM I merged my two trees into the tree that is attached to my DNA (M Tree). I updated/synched everything back to Ancestry. As I made no change to the "L" Tree it remained the same. In Ancestry "M" tree, my name as owner of the data was removed and everything given to my dead brother! I am still owner (main person) in FTM. I tried to contact Ancestry via chat but I was left waiting first in line for more than 30 minutes then gave up. I will need help to get all of my ancestors to switch back from "Brother's Grand-father" to "my Grand-father" etc. One thing that did not merge from "L" Tree to "M" Tree is the text that I added in LifeStory category below the auto-generated portion. I will need to copy this over manually a fair amount of work. Maybe this is an area that we are not supposed to use? There was nothing saying that I could not make two trees because DNA only allows one tree so maybe you are not supposed to add text to LifeStory. I am still happy I merged my data into one Tree. As I am no longer updating my "L" Tree eventually I will delete it. I wonder what will happen then????
Hi Wanda, Have you started building a family tree on Ancestry. You can do it for free. You start by entering information about yourself and your parents. Once you do that, depending on when and where your parents lived, you might get some leaf hints that show you what records Ancestry has for your family. These might include census, birth, marriage, or death records that list additional details about them and their parents.
Thanks for watching, Linda! We appreciate your feedback on sorting through your tree, and we'd be anxious to help. Have you checked out the Tree Tags tool in your family tree yet? This will allow you to create filters for your family tree so you can navigate through it more quickly. We'll include a guide here that we hope can assist you further: support.ancestry.com/s/article/MyTreeTags Thanks again!
@@CristaCowan Yes I am and I really think you are wrong and I feel that when people see it on your site, they think it has to be correct but everyone does make mistakes. It just that I am so Passionate about this is the reason I keep bothering you for about 2 years now. Just look at my text on Ancestry and consider you may be wrong. One thing that has changed is there were 2 Francis Marion Chaneys from Arkansas for John Dennis Chaney and Francis Stoley Chaney. The one for better fits the one that was in the 1860 mortality schedule. But the Civil War records showing his age and letter which proves that he had another Wife and family before marrying my Great Grandmother, Martha Ann Wekch. I would appreciate you just looking at this and make the change if you agree or tell me I am wrong. Thanks for your help on this. Lynn Chaney
@@SwampCat96 Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I get so many messages on Ancestry that it is easy for things to get lost in the shuffle. I see that you just messaged me today so you are now at the top of my inbox.
@@Amar.lol.123 - Mine, my parents’, and my grandparents’ all updated in April this year. Yours should have as well, if you took the test before then. Unless they updated it to the same as it was beforehand, but I would doubt that.
I wish Ancestry had some help on line. I let my membership lapse because I couldn't get my paternal grandmother entered into my family tree. It would let me upload her name and info, but wouldn't let me make her my grandfather's wife. There's no one to answer questions like that. FAQ doesn't cut the mustard. *shrug* No more Ancestry for me.
Olga - I'm so sorry that was your experience. You do not need a current subscription in order to have a family tree on Ancestry. So, if you want me to give you a step by step walk through of how to do this, let me know and I'm happy to help.
@@CristaCowan I know I don't need a membership. But it's frustrating to try and work on your family tree when the system glitches like that and there is no one to help. You've got other things to do---there should be an IT person available who could look at my screen and figure out what the problem is.
Hi there, and thanks so much for stopping by. We do regret learning of the technical difficulties you have encountered in the past. Rest assured, we here at Ancestry Support are always happy to help as much as we can, and if you ever require technical support, you can get in touch with us through the following contact options: support.ancestry.com/s/contactsupport/account?language=en_US We hope these options can assist you moving forward, and we wish you all the best in your continued research!
Your Barefoot Genealogy classes are responsible for me being able to make the progress I have with my family tree. Thank you.
You are so very welcome. 😊
I really appreciate your enthusiasm and exuberance, Crista! I think if you were a teacher, your students would say, "I never cared about family history, but Ms. Cowan brought it to life!" I am looking forward to this series!
Thank you so much for the lovely compliment. 😊
In 2019 my Daughter took a DNA test through Ancestry to see where her ancestors were from. Here is the short story. She was contacted by a 77 year old man who was looking for his bio parents. He had never even known his parents were not his bio parents. In his 40's , after his parents had both passed he was told by an uncle he was not their child and he had just been given away. There was no adoption, no paper trail or anything. Here is where I will make this short. He is my half Brother. Would love to share the whole long story with the people there who do these stories. Spent 2020 finding his dad (my dad) his mother and all of his siblings (13) and the Dads of the others that had just been given away like he was.
Wow! That is quite the story, Kathy.
I just found a half brother too. He was raised an only child by his grand parents. I wrote to him and now he knows that he has 6 sisters. He is my father’s son from a first marriage. We hope to meet in the near future.
Incredible! Love hearing these stories.
I wish I would have tested a few years earlier because then I might have met my biological father. I wasn’t looking for a different dad, I never knew the man that raised me and my 3 older sisters, alone and without moms help, was not my biological father. But after my 3rd DNA test, the truth came out, a little too late if I wanted to meet him. I never would have thought my dad was not the same dad my sisters had.
Do you listen to family secrets podcast? Think you all might like it!
@@Ardna53 yes, I have listened to it a few times. It’s helped me realize I’m not the only one who has received results that were so unexpected. Kind of a relief, in a way, my feelings have changed on the entire situation as far as who my family is and nothing can ever change the love and respect for my dad, the man who raised me. I try to think of it as being lucky because my family is bigger than I ever expected, my tree will be so colorful, and full.
I'm so thankful for your education videos! They have helped me so much in my family history work.
I am so glad, Sarah. 😊
I love how you do these videos and really wish more people would watch them so then....just maybe....people would stop complaining about how much ancestry costs! If they knew how much goes into behind the scenes and thought about how much they would be spending if they had to go get all these records on their own then maybe....just maybe (but knowing people probably not) they would stop complaining! I think people are just programmed to complain now a days! Thank you Crista for all you do to help keep us informed! I appreciate it.
Well I'll never stop complaining about how much Ancestry costs. They have a near-monopoly which they exploit to the hilt, the site is clunky and forever experiencing problems, and the customer support is almost non-existent.
Shaddavid58 - You are so very welcome! 😊
Have you produced a video that tours your facility and shows what goes on behind the scene? For example how large is your building and how many people work there? Is the facility (lab) that processes the DNA samples on site or is that part in a different place? How is the information processed are there facilities that process the actual historical documents in house or do you have teams that go outside in the field and gather the images prior to them being presented as leaf hints. Those kind of things would be interesting to know about .
Thanks for the questions. I will add them to the list to be answered in future episodes.
Between The Leaves... I LOVE THAT! lol Hi Crista! 👋🏻 🙂🙂
I've been doing genealogy for about 20 years so I consider myself a mid-level researcher. I've had a subscription to Ancestry almost the entire time. While I believe you are at the point of being too expensive for most researchers, I do appreciate your service and what you have to offer. I am happy with most changes you have made in the past with the exception of the Gallery and the format change to viewing hints. Both of these changes make it more difficult and time consuming for researchers.
I am also appreciative that you seem to be sincere in wanting to make Ancestry a better experience for your users.
Crista you are such an enthusiastic presenter. I love listening to you.
Thank you, Carol. 😊
Civil and criminal court records would be a great addition to Ancestry. The two main counties that I do research in have microfilmed them, but you have to travel to the county or state archives to view the microfilm. Does Ancestry have any plans to expand the types of court records?
That's a great question for our content acquisition team. I'll add it to the list.
Keep up the great work! Of all the genealogy videos on TH-cam I find your videos particularly good; well structured, relevant content and excellent presentation. I spent the period of the pandemic trying to identify who my father was my mother having passed away without revealing any information. I was successful but am struggling to break through a brick wall on an Irish ancestor. Strategies to employ in these situations would be very topical for me and I suspect others.
Thanks!
I started genealogy years ago because I asked my Mom if I was adopted. I didn't look or behave like anyone in my immediate family. Mom began digging up old pictures for me. I began asking my Dad questions. I was shocked at how little he knew about his family. Finding death certificates was such a treasure and a unique opportunity to ask him questions, to discover he knew more than he thought he did. Over 40 years later, he has since passes. But I'm still researching some of those conversations.
What I really need help with is research in Europe. Germany, Poland and perhaps even Russia. I'd like to simply watch you do, what you do best, which is genealogy.
Hi Christa, I’m a long time Ancestry member and seen many changes. I appreciate that the company follows a continuous improvement model. But I have to say there is one change I really dislike - I’d be curious to know if others feel the same. It’s the change to the Gallery where records are now divided into two: Content and Sources. I find it simply doesn’t work - Source records end up in Contents and Vice Versa. It means that there are two records sets to look through rather than finding everything in one spot. I would love if that was returned to how it used to be. Thanks!
Hi Caroh - I'm curious to understand more about this. I'm not seeing the two mixed up. The one tab contains what I save from Ancestry databases and the other contains what I have uploaded to my tree myself. Is that not what you are seeing? Do you have a specific example you can provide?
@@CristaCowan Hi Crista, thanks for responding so promptly. That is really helpful. I had no idea that was the difference between them! I thought one was photographs/images and the other was documents. I never knew where to look for what I was after. I've just looked at the individual for whom I have uploaded most records, and it is as you described. Now I understand - thank you!
@@carokat1111 Oh, good. I'm so glad you got it figured out. 😊
Thank you for sharing your journey. You represent Ancestry well. Your conversations across social media platforms makes genealogy research accessible.
Thank you so much, Oya. I love serving the genealogy community in any way I can.
I have listened to you so often it feels like you are family :)
Sometimes it's hard talking to just a camera. But, I love imagining that I'm sitting over a cup of tea with you just talking about our families and genealogy. 😊
@@CristaCowan Grrrrrl, you have NO idea what a dream that would be (for me that is, lol) especially since I ended up a young orphan and I’ve learned SO MUCH from you and Ancestry. Hugs from Oregon!
@@katguyot6351 Hugs right back at ya. 😊
One of my ancestors was a minister in the Rev War, and he is mentioned twice in various Rev. war journals. I felt like I was able to actually learn what he was like as a person.
Thank you for sharing!
What a great idea Christa! I am looking forward to seeing and hearing some of your colleagues and learning about the great work that you all do.
Thanks, Andrew. I'm looking forward to sharing.
I would like to hear how your product managers gather and prioritize the ideas for future enhancements. Do they interview customers? How can customers submit ideas? How do they decide which ideas to pursue?
Great questions, Becky. I will add it to the list.
I actually would love to know more about DNA in general, Ancestry DNA, matches, and sideview though I don't know if you'd be able to talk about some of them.
1. Will Ancestry ever do mt-DNA and y-DNA testing again and if so how would that work for people who've already done autosomal DNA testing with ancestry? Would they need to re-do the test or could their existing sample be used?
2. Do you think there will ever be a time when, without having to test a male relative, DNA testing in general could be at a point where for females their paternal y-DNA haplogroup group can be determined or at least predicted, maybe based on DNA matches and their trees?
3. Will Sideview eventually tell us which parent is which and maybe even get as far as breaking down grandparents if a parent has tested? Also, if say a mother and child have tested will Sideview eventually use that to be able to definitely say for the child's Sideview that Parent X is the mother making it easier?
4. Will sideview be able to eventually help when it comes to grouping matches, such as determining list A of matches are Parent 1 or Dad's side and list B is are Parent 2 or Mom's side?
5. With Thrulines do you think this feature could grow to maybe making predicted branches of trees? For example I have a 4x Grandfather who I'm trying to find parents for and based on matches I believe he's related to his slaveowner somehow, so based on the family trees of those matches and my own could there come a time when Thrulines doesn't just show a potential direct relative but lays out a whole family tree to show where two matches may possibly be linked?
6. Will more filter options become available to filter through matches with? For example if one parent has tested, there's a filter to see all matches from that parents side so how about a filter for those who don't match to the one tested parent? Or being able to select both public and unlinked trees at the same time?
Hi Suzanne and thank you for reaching out. We are very sorry for any frustration caused by the fact that it is not possible to merge trees on Ancestry. While it is not possible to merge them, there are ways to combine the information. Please see the guide we've linked below for more information. We will of course also forward your feedback onto the appropriate team.
support.ancestry.com/s/article/Unable-to-Merge-Family-Trees?language=en_US
It is also possible to change the tree your DNA is attached to. See the following article.
support.ancestry.com/s/article/Linking-an-AncestryDNA-Test-to-a-Tree?language=en_US
Please get back to us if you have any questions.
I'm glad I caught this video today. Recently I found myself wishing there was a way to indicate that significant dates in a person's family tree record are verified via a document. While the record will count the number of sources attached to the event/date, it doesn't attest to the accuracy of the data shown. All too often you find conflicting dates from other people's family trees that end up being incorrect once you are able to verify the correct date via documentation. I wish there was a box you could check next to the date to indicate that the date is indeed verified and correct in your record since each time you get a new hint it can call into question the accuracy of your existing data. I am wondering if the Ancestry team could find a way to help us ensure ourselves (and each other) that the data is correct and supported with documentation. Maybe this is a question Ancestry Ann could address?
It's an interesting idea, Darek. I'll add it to the list of possible questions for discussion in a future episode.
As someone who worked in database tech, I love this. It helps me understand why certain results are pulled, what flaws in indexing or old scans exist and how that impacts results. Also how our own information we input, can help or hurt the AI pull more accurate results. Most big data has to incorporate old data with fresh data and the engineers have to know why or what was done in the past and what we want from it now, a tall order.
Can we get improved titles or descriptions that we could hover to see similar named databases? When titles and contents overlap, so we can keep track of which one we searched or what is slightly different in the data= why they are separate. thanks for all you do.
That's a great suggestion, Danielle. I will pass that along to our Content Team here at Ancestry.
I feel like I have playing at genealogy for a decade.
I started watching you and realized I need to fix.
So I am slowly fixing..
This month finally ordering a pile of birth/marriage/death records from local records.
I want to thank you almost monthly for sharing your talent.
You are so welcome. 😊 And, well done you for wanting an accurate family tree and doing what it takes.
I am so excited about the new series! I just can’t get enough of climbing my family tree & learning! You, Crista, are a big part of my interest ! You are amazing & so interesting, I’m sure the new series will be so very interesting. I am an adoptee & learned of my birth families in 2018 & have been finding new family ever since! I am from Indiana & our records were sealed until July of 2018. Not anymore & I can’t tell you how much I have used Ancestry & your expertise in finding my roots.💜
I'm so thrilled to hear how you have jumped into climbing your family tree with both feet. Glad to have you here! 😊
I would love to someday see journals (from war time, etc. recorded) I am so lucky that some of my ancestors are mentioned in the journals of others! The only way I knew was other people had read about them in the diary.
Crista, really excited about this new series! Always loved the Barefoot Genealogist have missed seeing you and your sharing. Thank you for all that you do! Cheryl Haubert
Yay! I'm so glad you find these useful. I'm thrilled to be back a little more consistently. Glad you are here. 😊
Onya, Crista, you're a great teacher and I love listening to you. I would love for Ancestry to add Cook Islands records to your database.
1. Are adoption records made available to us and if so when are they made available (ex. After death of the biological parents etc) and how were they indexed?
2. Are the drummond island voyagers recorded and if so are there certain records of their voyage we could search for?
3. Are the candian residential school documents like their attendance lists made available for us?
4. Are the photos and letters we upload to our trees kept in your records also so that future generations of our tree will be able to search for them? Or are they deleted if we delete our trees?
5. Who is in charge of the feature that creates the charts and posters?
6. How do you pick who will take part in the shows like "who Do You Think You Are? Do you just pick out interesting people, interesting trees that are already started, or do they ask to be part of the show?
Christa is so AWESOME !!!! 💕🥰 💕🥰💕🥰💕🥰
We think so too, @bearpawz!
Thank you for the information! I’ve gotten some photos I never knew existed!
I love your videos and am just so impressed with Crista always.
That is so very kind of you. Thank you! 😊
What a great idea! it's always fun and interesting to learn what goes on in the background that we don't see or may not think about!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I have been able to get so much information with Ancestry.
I'm so pleased for you, Brenda.
Sounds like you have enough to tell us we should see you every week. I can't wait to tune in. I have several brick walls I am working on.
Well, I do a Facebook LIVE Q&A every other week so I thought I'd show up here on the Tuesday I'm not there. 😉
I would like to know how Ancestry decides which records will be filmed next. How long is the current list - years? Is there a way for users to influence what records are placed on the list?
Great question, Pam. I will add it to the list.
I've used ProGenealogists for my grandmother's adoption research. I highly recommend them for difficult resarch. Big shout out to Kory! He got the adption file from 1893!!!!
That's amazing! Thanks for sharing.
Such an interesting video.....love the background and history of your employment and the company
Glad you enjoyed it!
I would be interested in hearing from a member of the systems development team, how they tap into user feedback to improve the web interface, and how they make sure that they are addressing UX in their work.
Thanks for the great suggestion, Peter. I will add that to the list.
Ancestry for community service and the family tree 🌳important African American people.
How exciting to meet other individuals working there and here about their expertise. I started recording my family information on Family Tree Maker. I would mail blank pages to family members to fill in and then input the data. Thirty years later, I am still accumulating information, have done trees for a few friends.
I have so much to learn
Wow, your life with genealogy is amazing. Thanks for sharing.
❤❤❤
Crista, you have outdone yourself (not an easy task). These were so interesting and informative. Hope we get to meet at Roots Tech. I'm planning to be in SLC. Elana
Hi, @elanabroch! We're so glad you enjoyed Crista's presentation. We also hope you were able to come away with some of her wonderful tips and ideas to help you with your genealogical research. Have you made any fascinating family history discoveries lately you'd like to share?
I love the show "Who do you think you are".
So do I, Juanita.
I have a question How does ancestry starting playing their own family tree 🌳and helping people to find their roots.
So, I’ve been looking into my background and apparently I’m 1/5 English ( The U.K.) and 1/5 Native American. What a combo 🤣 it does explain a lot though, hehehe
Love watching and listening to you. Why are the census records saved as 'residence' and not 'census'
will love to find resources/steps to address brick walls for an ancestor ..great content ...thanks Crista
If you do a search here on the Ancestry TH-cam channel, I've done a couple of videos on brick walls with some of my best tips.
Will you have Henry Louis Gates Jr on? Finding your roots on PBS is amazing for people of color
Re the session on WDYTYA, I would like to know more about how the stories presented are chosen. I have heard that more clebrities’ family histories are worked on than actually end up on the broadcast. What is the proportion of trees worked on per broadcast? Does the celebrity have final approval of whether their info will be broadcast? Do they have right of refusal to prevent their story from being told in case something unexpected is discovered? Are the producers looking for a particular storyline for each show, for example certain ethnicities or geographical settings or historical time periods?
Thanks for asking
Hi Ericka - I'd like this particular series to remain focused on the behind the scenes here at Ancestry. So, my guests will only be Ancestry employees. But, I do have an "Experts" series planned for later in the year with guests from the genealogy community.
@@pam.h4007 Great questions, Pam. I will add them to the list.
Really sad you didn't get the 1921 UK census. Will you have it in the future?
Hi, Carol. We're sorry for any disappointment you've experienced as Ancestry does not currently have the 1921 Census available. We are still excited about about the census being available to family historians and we look forward to its launch and the many discoveries it will reveal for people in the UK and beyond. As with other significant collections, we hope that the 1921 Census can be available on Ancestry in time. We hope to have more updates about this in the future for all of our members, be sure to stay up to date on our social media pages (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and on the Ancestry website. We're happy to answer any additional questions you might have too, we wish you a good day!
Crista, caught your presentation by chance and I do like what I've seen so far. I've tried by different methods to get information about my ancestors in the city/town of Mantua, Cuba. Not sure if it is something accessible to you and your staff. I also have Basque blood on both my parents side. Not sure how common that may be. Thanks for your help. Conchi.
Thanks very much for watching, Conchita! We do hope you've enjoyed Crista's latest installment of her Barefoot Genealogist series. We appreciate your query! Finding records from Cuba online can be a difficult task. The archives there don't respond to requests for records from outside of Cuba. A good strategy would be to speak to older family members to try get as many names and dates and place names as you can. If you have any known living relatives in Cuba as well, writing to them to learn more may be helpful. By uncovering names and dates you may be able to then get in touch with Catholic Church parishes there. We wish you every success in your continued research!
The Between the leaves and it is good espesides.
Hi Crista,
Just wondering why when you do a search from someone’s profile why the exact matches don’t always filter to the top. I always get different variations of the name mixed in, instead of after the exact matches.?
Also is there any chance you might be adding filters to that search eg date ascending etc. So if I am doing electoral rolls I am doing them in date order, not all over the place. Easy to hover and see the location if it’s a common name in date order so the multiple dates are next to each other. Especially with Parents and Children with the same name in the same area.
Thanks.
I can't view this reply for some reason?
Hello, I would like to know can my family tree be put on a flash drive and then move to a CD? Thank you for sharing so much information. Shelley
Hi Shelley, thank you for the question. You can download your family tree to your device by following this guide, support.ancestry.com/s/article/Uploading-and-Downloading-Trees?language=en_US
Thank you for the information. Shelley
Are there any plans to allow the merging of family trees?
As a previous poster mentioned, Ancestry will soon be beyond my ability to maintain membership. I use Ancestry for its search function and DNA. All of Ancestry's records can be found elsewhere, but with more effort. I don't look at other people's trees - they are more wrong than right. I don't like the new changes. The new main page is too cluttered - it needs to be the second search page. Too many times changes are made just for the sake of change and not to make anything better.
I was involved in the indexing back then. Is there still a need for the help? If so where do we go to sign up? I have been on ancestry for a long time and appreciate the history of the company. I also have helped others with their own family research. 👍👍👍
Hi, Liz! Thank you so much for your willingness to help with reviewing the 1950 Federal Census for errors. We still have a lot of work to be done to get the work completed. The link below will allow you to volunteer through FamilySearch to help with this project. Have a great weekend!
www.familysearch.org/getinvolved/1950?cid=sem-cen-13175&cid=sem-cen-13175&gclid=CjwKCAjwoMSWBhAdEiwAVJ2ndmsPUrRHNEO2EGC_udsnGyTZP3VG1pObe5q61mW5kehfFqSs6myRxRoCqa4QAvD_BwE
Content question: With LDS, you aren’t able to see every document, is Ancestry going to go in and scan and index those files in the near future?
If you have an LDS-Membership subscription to Ancestry, you have access to all but 10 of the 33,000+ databases that are available to anyone else on Ancestry with a World Membership. (And those you can access by pay-per-view.) Is there something in particular you think you should have access to that you don't?
Is there a possibility of Ancestry expanding to the far east and west for those who live too far away from the headquarters in Utah? I think that would help those researching on both east coast and west coast.
Hi Charity - I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Ancestry expanding." Ancestry is a global company. It is available around the world.
Hello and TYVM for this! I have a question... I'm a member and have a lovely tree going. I want to know if there is any way to see if anyone in my tree is doubled up? I know how to merge once I've found one but I need to know if I can see a lit of all my people who have a similar profile? Is this something Ancestry is looking at for the future?
HI Suzanne and thank you for reaching out to us. We are anxious to help you.
While our system is unable to highlight possible duplicates in your tree, we will certainly forward this suggestion as feedback to the appropriate team. In the meantime, we'd recommend checking out your list of all people where you'll be able to see if the same person is listed more than once. For the moment, this is the easiest way to identify profiles that you've added more than once. 🙂
What should I do if a Canadian Church record index is totally wrong? I knew when and where my 2nd great grandparents married. Searching the correct church and date I was able to find their marriage record. I was also able to find a few of their children's baptism records. They are not in the index at all. The people listed in index are not in the records.
Great video and I look forward to this new series "Between the Leaves". Here are questions for consideration when it comes time to discuss future video topics with the Content Acquisition Team and Content Production Team. These questions revolved around digital images, index-only records, and image redaction of specific content.
1. West Virginia death certificates are an index-only record on Ancestry. Images are, however, available for viewing on the West Virginia Department of History website. In comparison, FamilySearch also has an index-only when researching West Virginia death certificates; however, FamilySearch will provide a link for that index taking you directly to the West Virginia website to the actual image.
In comparison to those differences with West Virginia, death certificate images for Missouri are available for viewing on the Missouri State Archives website. On Ancestry, images to Missouri death certificates are available by clicking the link which takes you to the image on the Missouri website.
What are the background technicalities, comparing these two states as examples, for Ancestry providing an index-only for West Virginia, and providing a link to an otherwise index-only record for Missouri death certificates?
2. Keeping along the same context of images, the next area to discuss would be image content updates. We'll use another set of death certificates as an example. Ancestry provides death certificate images for Pennsylvania through 1968. Pennsylvania death indexes are available on the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website through 1971 since the 50 year requirement has been met for access through 1971. What is the process for updating newer images to existing image record sets? For example, using the time period 1969-1971 for Pennsylvania death certificates which are now available, would Ancestry contact Pennsylvania for the records or would Pennsylvania reach back out to Ancestry to advise newer images are available?
3. Following many genealogy social media pages, I see many comments about people's perspectives in how they think images should be fully visible and unredacted. Keeping on the same topic of death certificates, help viewers understand how certain image redactions isn't something that Ancestry is doing.
Example number 1 for image redaction: Ancestry provides death certificate images for North Dakota; however, the cause of death is blocked out. Many commenters on social media pages tend to think it's Ancestry who's blocking that part of the image.
Example number 2 for image redaction: Ancestry provides death certificate images for Virginia; however, the social security number is blocked out. Many commenters on social media pages tend to think it's Ancestry who is blocked that section of the image.
4. Final question to ask, and this may be something that could be answered by someone else other than the specific Content teams, however, I'm curious to know Ancestry's definition of a "record". For example, there are 17 U.S. federal decennial census' available on Ancestry (1790-1950), would each of those census years each be considered "a record", meaning 17 records in total?
Thanks so much!
Thank you for your suggestions. We did get to your question number 2 in our latest video, published on Tuesday.
To answer your question number 4 - Ancestry calls each set of records (like the U.S. Federal Census) a "Collection." We call each individual census (like the 1950 U.S. Federal Census) a "database." We call each individual person enumerated in the census (like John Smith, living in Eugene, Oregon in the 1950 census) a "record." So, for example, there are 155,891,796 records in the 1950 census database.
I'd like to hear more about how Ancestry DNA deals with floating trees I have developed from DNA matches who don't yet fit in my personal tree but reside in my Ancestry file. Some of us are creating research trees in our personal family tree files in the hopes of finding the nexus between our floater DNA matches and our own trees. I suspect the Recommended Common Ancestor function looks strictly at home persons and ignores floating trees, but will Ancestry eventually look at those floating trees to help find the connections? I would be interested in more information about how Recommended Common Ancestors are created, how often the system is reviewed for new matches, etc. If there was a service at Ancestry that tied those loose ends together for me, taking my DNA floaters and helping me find their homes, I would gladly pay for it. As I said, I suspect all my work on DNA shared matches who don't yet fit into my tree is not part of the recommendations review process. I love this show idea and hope it goes well for you. I'm a long time Ancestry user and consume most everything you put on TH-cam and in your fine products.
Oooh - I love this suggestion. I'll have to see if that's something we can fit into the episode with Anne or if I need to add an episode with one of our other product managers. Thanks!
What resources do you find and make available in the areas of papers collections. I have an ancestor who died in a farming accident in Hampton, Connecticut, March 20, 1801. He left a 8 children and a widow who was pregnant with their 9th. I’ve been able to locate information on most of the children, but I have been unable to find anything regarding his widow. Pretty much all I have ever been able to find out about his widow is that her name was Abigail. The family actually lived in Lebanon, Connecticut.
A specialist at Family Search suggested I look for letters of John Trumbull’s daughters who they said would have most likely written about the tragedy. I have been in contact with the Manuscript and Archives department of Yale University. They seemed to indicate that the only documents available for the Trumbull family seems to be those related to their political correspondence.
Do you know if there are collections of family correspondence that would include more of the local news and commentary, particularly that of women? If there is, do you have any plans to acquire and digitize it?
Love hearing you speak and love the ancestry portal. Any plans to extend document research/indexing in Asian countries specifically the Philippines? Learning family history and genealogy is a common area of interest for both myself and my mom. This whole journey makes me want to plan a trip to the Philippines to explore family documents, church documents etc.
Ancestry has more than 10 million records for the Philippines. Are you familiar with the Ancestry Card Catalog and how to access those?
Do you have anyone working on Eastern European records? My grandparents immigrated from Poland and Lithuania at turn of 20th century. I would like to know what records, if any, might be available. Ancestry is invaluable for me as I immigrated to UK and have done most of my research online with only targeted research when visiting family in US. Thank you
Hi Kathy - Are you familiar with the Card Catalog on Ancestry? A quick search there reveals that Ancestry has more than 24 million records for Poland and more than 2 million records for Lithuania.
I would die to work here. My curiosity would be in heaven
It is pretty great to work here. I learn new things every single day. 😊
I noticed that a hint I received for an ancestor was actually information for someone with a completely different name. How do these hints get linked to my ancestor? I have also found that the Yearbooks hints are not photos of my ancestors, but someone completely different. How can these be corrected?
I have a general question: My 13th great grandfather came from Lanarkshire in 1663. He finally settled in Groton, Connecticut. He changed his surname! So I don't know what name he came with or ship name.
So how would I find records listing his ship name and ultimately his surname back in England? I've searched his siblings, and all have managed to hide the surname, supposedly to protect from treason or Cromwellian lashback.
I'm afraid my relatives have settled for the "grapevine" and heresy history, but I want better proof. Where do I go to find this?
Why do you believe he changed his surname?
@@CristaCowan because he and his brothers were running from Edward II, I believe. They were Cromwellians, at one point.
They did very well here, but their past is shaded in intrigue and mystery.
Asan African American, I would like to know how to separate the Caucasian ancestry and names for the African American names to make it easier to navigate! I’m having issues with trying to find out my lineage for my Great grandfather on one side of my family!
How are hints created? How do they get selected for people on my tree?
Hi there, and thanks so much for watching. That's a great question, and we'd be happy to help! To provide hints, we compare the information you enter into your tree, such as names, locations and dates and then compare this to our major databases, as well as family trees built by other members. Ancestry Hints can be an amazing tool to allow our member to go down lines of inquiry not thought of before, or help our members collaborate with one another when researching the same person to make new connections, for example. If you'd like to learn more, please feel free to check out the following guide: support.ancestry.com/s/article/How-Ancestry-Hints-are-Updated?language=en_US
We hope this information helps a little, and we wish you all the best in your continued research!
I have been researching my family for over 30 years. I have had issues finding documents for my ancestors from Dominican Republic and Syria/Lebanon (western levant). Would you be able to give me any tips that would help locate them online?
What were the sources of the first data Ancestry obtained? The records that were aggregated into that big database and indexed back in the early days of the company?
Great question, Jill. I'll add it to the list.
@@CristaCowan Thank you!!
Our ancestry acct is under my husband's name, and I must correspond with others thru his name instead of my own . Is there a way to identify with my tree under my name instead of his?
Your tree can be named whatever you want it to be named. However, the account owner is the one whose name will appear as the "from" person in all messages sent from the account.
The "relationship to me" field under the person's name/Birth/Death does not distinguish between half and full relationships; for instance, my paternal half-1st cousin is labeled "paternal 1st cousin". Your service desk did not know if there are any plans to correct this. Do you know? If not, who should I ask? (Thrulines does properly label half-relationships.) Thank you.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I will get this reported right away.
Thank you.
You are welcome.
I would love to know more about the moderators on Findagrave. I know their jobs aren't always pleasant, but I'm grateful for what they do. 👏
What does Unassigned mean on the Ancestry DNA Matches? It just started showing up and never showed it before. Even on my brother and children. Also why would the DNA Match show someone as a 5th-8th Cousin, but they are shown as my half third cousin on my tree. As far as I know my great grandfather and her great grandmother were full siblings. We only share 17 Cm.
Hi Orion - I'm not sure I've ever seen the word "unassigned" on an AncestryDNA Match. Are you still seeing it?
As for your half 3rd cousin - random DNA inheritance can be a confusing thing. A half 3rd cousin can typically share anywhere from 0cM to 150cM of DNA, with an average of about 45cM. The fact that you share on the low range with this particular cousin is why it is being labeled as a more distant cousin. I suspect if you looked how many cM of DNA your siblings share with this match or how many cM of DNA you share with the siblings of this match, you would see a wide range. However, if you all share in the low side of the range, that could be an indication that there is a half relationship between your great-grandfather and their great-grandmother. The next step would then be to investigate your matches to see if you match descendants of both your great-grandparents paternal AND maternal aunts and uncles.
@@CristaCowan Thanks Crista! I love watching you on TH-cam! I'll go through the steps you outlined. The unassigned went away. I'm not sure what caused it. It was weird. I look forward to watching more of your videos. They are very informative. Best Regards.
1) How do you decide which country to delve into/expand next? 2) Could you include expiration dates for content? For instance, a new record is found and by the time its confirmed, the original has expired.
Can you help me understand what you mean by "expiration dates for content?"
@@CristaCowan did you receive my reply with explanation? Hopefully so. Thank you in advance
@@justineancestryvideos4677 I don't see a response from you here.
Christa I will send you a DM . My longer explanation is not posting...sorry
I don’t seem to find records for the Czech Republic. Is there a reason?
Hi Therese - Are you familiar with how to use the Card Catalog on Ancestry? We've got nearly 50 million records for the Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, and Slovakia.
Thank You. I went to the catalog but I didn’t see the district of Benesov , Town of Trhovy Stepanov. Nor can I find anything from the town/district of Rakovnik. I am definitely not a pro on the Catalog.
@@thereseacklen1624 Try searching the Card Catalog for just the name of the country - some of the records have been aggregated into countrywide databases. And try all three countries to see what records have ended up where due to boundary changes.
Your videos are very, very useful. Unfortunately my Ancestry experience has been worse than awful. I've texted, called, emailed, sent photos of the errors and even sent snail mail (5 pages). I wish there was someone in Ancestry who cared to fix the obvious problems. Maybe you can help...
What is the problem that you are having?
Christa,
I have a question about DNA and the tolls used by ancestry.
Hi, Kevin. How can we help?
@@AncestryUS it is in regards to the ethnicity tool. I have a pretty solid idea that I know wat parent the one refion comes into play but is there a more definitive way to determine through DNA matches?
Perhaps you could ask Ann Mitchell how members can propose available content for Ancestry? I approached you on Twitter about this about a year ago or so, but your suggestions didn't lead to a result. If there was a formal process for recommending particular content and pointing to where it can be found, etc, that would be useful. I suppose if it is not an option on the site that there is a reason for that, so I'd be curious to hear more about that.
Anne is a product manager over our family trees part of the Ancestry experience. But, I might be able to fit this question into my discussion with Quinton when we talk about Content Acquisition. Thanks!
I’ve been told ancestry acquired records from Kent Street Reformed Church in Brooklyn, NY but I can’t find them in the catalog. Can you help me find them?
Thanks very much for getting in touch with us, Joan! We're sorry to hear you're having trouble locating the exact records you're searching for but we're always happy to help as best we can. We could find the following record collections that may be of some assistance to you: www.ancestry.com/search/collections/catalog/?keyword=Reformed&location=35_2
We wish you all the best in your continued research!
Content Aquisition question: wondering if any plans to get more records from Romania and/or Slovakia? I have family who came from parts of Hungary that are now in those countries and records are not available to research as of yet where I need them.
Hey Susan. It's great to see that you are continuing your research and looking to learn more about the type of record collections available to the researcher in the future. We're honored to be home to over 30 billion records and counting spread throughout the world. The level of access to historical documentation varies from country and even state/province as there is not one global approach to how such records are released. You can stay up to date with out latest releases by saving or bookmarking this link to your browser : www.ancestry.com/cs/recent-collections . Such availability is often governed by whether we are permitted to transcribe records as well as licensing issues. We can assure you that we are committed to seeking out and making available as many collections as is possible as the more documentation we have, the more success our members can expect. Should you like to check out our current collections for Slovakia, Romania and Hungary then we would invite you to click here and select the country or jurisdiction which interests you to see what is ready to explore : www.ancestry.com/search/collections/catalog/?location=1652381 . We hope this gives you some worthy options to explore but please call by and see us again anytime you need a little support.🌳
@@AncestryUS thank you! Yes, I have searched all of the records currently on Ancestry and check each month for new ones. Nothing currently on there is in the local my family was from so I'm not finding what I need. My brick wall family comes from what is now Cherechiu, Romania and I've not found any online records for that location.
What has been the hardest content to acquire (and why) and how long did it take to acquire?
Great question, Geri. I will add it to the list for my interview with our Content team.
Are there any helpful tips for searching for a common name like Jones? Thank you for all of your helpful information. 👏👏👏
Hi, Kathy. We will be happy to help share some good resources for researching. We have a great article that has some great tips on ways to get past that brick wall in your research. You can access that here: support.ancestry.com/s/article/Overcoming-Roadblocks-in-Your-Research?language=en_US
Is the World Archive Project you mentioned still active? I am looking for opportunities to volunteer my time to help add to the content available on Ancestry. Would love to learn more about this topic.
Yes! The World Archives Project is still active. You can find out more about it by clicking on the HELP menu on Ancestry and then selecting COMMUNITY.
Hi Crista, I'm not the greatest with technology but was wondering if the Ancestry App could show relativity through the matched dominant region/%/heritage. For example; when a new 'relative' is matched with me, could the app catergorise this match with all others matched to me of the same group of people with the same match?
The app probably does this already and I'm not using it correctly.
Thank you
Hi there - I'm not quite clear what you mean by "categorise this match with all others match to me of the same group of people..." Your matches are delivered to you based on how many centimorgans of DNA they share with you. You can then use the Shared Matches with that person to determine which branch of your family tree they match through.
@@CristaCowan Thank you for your reply and once again it maybe my understanding or lack of... My specific example is that many of my matches share similar regions and or heritage. For me, it would be great to see that the match is more likely through your English heritage...(given that names these days have been changed or can't be connected to family trees).
@@dbk3336 Ah. Got it. You want to filter your match list by ethnicity or community. I have submitted that as an enhancement request to the team here at Ancestry responsible for that portion of the website. Thanks!
@@CristaCowan You are awesome! I'm glad were able to dicipher my query hahaha
I am having issues researching Germanic records for my paternal side. I could use some helpful hints.
Hi Suzy - The key to Germanic research is to know where in Germany your family is from. Since Germany was not a unified country until 1871, records prior to that time were kept entirely at a local level.
When I got my account no one said I should not make 2 trees so I made a tree for maternal line and another for my paternal line. When my DNA result came out I found that I could only attach one tree. Does Ancestry plan to allow the combining of two tree whose source (me) is the same? Or can I switch the tree attached to my DNA?
The best way to merge trees is with a desktop software program for genealogy. The two that sync with Ancestry are RootsMagic and Family Tree Maker. You can import your two trees directly into the software, merge them, and then reupload the new, merged tree back to your Ancestry account.
@@CristaCowan It took me a long time but I finally got the courage to merge my two ancestry trees so that all of my data gets attached to my DNA function (has limit of one tree). I purchased FTM2019 and imported my two trees (L&M Trees). FTM gave me a death date so it pseudo killed me. I removed my death date. In FTM I merged my two trees into the tree that is attached to my DNA (M Tree). I updated/synched everything back to Ancestry. As I made no change to the "L" Tree it remained the same. In Ancestry "M" tree, my name as owner of the data was removed and everything given to my dead brother! I am still owner (main person) in FTM. I tried to contact Ancestry via chat but I was left waiting first in line for more than 30 minutes then gave up. I will need help to get all of my ancestors to switch back from "Brother's Grand-father" to "my Grand-father" etc.
One thing that did not merge from "L" Tree to "M" Tree is the text that I added in LifeStory category below the auto-generated portion. I will need to copy this over manually a fair amount of work. Maybe this is an area that we are not supposed to use? There was nothing saying that I could not make two trees because DNA only allows one tree so maybe you are not supposed to add text to LifeStory. I am still happy I merged my data into one Tree.
As I am no longer updating my "L" Tree eventually I will delete it. I wonder what will happen then????
Hi Christa, my Grandfather's last name was Wilson. How can I find out more information about our family tree.
Hi Wanda, Have you started building a family tree on Ancestry. You can do it for free. You start by entering information about yourself and your parents. Once you do that, depending on when and where your parents lived, you might get some leaf hints that show you what records Ancestry has for your family. These might include census, birth, marriage, or death records that list additional details about them and their parents.
Would love to see the ability to sort my tree people (!) by location- continent, state, city, etc.
Thanks for watching, Linda! We appreciate your feedback on sorting through your tree, and we'd be anxious to help. Have you checked out the Tree Tags tool in your family tree yet? This will allow you to create filters for your family tree so you can navigate through it more quickly. We'll include a guide here that we hope can assist you further: support.ancestry.com/s/article/MyTreeTags
Thanks again!
How much marketing is going on to get more DNA testing in Europe?
Great question, Cathy. I will add it to the list.
Great show....Have you ever checked where the Shipman line connects to the Chaney line?
Thanks for the Reply!
Hi Lynn - I haven't spent time on this branch of the family tree in over a decade. Are you related?
@@CristaCowan Yes I am and I really think you are wrong and I feel that when people see it on your site, they think it has to be correct but everyone does make mistakes. It just that I am so Passionate about this is the reason I keep bothering you for about 2 years now. Just look at my text on Ancestry and consider you may be wrong. One thing that has changed is there were 2 Francis Marion Chaneys from Arkansas for John Dennis Chaney and Francis Stoley Chaney. The one for better fits the one that was in the 1860 mortality schedule. But the Civil War records showing his age and letter which proves that he had another Wife and family before marrying my Great Grandmother, Martha Ann Wekch.
I would appreciate you just looking at this and make the change if you agree or tell me I am wrong.
Thanks for your help on this.
Lynn Chaney
@@SwampCat96 Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I get so many messages on Ancestry that it is easy for things to get lost in the shuffle. I see that you just messaged me today so you are now at the top of my inbox.
@@CristaCowan Thanks Crista....any help you can give me to clear this up would be appreciated.
Lynn
Why do the leaves not shake anymore?
Our customers told us to stop the shaking. 😉
@@CristaCowan I kinda liked it!
Do you know the next ethnicity update for 2022 on AncestryDNA?
They updated in April, so I don’t think they’ll update again in 2022.
@@JediSimpson the last ethnicity update September 2021 though?
@@Amar.lol.123 - Mine, my parents’, and my grandparents’ all updated in April this year.
Yours should have as well, if you took the test before then. Unless they updated it to the same as it was beforehand, but I would doubt that.
@@JediSimpson I took mine last month that’s why
Ukraine. Eastern Orthodox. Why no records?
I wish Ancestry had some help on line. I let my membership lapse because I couldn't get my paternal grandmother entered into my family tree. It would let me upload her name and info, but wouldn't let me make her my grandfather's wife. There's no one to answer questions like that. FAQ doesn't cut the mustard. *shrug* No more Ancestry for me.
Olga - I'm so sorry that was your experience. You do not need a current subscription in order to have a family tree on Ancestry. So, if you want me to give you a step by step walk through of how to do this, let me know and I'm happy to help.
@@CristaCowan I know I don't need a membership. But it's frustrating to try and work on your family tree when the system glitches like that and there is no one to help. You've got other things to do---there should be an IT person available who could look at my screen and figure out what the problem is.
Hi there, and thanks so much for stopping by. We do regret learning of the technical difficulties you have encountered in the past. Rest assured, we here at Ancestry Support are always happy to help as much as we can, and if you ever require technical support, you can get in touch with us through the following contact options: support.ancestry.com/s/contactsupport/account?language=en_US
We hope these options can assist you moving forward, and we wish you all the best in your continued research!
Y los subtitular en español???