I first started an interest in genealogy about 12 years ago and started with just copy-pasting things from other people's trees. I completely deleted and redid all the lines in high school, using actual documentation. Now I avoid saving anyone to my tree unless I have a reliable documentary link. Lately I've been enhancing my research and preparing for my first archives visit (haven't yet since my family is all from the East coast and I'm on the West coast). I was really proud recently to find a census entry that one of my relatives who has been doing genealogy for much longer hadn't found (it was wildly misspelled). I think the thing with genealogy is patience. The easiest way of copy-pasting trees isn't ever the right way. Honestly, the painstaking investigation is the best part! I'm working on physical collections of all my lineages and records so it's been really fun to see all my research actual take physical form. I'm looking forward to searching through some archives!
Sydney, My mother's side of the family is mostly from the east coast. I was blessed with a great uncle who took an interest in the family tree and he did a lot of searching after he retired. What was so great was he did document as to the locations of where he found his information. The only problem was the fact that there were NO COPIERS or SCANNERS. In fact when he gave out copies of what he had located and pieced together it was all something that he had to type out and then mimeograph the copies. In fact I'm going through it and making as many updates as possible. Been able to do so since he listed where he found the information. So far he has been accurate. His last name Buxton to Alden on the Mayflower. I have been blessed with a library 30 miles away that has a great collection of East coast/New England genealogy. I want to go back there to do some more research.
@@ajalicea1091 that's awesome your great uncle was able to do that. If you have any family from Greenwich CT I'm headed there around Christmas to look at some archives. If you want to let me know any family names I could let you know if I come across anything.
Thanks for sharing your genealogy journey. I think we all start out much as you did but learn to improve as we go. There's nothing wrong with that. We don't know what we don't know until we know what we didn't know. But, I hope you see this video was about being very careful while using Ancestry's online saving feature to save the source we find into our tree and being careful as we migrate the information from the record index into the tree. So many mistakes can happen. I'm just trying to reduce the mess one detail at a time.
AJ Alice, thanks for sharing your experience. I'm so glad that your great uncle's research is panning out and you're validating it step by step. Gold star for you!!!
I totally agree genealogists should work harder on cleaning up their trees and eliminating mistakes. I liked your video on how to use Family Tree maker to do just this and eliminate floating trees not even connected to your 1 main tree. A lot of people just focus on just a couple of well established lines that are easy to copy from others or they just add anything getting their trees upwards of 10,000 ancestors plus without verifying anything. My approach is that I want to compete each generation on "all lines" and then progress backwards on all lines verifying everything that I can.
That's a very interesting approach. I don't have that luxury because each generation takes me to different countries. So I try to work on one line until I hit a roadblock, and then I switched to another line until I hit a roadblock and then sometimes
David, that is correct in concept, but the online software isn't very easy to go back and cut out those mistakes. I've had to manually delete people, because the software on ancestry for instance just won't let me delete a branch at a time. As a result i just stick to my immediate ancestors and their siblings especially on the part of tree that is 2nd and greater great grandparents.
@@joefromravenna I think she is using the additional Family Tree maker software that has features that help you to identify the mistakes and how to correct them. You can upload you entire family tree to the software to fix the tree and then upload that tree back to Ancestry which is now fixed.
I can understand that frustration. Did you see our video about how consistent place name standards don't exist AND it's potentially an unsolvable problem? ruclips.net/video/BruvuvQFQXM/видео.html
I understand the sentiment but the actual name of the territory was British America; after the Treaty of Paris (1783), when the United States was officially recognized, the remaining British part that would become Canada was known as “British North America”
On Feb. 14, 1778, the continental ship, The Ranger, commanded by Captain John Paul Jones, an American naval hero in the American Revolution, was the first person to officially receive a salute to the U.S. Stars and Stripes flag by a foreign government (given by the French fleet at Quiberon Bay, France). This action signifies the French officially recognized and supported the U.S. government by saluting her National Ensign. The flag was officially designed on June 14, 1777. The Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution, which said that the flag would be made up of thirteen alternating red and white stripes and thirteen white, five-pointed stars on a blue field. Stars have been added to the flag as new states join the Union.
Thanks for the great video. This is the methodology I use, so it's reassuring to see. I also would agree with choosing a location format and sticking to it - not so easy to do, when they give you so many options to easily populate it! I have one question: In your example where you removed the Precinct from the location on the right, you left the checkbox on the left turned on. I've always been turning it off, because I was afraid that if it was on, the info on the left would still overlay any modifications I had made on the right. Does it matter? Thanks again!
I don't think it matter. The reason I often leave it on is because you aren't able to edit the description box for new entries if you have it unchecked. That's at least been my experience.
Place names on Ancestry is my pet peeve! Kudos for addressing it! The other peeve is Ancestry auto-generated story that inserts places. I've attempted to edit this to no avail. While it's intention is a nice idea, it doesn't accurately describe what's entered into the profile. If there's a way to address this, I bet you have a video or will at one point. Thanks for all your wonderful information!
Emily, Thanks for pointing out the frustration with the life story auto-generated option. Since those aren't customizable, I tend to avoid them. However, I do not mind taking the formatting of the sentence starts, exporting them into a writing program and then customize things there. Then writing a family history and sharing it back to Ancestry, FamilySearch, etc. So, in a sense, many people think they're facing writer's block and the auto-generated starter sentences can help. But experienced genealogists will take that and expand upon it. Have you checked out my new RUclips Channel called Write Your Family History which talks about overcoming writer's block and more? ruclips.net/video/zOsoyLYDrYo/видео.html
Thank you about posting notes in our family trees I have a grand example. My husband's parents named two sons with the same first name. Son number 2 and son number 5 both have the SAME 1st NAME. There are 7 children total. They have different middle names. My husband didn't catch it at first but somewhere during his military career they dropped his first name and started using just his middle name as his first name. Not sure if that is due to the fact the family use the middle name of both sons when they called them. Then when it came time to get Social Security and everything and a new driver's license because President Obama wanted everybody to have the same type of birth certificates. That is when we started having issues. Had to go back to where he grew up as a young child and where he was born and get a up-to-date birth certificate. All he had was an old photocopy that he used while he was in the military. Of course nobody wanted to recognize it. Intern we had to come up with people who were willing to document who my husband really was and a lawyer to get him a proper birth certificate. And lots of people know him by his middle name so I will have to put that note into the family tree so that there's no confusion as to the who what where and when's.
What a story! Notes are definitely important, plus we can all learn some history in the meantime. Thanks for sharing. I have encountered many people with different aspects of your story. It's so relatable and real.
It would be really nice to have that history you showed of place names at different years. It would be very simple for any and all online or desktop apps to have place names database field referenced by the particular records year database field. That would be so much more accurate in the long run. I suppose one could add a list such as the one you showed to the person or families record noted.
Curt... FamilySearch is leveraging this in their standardizing place name field. You can type whatever you want in the event location. It will prompt you to standardize the place and shows you the times when those places were in existence. That's definitely a start. Did you watch my series about cleaning up locations on our family tree? Check it out with this playlist if you haven't. ruclips.net/p/PLcVx-GSCjcdkgWLmFnx-sOkAewjSmncmy
I really enjoy your videos. I've been using FTM for over 10 years and have a very extensive tree back to the mid 1600's which is where finding certain records are a real chore. I'm VERY fortunate that my family were Quakers from the PA, VA, NC regions till the 1850's so finding information is a bit easy due to their record keeping. Is there a way in Ancestry or FTM (2019) to set a place name based on a date. For instance, instead of the "USA" at the end when the date of the instance (Birth, Marriage, Death, etc.) is before 4 JUL 1776 so it automatically sets the place name as Town, County, State, British Colonial America? I have been doing it "by hand" for many, many people and instances, and it is laborious at best. Also, I have been putting Township and Town Name(s) that FTM and Ancestry do not recognize in the "Description" field just below the "Place" in FTM (2019). I find this works for me at least, so when I run any report, the place will be; County, State, Country: Township (or other place name I enter, such as "Centre Meeting House". For a person with OCD this is a great way to keep myself in check. 😂
I use FTM, but for many reasons, work primarily from Ancestry. [I have birth family and adoptive family in one tree.] I would like advice on working with the "story/timeline" at Ancestry. Want to complete this more for my younger adoptive bro's family. I have memories and info that is not easily sourced in a straightforward manner. I know this has to start with adding facts and then working those. But how to do that cleanly? For instance, I have documentation for his occupation in 1930. I know he later worked for the WPA, but have no source, but it must have been 1935 when it started until 1937 when he had a different occupation per his marriage license. Despite everything, I have not found him in the 1940 census, but I have documentation for their address and his occupation in 1940. Lots more, but enuff-enuff ;) Is there a way this can be effectively done, with year ranges, speculative notes, comments, etc, at Ancestry? I could do this in FTM, sort of, but then the upload for the bro would basically decimate the usable sourcing, adding all sources to his new tree as grayed out straight sources rather than as record/source links. I'm beginning to think that I need to do all of this timeline in a non-gen program and then upload it to the gallery ;) And in the story/timeline just add lots of "See timeline document in gallery" thing. Advice welcome! I am just starting to work on this, and don't want to spend hours and hours, and find out there is a cleaner way!
Yeah the problem is ancestry itself! They need to stop recommending ancestors willy nilly to everyone, when people see a green potential ancestor appear in their tree they tend to just add them without doing any actual research to see if it's their true ancestor and it's messing things up BADLY and all it takes is for one person to name their 7th great grandparents "Stinky McStinkerton" and "Patty Fatty McDeluxe" and it'll immediately get recommended to everyone else! I literally got recommended an ancestor named "Nobby Kazonikas" a while ago, it was CLEARLY a made up and yet everyone had accepted it as fact, I looked into it and some jerk literally admitted on a forum years ago to making it up to spite people who copy his family tree!
I love your humorous made up names. We have to laugh when we're frustrated. and I can't believe you have a hint for Nobby Kazonikas! But, I'm not entirely sure that not sharing hints is bad. Genealogists have to learn to be careful and thoughtful. When does that happen? When we're newbies, perhaps not as much until we discover the mistakes we're making. However, as experienced researchers who thoughtful review hints, it can be a time saver. So, the question becomes is how does the genealogy community help people overcome the introductory learning curve faster? I'm not entirely sure, which is why we make videos to help others.
Never thought about moving "precinct 1" to the other box - thanks! I agree about locations. Wish there was a US Gazateer for non-existent towns in states before they were states. And then you have the problem also of a town name appearing 2-3x in the same state, different counties in modern times. Another odd one is independent cities. It would be helpful to know more about the "cite this source" ckbox.
Locations are quite the challenge in genealogy research management. That's why I did an entire series about locations. Did you see it? ruclips.net/p/PLcVx-GSCjcdkgWLmFnx-sOkAewjSmncmy I think I could address the 'cite this source' in a RUclips Short. Thanks for the idea. Let me see what I can do.
Oh... and I'm happy to hear I gave you a new idea of moving the "Precinct 1" to the description box. I strive to give you little nuggets in each of my research video on this channel that others haven't mentioned before. I hope you'll come back and watch more videos.
Can you make a video about how to research a Norwegian Military Veteran ? My Great - Grandfather Gilbert Strand served in the Norwegian Army, he was born in Hadeland, Oppland fylke, Norway. I’m trying to locate his military records in Norway. His farm name was Strandeeiet, and now it’s renamed to Strand, Gran,Oppland, Norway the farm is located in Gran. He married my great grandmother Gudbjør Olson Strand in 1892. There is a family story that my dad heard from my paternal grandmother ( Grandma ), that Gilbert was in WWI. I would like to learn and find out all the information that I can on him. As well in the 1910 United States Federal Census: it list his immigration year as 1906 but I went to the Norwegian Digital Archives and found a immigration record that stated in 1905. He left the Norwegian port of Oslo, in Norwegian immigration records from Kristiania 1871-1930 records. Thanks Cody
While I wish we could, there are two better resources for that content. One would be (if not already) is The Family History Guide. www.thefhguide.com/project-9-norway.html The second would be reaching out to John Boeren of Antecedentia. We interviewed him in the past (See this video ruclips.net/video/2YWIx8nBu_I/видео.html). Whenever I have Norwegian questions, we ask him. www.antecedentia.com/about/
I have a particular challenge for my Spong line - the village in which they lived was sometimes referred to in records as Preston-by-Wingham, and sometimes as Preston-next-Wingham...BOTH are correct! It's frustrating. The village is now just known as Preston, but it can then be confused with places of the same name outside of Kent, England...
It all depends on what you want to learn. I would focus on direct genealogical and biological relatives, their children, and their siblings. Genealogical and biological direct ancestors are not always the same. (My grandmother was adopted in the 1920s, so I include the family that raised her and the family that created her.) We also need to research siblings and children of siblings to find clues to the past generations (and leverage DNA matches if you use that path). After that, it's entirely up to you where you want to go and your research efforts are needed.
Personally I prefer documenting each variation of an individual's name and date/place of birth and death. I don't want to give the impression that I have 12 sources that provided me with the full name, dates and places. Neatening the data for final presentation purposes simply has to take a back seat to making Ancestry a useful research tool. When I wrote my masters thesis, I was required to cite the source of every statement that wasn't a personal observation, experience or opinion. It's tidy to merge all sources under the best version, but it hinders research in my opinion and grants a false level of validity to the preferred name and dates.
Pat, now that's rather interesting academic approach, but for me it's resolved when using a Research Log. Or linking sources/facts to RootsMagic and Family Tree Maker. But, if that doesn't work for you, then the type of tree you're discussing would be better as a private family tree on Ancestry. That way you're research methodology isn't causing problems for other users since it's not an approach most would use. And yet, I see what you're trying to accomplish.
Random question... Have you posted a video about the new Ancestry Parent 1 and Parent 2 matches? I see them under my daughter in laws groups, but they don't make sense. Thanks
We haven't yet. When something new like that comes out, we tend to take our time to evaluate it. If we put out a review video we don't want just a hot take but an actual analysis of things.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics OK here's the first train wreck! They made an update. Parent 1 is European decent, parent 2 is Japanese. My daughter in law is 100% Japanese, LOL!
How can I find where my mistakes are? I need to clean up my tree. Also I am having issues finding records for my gr grandparents from Pinnow, Prussia. How do I know if they still exist and narrow down which if the 15 it is?
To clean up your family tree you need to start with yourself and verify every generation that precedes you person by person. Reviewing each generation fact by fact is the only way to find mistakes and clear them out of your family tree. You validate each fact and each relationship by searching for quality genealogy sources and resolving conflicts as they arise. As for the gr grandparents in Pinnow, Prussia, that question is rather complicated. You need to know the government that rulled Pinnow at the time your gr.grandparents lived there. It might have changed many times. The best way to discover that is to research general historical timelines for the area. Once you know that, check out the FamilySearch Wiki to get an overview of possible genealogical records available and how to go about doing research in the different countries that ruled Pinnow during your ancestor's lives. www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Main_Page If you get stuck and want to get some professional assistance, reach out to Legacy Tree Genealogists who have researchers around the world with expertise that can help you. www.legacytree.com/fhfanatics
So you asked for questions and here is mine. This situation occurs on both sides of my family. So, two of my mom's sisters married brothers. Likewise, two of my Dad's father's brothers married two of my Dad's mother's sisters. There is more of this family mixing (NOT incest) that has occurred as well but I don't want to become TOO confusing. So I found that I could only link cousins through one side or the other without creating the biggest mess I have ever seen. But I want to show my connections on both sides, how in the world can I do this? Do I have to create a whole different family tree so I can show those connections or am I just out of luck. I understand all the connections because I actually knew these people. But what about my decedents or extended family. These type of (double cousins) connections happened a lot in the past but I don't think it is a common today so youngsters might just give up on the details. Help.
Do you have a video about citations, I get my sources from family search and when I put in on my tree on ancestry I put a “web link” as a source. Is there a way I can put a source using the free version? I hope I’m making sense.
Devon, why is your location preference to use historical names instead of modern or even what they were known as at the time of record creation? I have never considered using all historical names so I'm curious what the pros of it would be.
GREAT question. I made a video addressing this very topic. Check it out here and then let me know what you think by commenting on that video. Where Did That Happen? Consistent Locations ESSENTIAL in Family Trees ruclips.net/video/KxMYCQ0xr3c/видео.html
Thanks Tony for liking the video and leaving a comment. Many rookies make mistakes, I made TONS of them. I am trying to help rookies avoid these mistakes faster. Thanks for the support.
Wish I knew about this ten-year ago. My whole tree is a mess and it will take me ages to fix it. Of course, I'll have to wait to redo it due to a lot of reasons. And Ancestry won't clear your tree or anything like that.
You can delete your Ancestry family tree following these instructions. support.ancestry.com/s/article/Deleting-a-Family-Tree?language=en_US Thomas MacEntee teaches about doing a Genealogy Do-Over that might be helpful genealogybargains.com/genealogy-do-over-start-here/
I tend not to go adding fourth or fifth cousins to my tree. I have a few third cousins recorded, but not too many. I've got most of my first and second cousins, but there are missing lineages because on my dads side my grandparents had siblings that they were not in contact with and were born after the 1895 cutoff, and at the moment it's hard for me to look for them myself. I have a good many of my cousins kids names but not much on their marriages. The kids range in age from 49 down to about 28. I wasn't in school yet before they started to be born, so a few of them have grandkids already.
Next week I'll discuss the difficulties when adding people to the family tree. You're making conscious decisions not to add the far distant cousins. For some doing genetic genealogy research, they might include them. For others, not so much. But the point is to be focused in their trees. Here's the link for the next video ruclips.net/video/g-2ywQGkDs0/видео.html
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics i have however constructed some family trees that i've made private, because a couple of 5th cousins have shed light on my own tree with their dna testing, and have led to a significant confirmation of a birth record in 1821. The family was going through a surname change and they kept going back and forth for 80 years using two different surnames in records.
There are several things you're asking. 1. To merge two trees, you can't do that on Ancestry. You'd have to do this with a program like Family Tree Maker or RootsMagic. You will want to download one family tree into either program and keep that linked to Ancestry. You will then download the GEDCOM file from Ancestry to your computer support.ancestry.com/s/article/Uploading-and-Downloading-Trees And import that tree into your file in Family Tree Maker or RootsMagic. For instance, look to the second heading on this page for how to import a GEDCOM file into an exiting RootsMagic File wiki.rootsmagic.com/wiki/RootsMagic_8:Importing_Data Once the two trees are in the same file, then you would run the Merge Duplicate persons tools on RootsMagic (wiki.rootsmagic.com/wiki/RootsMagic_8:Merging_Duplicate_People) or Family Tree Maker. Finally, once all the duplicates are combined, sync your tree with Ancestry. 2. Renaming a Tree in Ancestry Here's Ancestry's instructions on how to do that support.ancestry.com/s/article/Changing-the-Name-of-a-Tree?language=en_US
Go back to the death certificate image - "Oraeb" is probably a transcription error from "Oracle" (either human or AI - the first 3 letters are a match) due to the original handwriting. I've seen this dozens of times, especially in things like handwritten certificates and census records. In one census, my father Reuben, nicknamed Buddy, came out as Woody. I KNEW it was the right family due to other factors.
Mark... absolutely a great point. I thought during editing that I mentioned that it could very well be a transcription error. Am I mistaken? I have editing a number of videos lately, so I could be wrong. But you're so right, sometimes a simple look at the original image resolves the questions of whether the place is correct or not. But also, a Google Search could reveal the mistakes as well. Thanks for watching and sharing your insights. I hope you'll watch other videos and leave insightful thoughts.
How do I hire a professional to do my tree? I have taken my tree back to King Charles II and many others. I need a professional who can clean up my tree and help find more useful information Update! - I have a cousin who is Professional genealogist & historian, who verified all of my information and then I was able to contact my other side of the family (Ratliffs, Radcliffe) and he is mailing me copies of a book called “Our Radclyffe Heritage” I am very happy & excited that all was valid. My next mission is to join the sons of the American revolution society. Be blessed and thank you for all you do!
First, before you hire a professional, I would recommend you validate every generation from you to King Charles with quality genealogical records with great depth. Then, I would invite you to find specific research questions that you would like a professional to resolve. "Who is the father of my 3rd great-grandfather on my mother's line?" When you have a challenging question like that, reach out to www.legacytree.com/fhfanatics. Clean up work is not necessarily something professionals do. However, some newly minted professional genealogists will take up the cause and charge you more than you may want to spend. The best alternative might be to visit a FamilySearch center and work with volunteers over the course of many sessions to clean up your family tree. You'll also learn a ton along the way.
@Family History Fanatics Update! I have a cousin who is Professional genealogist & historian, who verified all of my information and then I was able to contact my other side of the family (Ratliffs, Radcliffe) and he is mailing me copies of a book called “Our Radclyffe Heritage” I am very happy & excited that all was valid. My next mission is to join the sons of the American revolution society. Be blessed and thank you for all you do!
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics - Update! I have a cousin who is Professional genealogist & historian, who verified all of my information and then I was able to contact my other side of the family (Ratliffs, Radcliffe) and he is mailing me copies of a book called “Our Radclyffe Heritage” I am very happy & excited that all was valid. My next mission is to join the sons of the American revolution society. Be blessed and thank you for all you do!
I say use the original town (city, county, state, province, etc) name and place the new name in the description of "Birth" info (Click edit on that birth entry and add the info). You can also add a separate Residence for the birth with an explanation. Some also use the "now" addendum e.g. Harrison County, Virginia (now West Virginia). I use Family Tree Maker (FTM) to help with some of those. It lets you add a historical name separately to an established place name and then I use that to update my Ancestry tree (FTM can synch info with your Ancestry tree). The main thing is to document both clearly. You may find in 5 years, 10 years you want to change something in how you've described it. I'm always learning of "new" changes and errors that need to be made after reviewing things later.
Great question. I did several videos about What Locations Should I Use in a Family Tree? ruclips.net/p/PLcVx-GSCjcdkgWLmFnx-sOkAewjSmncmy I hope you'll check this out when you have time. HOWEVER, what you use depends on whether you have a preference for historical place names in your family tree or modern. Ancestry seems to prefer modern place names, while you can add whatever you wish. I prefer historical place names because it reveals history and points me in the direction of where records are located. So, the decision is yours BUT as JCK 9500 said, make notations which ever way you go so that people can make the connection.
I'd vote yes for contacting. Most will take it well, some will ignore it, some will ask for more info. Just approach with a kind word about their tree and say you appreciate it when others contact you about errors and hope they'll take it in the helpful manner it's intended. Just be sure to back up the who, what and why. It's the same with contacting people at Find A Grave, or on FamilySearch, etc. If the effort isn't made, the errors multiply (faster). I contact even if they haven't been active for a while. Sometimes (not often) they'll still respond.
You can always attempt to send someone a message if you think they have a mistake. I have benefited from people reaching out to me. And others have benefited from my reaching out to them. However, be polite and undemanding. Politely ask to share sources for the decisions people make. If they are unwilling to make changes to their tree, you have to leave people be.
I always leave a note in other people's trees when I find a mistake. Sometimes they correct the mistake, sometimes they want to debate with me, but overwhelmingly, probably 90% of people or more, just ignore me. I leave the note in place though for as long as the mistake persists, my hope being that it will prevent newcomers from duplicating the error in their own trees. I recommend this practice to you.
Yes, pay attention to the fact. But, recognize that not every document will match an ancestor exactly. Documents can have errors. I explain this in this video ruclips.net/video/etiwNftjzWg/видео.html
Do you have a video on how to fix mistakes that others have put on your family tree on FamilySearch? It’s driving me crazy how many people will put down an ancestor for which they don’t have any documentation!
I have a playlist about fixing mistakes on FamilySearch. Some of the videos are from the 'old design' but the concepts are fairly similar. ruclips.net/p/PLcVx-GSCjcdnyGiTmGWWUXmo5NCvpPatw Leave comments on those videos and let me know if you have further questions.
@@nickmiller76 I agree, but I can’t afford Ancestry, where I started my tree. And, when I quit using them I found out they don’t even let you keep a lot of the records that you found. What a scam! I’m now researching on other websites and didn’t know at first that Famiky Search was a collaborative tree. What do you find is the best place to keep your info?
One of the worst things for me is using other people's trees and they have the same kids names like five times, so if someone had 3 kids it'd be 15 kids but the same three names and I have no idea about their other children besides my ancestor so I would just add them all and then my tree is messed up, and there are SO many that have WAY too many kids listed like that, or also people will link their relative as a child of your relative that aren't actually related but it's so hard not to use people's trees esp when you hit a brick wall with no hints, I find myself just accepting parents, children etc like oh they must have found the info nobody else could find so you just add it to your tree and go to the next ancestor, especially if you can't afford ancestry except for one month so you're trying to hurry up and get as much done as possible before your subscription expires.
I would suggest letting it expire, removing any auto-renew, and getting the Black Friday sale. It's usually half off then. Even if you have to purchase it as "a gift", you can gift it to yourself and choose the opening date if yours expires too close to Black Friday. Don't forget you can always find documents over at FamilySearch too and upload them to an Ancestry tree while you are saving up.
Mirandnik... this is why I start the video off by hiding the Member Tree Hints. I know many people recommend using them for possible brick wall clues. But as you've said, it's so easy to mess up my family tree. Instead, I strive to build my family tree with records. What's interesting is many of the sources, photos, and so forth that others put on their member trees become hints or search result items when we search. Thus, the benefits of member trees is part of the hinting and search system. Another reason to ignore member trees. Thanks for sharing your experiences and I hope you'll check out many of the other videos I have about genealogy research. Here's an Ancestry specific playlist to try ruclips.net/p/PLcVx-GSCjcdnM2mKWCpsjWo1p6kkjMaQz
Thanks pinwheelgirl for the money saving strategies. The other thing I would recommend is taking advantage of the Library Memberships for Ancestry and so forth.
Another thing to watch is “deceased” or “living”. Neither of these is a default position. It would be good if Ancestry always assumed “living” but it doesn’t. I added lots of names to my tree from a trusted source who provided me with a descendants list but no birth or death details. My intention was to add everyone, then go back and do the research. Big mistake! I have living people marked as “deceased” from assuming the default was “living” and the only way to deal with it was to turn my once-public tree to “private” to protect my living relatives. Months later, I am still working through those entries!! As Devon says, “slow down, be mindful”. It will pay in the long term.
Just curious. How did you add them? Ancestry does use the "living" default for someone who is a son or daughter or sibling of a parent born within the last 115(?) or so years and the "deceased" default automatically kicks in if the parent (or child or sibling etc) was born before whatever that actual limit is. I've tested it for others (using 109 yrs and 130 yrs) who had similar concerns but not one exactly like yours. If you added all of those people to parent(s) (even fake ones) with real or guessed at births (or no births), the defaults automatically kick in and you would see them, if you added them one by one. Uploading a separate gedcom would create a new tree. I'd honestly like to know. Definitely no fun. My big quagmire happened with merging various trees in FTM and uploading it. The merge in Family Tree Maker needs to be approached with great caution.
Lynne... good point about deceased vs. living. I believe FamilySearch has a default setting for living for persons with birthdates within a certain range. Outside of that, they'll default to deceased. With your example, I can see how things can get messed up. Ancestry can't privatize living persons if we mark them as deceased or we mistakenly think the default is living.
JCK 9500... I will admit that since Ancestry doesn't have the "Reasons why you think this person is deceased" notification while adding people to your family tree like FamilySearch does, I think people can mistakenly add people to their tree as deceased when they should be living with an accidental toggle of a button. Perhaps the solution is to have larger notifications? Regarding merging... I would only expand your recommendation that merging on any platform (FamilySearch, RootsMagic, Legacy, Family Tree Maker, Ancestry, etc) should be done with caution. Would you not agree?
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics Oh yes, I'd love to see a "Reasons" or something like that on Ancestry. The weird thing too is that it's not always consistent in each situation where you can add a person or where that window pops up. I'll have to note it but there's been times I've done something like add someone from another tree (not sure if that's where I've had problems but it's the only example that pops to mind) and the default or what had been initially assigned changed. Whatever the reason it can be frustrating and troubling (that's why I was curious how it happened for her). Since it's fairly easy to overlook or not think about doublechecking what's there (sometimes this applies to Sex as well when the default of Unknown) as you're zipping through; Id like to see a popup list of what's being added (w/age and life status highlighted) to quickly look at with an "Are you sure?" type of question requiring a yes/no response before it will save it. Ha, no one will ever see this but YES! Merging without super care can be dangerous for your tree and your mental health 🙂! Part of the trouble is they don't go into enough detail (I know hardly anyone reads detail) about what happens with each section of data and more importantly, what are the main "gotchas" for your tree and much more!. I knew at the time from a previous snafau to look and review very carefully but!!! I avoided losing people (I think!) but many of my sources (Ancestry tree downloaded to FTM) like Census and other records duplicated or triplicated(?) when reuploaded. I'll be cleaning those for a looooong time to come and this was 2-3 years ago. I also lost some of the media and all of my connections to all of notes I'd posted or others had for 8-10 years prior. Not a major loss but...I'll sign off ;-)
Eh. My tree is as messy as if I locked my cats up in a small room for half a day. Really tempted to redo my tree. I'm really envious of people who have the time and energy to make sure the info in their trees are correct.
I love your analogy! Cleaning up a family tree is great to do when you're stuck, when you're frustrated or when you have low mental energy to climb your family tree. I discuss this in my video "When Life Gets Hard? How to Find Joy in Genealogy Research" ruclips.net/video/LqU3NHJYtps/видео.html BUT, we can all slow down and be more thoughtful as we build our family trees to prevent messes from happening. Messes are different mistakes. Those happen for every genealogists. But taking a moment to ensure that we're not adding duplicate photos, stories that aren't stories, and having consistent place names for each new fact we add, that doesn't necessarily take that much more time. Am I mistaken?
I first started an interest in genealogy about 12 years ago and started with just copy-pasting things from other people's trees. I completely deleted and redid all the lines in high school, using actual documentation. Now I avoid saving anyone to my tree unless I have a reliable documentary link. Lately I've been enhancing my research and preparing for my first archives visit (haven't yet since my family is all from the East coast and I'm on the West coast). I was really proud recently to find a census entry that one of my relatives who has been doing genealogy for much longer hadn't found (it was wildly misspelled). I think the thing with genealogy is patience. The easiest way of copy-pasting trees isn't ever the right way. Honestly, the painstaking investigation is the best part! I'm working on physical collections of all my lineages and records so it's been really fun to see all my research actual take physical form. I'm looking forward to searching through some archives!
Sydney,
My mother's side of the family is mostly from the east coast.
I was blessed with a great uncle who took an interest in the family tree and he did a lot of searching after he retired.
What was so great was he did document as to the locations of where he found his information.
The only problem was the fact that there were NO COPIERS or SCANNERS.
In fact when he gave out copies of what he had located and pieced together it was all something that he had to type out and then mimeograph the copies.
In fact I'm going through it and making as many updates as possible. Been able to do so since he listed where he found the information. So far he has been accurate.
His last name Buxton to Alden on the Mayflower.
I have been blessed with a library 30 miles away that has a great collection of East coast/New England genealogy.
I want to go back there to do some more research.
@@ajalicea1091 that's awesome your great uncle was able to do that. If you have any family from Greenwich CT I'm headed there around Christmas to look at some archives. If you want to let me know any family names I could let you know if I come across anything.
Thanks for sharing your genealogy journey. I think we all start out much as you did but learn to improve as we go. There's nothing wrong with that. We don't know what we don't know until we know what we didn't know.
But, I hope you see this video was about being very careful while using Ancestry's online saving feature to save the source we find into our tree and being careful as we migrate the information from the record index into the tree. So many mistakes can happen.
I'm just trying to reduce the mess one detail at a time.
AJ Alice, thanks for sharing your experience. I'm so glad that your great uncle's research is panning out and you're validating it step by step. Gold star for you!!!
Thank you so much for the advice.👍
You are so welcome!
Thank you. Very helpful. I feel like starting new tree and be more careful.
Depending on the size of your tree, that could work. Or just Do Better from this point forward and clean up people as you go.
I totally agree genealogists should work harder on cleaning up their trees and eliminating mistakes. I liked your video on how to use Family Tree maker to do just this and eliminate floating trees not even connected to your 1 main tree. A lot of people just focus on just a couple of well established lines that are easy to copy from others or they just add anything getting their trees upwards of 10,000 ancestors plus without verifying anything. My approach is that I want to compete each generation on "all lines" and then progress backwards on all lines verifying everything that I can.
That's a very interesting approach. I don't have that luxury because each generation takes me to different countries. So I try to work on one line until I hit a roadblock, and then I switched to another line until I hit a roadblock and then sometimes
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics sounds like my husband's family
David, that is correct in concept, but the online software isn't very easy to go back and cut out those mistakes. I've had to manually delete people, because the software on ancestry for instance just won't let me delete a branch at a time. As a result i just stick to my immediate ancestors and their siblings especially on the part of tree that is 2nd and greater great grandparents.
@@joefromravenna I think she is using the additional Family Tree maker software that has features that help you to identify the mistakes and how to correct them. You can upload you entire family tree to the software to fix the tree and then upload that tree back to Ancestry which is now fixed.
@@davidirwin1549 🤔🤔 i think i missed that part. I had someone talk to me during that part. That sounds like a good idea.
I have a pet peeve, it's when people put United States/USA for dates before 4th July 1776, when in my case so far it's British Colonial America.
I can understand that frustration. Did you see our video about how consistent place name standards don't exist AND it's potentially an unsolvable problem? ruclips.net/video/BruvuvQFQXM/видео.html
I understand the sentiment but the actual name of the territory was British America; after the Treaty of Paris (1783), when the United States was officially recognized, the remaining British part that would become Canada was known as “British North America”
On Feb. 14, 1778, the continental ship, The Ranger, commanded by Captain John Paul Jones, an American naval hero in the American Revolution, was the first person to officially receive a salute to the U.S. Stars and Stripes flag by a foreign government (given by the French fleet at Quiberon Bay, France). This action signifies the French officially recognized and supported the U.S. government by saluting her National Ensign. The flag was officially designed on June 14, 1777. The Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution, which said that the flag would be made up of thirteen alternating red and white stripes and thirteen white, five-pointed stars on a blue field. Stars have been added to the flag as new states join the Union.
Thanks for the great video. This is the methodology I use, so it's reassuring to see. I also would agree with choosing a location format and sticking to it - not so easy to do, when they give you so many options to easily populate it! I have one question: In your example where you removed the Precinct from the location on the right, you left the checkbox on the left turned on. I've always been turning it off, because I was afraid that if it was on, the info on the left would still overlay any modifications I had made on the right. Does it matter? Thanks again!
I don't think it matter. The reason I often leave it on is because you aren't able to edit the description box for new entries if you have it unchecked. That's at least been my experience.
Place names on Ancestry is my pet peeve! Kudos for addressing it! The other peeve is Ancestry auto-generated story that inserts places. I've attempted to edit this to no avail. While it's intention is a nice idea, it doesn't accurately describe what's entered into the profile. If there's a way to address this, I bet you have a video or will at one point. Thanks for all your wonderful information!
Emily, Thanks for pointing out the frustration with the life story auto-generated option. Since those aren't customizable, I tend to avoid them.
However, I do not mind taking the formatting of the sentence starts, exporting them into a writing program and then customize things there. Then writing a family history and sharing it back to Ancestry, FamilySearch, etc.
So, in a sense, many people think they're facing writer's block and the auto-generated starter sentences can help. But experienced genealogists will take that and expand upon it. Have you checked out my new RUclips Channel called Write Your Family History which talks about overcoming writer's block and more? ruclips.net/video/zOsoyLYDrYo/видео.html
Thank you about posting notes in our family trees I have a grand example.
My husband's parents named two sons with the same first name.
Son number 2 and son number 5 both have the SAME 1st NAME. There are 7 children total.
They have different middle names.
My husband didn't catch it at first but somewhere during his military career they dropped his first name and started using just his middle name as his first name. Not sure if that is due to the fact the family use the middle name of both sons when they called them. Then when it came time to get Social Security and everything and a new driver's license because President Obama wanted everybody to have the same type of birth certificates. That is when we started having issues.
Had to go back to where he grew up as a young child and where he was born and get a up-to-date birth certificate. All he had was an old photocopy that he used while he was in the military. Of course nobody wanted to recognize it. Intern we had to come up with people who were willing to document who my husband really was and a lawyer to get him a proper birth certificate.
And lots of people know him by his middle name so I will have to put that note into the family tree so that there's no confusion as to the who what where and when's.
What a story! Notes are definitely important, plus we can all learn some history in the meantime.
Thanks for sharing. I have encountered many people with different aspects of your story. It's so relatable and real.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics it can be confusing though when you're trying to piece it all together.
It would be really nice to have that history you showed of place names at different years. It would be very simple for any and all online or desktop apps to have place names database field referenced by the particular records year database field. That would be so much more accurate in the long run. I suppose one could add a list such as the one you showed to the person or families record noted.
Exactly! Sometimes the town dies, sometimes they move it, sometimes they change the town name. Wonder if there is an American Gazeteer of some sort?
Curt... FamilySearch is leveraging this in their standardizing place name field. You can type whatever you want in the event location. It will prompt you to standardize the place and shows you the times when those places were in existence. That's definitely a start.
Did you watch my series about cleaning up locations on our family tree? Check it out with this playlist if you haven't. ruclips.net/p/PLcVx-GSCjcdkgWLmFnx-sOkAewjSmncmy
I really enjoy your videos. I've been using FTM for over 10 years and have a very extensive tree back to the mid 1600's which is where finding certain records are a real chore. I'm VERY fortunate that my family were Quakers from the PA, VA, NC regions till the 1850's so finding information is a bit easy due to their record keeping.
Is there a way in Ancestry or FTM (2019) to set a place name based on a date. For instance, instead of the "USA" at the end when the date of the instance (Birth, Marriage, Death, etc.) is before 4 JUL 1776 so it automatically sets the place name as Town, County, State, British Colonial America? I have been doing it "by hand" for many, many people and instances, and it is laborious at best. Also, I have been putting Township and Town Name(s) that FTM and Ancestry do not recognize in the "Description" field just below the "Place" in FTM (2019). I find this works for me at least, so when I run any report, the place will be; County, State, Country: Township (or other place name I enter, such as "Centre Meeting House". For a person with OCD this is a great way to keep myself in check. 😂
Sadly, there isn't a date based location shift for any location within Family Tree Maker. Oh how I wish there was.
I use FTM, but for many reasons, work primarily from Ancestry. [I have birth family and adoptive family in one tree.]
I would like advice on working with the "story/timeline" at Ancestry. Want to complete this more for my younger adoptive bro's family.
I have memories and info that is not easily sourced in a straightforward manner.
I know this has to start with adding facts and then working those. But how to do that cleanly?
For instance, I have documentation for his occupation in 1930. I know he later worked for the WPA, but have no source, but it must have been 1935 when it started until 1937 when he had a different occupation per his marriage license. Despite everything, I have not found him in the 1940 census, but I have documentation for their address and his occupation in 1940.
Lots more, but enuff-enuff ;)
Is there a way this can be effectively done, with year ranges, speculative notes, comments, etc, at Ancestry?
I could do this in FTM, sort of, but then the upload for the bro would basically decimate the usable sourcing, adding all sources to his new tree as grayed out straight sources rather than as record/source links.
I'm beginning to think that I need to do all of this timeline in a non-gen program and then upload it to the gallery ;)
And in the story/timeline just add lots of "See timeline document in gallery" thing.
Advice welcome! I am just starting to work on this, and don't want to spend hours and hours, and find out there is a cleaner way!
Yeah the problem is ancestry itself! They need to stop recommending ancestors willy nilly to everyone, when people see a green potential ancestor appear in their tree they tend to just add them without doing any actual research to see if it's their true ancestor and it's messing things up BADLY and all it takes is for one person to name their 7th great grandparents "Stinky McStinkerton" and "Patty Fatty McDeluxe" and it'll immediately get recommended to everyone else! I literally got recommended an ancestor named "Nobby Kazonikas" a while ago, it was CLEARLY a made up and yet everyone had accepted it as fact, I looked into it and some jerk literally admitted on a forum years ago to making it up to spite people who copy his family tree!
I love your humorous made up names. We have to laugh when we're frustrated. and I can't believe you have a hint for Nobby Kazonikas!
But, I'm not entirely sure that not sharing hints is bad. Genealogists have to learn to be careful and thoughtful. When does that happen? When we're newbies, perhaps not as much until we discover the mistakes we're making. However, as experienced researchers who thoughtful review hints, it can be a time saver.
So, the question becomes is how does the genealogy community help people overcome the introductory learning curve faster?
I'm not entirely sure, which is why we make videos to help others.
Never thought about moving "precinct 1" to the other box - thanks! I agree about locations. Wish there was a US Gazateer for non-existent towns in states before they were states. And then you have the problem also of a town name appearing 2-3x in the same state, different counties in modern times. Another odd one is independent cities. It would be helpful to know more about the "cite this source" ckbox.
Locations are quite the challenge in genealogy research management. That's why I did an entire series about locations. Did you see it? ruclips.net/p/PLcVx-GSCjcdkgWLmFnx-sOkAewjSmncmy
I think I could address the 'cite this source' in a RUclips Short. Thanks for the idea. Let me see what I can do.
Oh... and I'm happy to hear I gave you a new idea of moving the "Precinct 1" to the description box. I strive to give you little nuggets in each of my research video on this channel that others haven't mentioned before. I hope you'll come back and watch more videos.
Can you make a video about how to research a Norwegian Military Veteran ? My Great - Grandfather Gilbert Strand served in the Norwegian Army, he was born in Hadeland, Oppland fylke, Norway. I’m trying to locate his military records in Norway. His farm name was Strandeeiet, and now it’s renamed to Strand, Gran,Oppland, Norway the farm is located in Gran. He married my great grandmother Gudbjør Olson Strand in 1892. There is a family story that my dad heard from my paternal grandmother ( Grandma ), that Gilbert was in WWI. I would like to learn and find out all the information that I can on him. As well in the 1910 United States Federal Census: it list his immigration year as 1906 but I went to the Norwegian Digital Archives and found a immigration record that stated in 1905. He left the Norwegian port of Oslo, in Norwegian immigration records from Kristiania 1871-1930 records. Thanks Cody
While I wish we could, there are two better resources for that content. One would be (if not already) is The Family History Guide. www.thefhguide.com/project-9-norway.html
The second would be reaching out to John Boeren of Antecedentia. We interviewed him in the past (See this video ruclips.net/video/2YWIx8nBu_I/видео.html).
Whenever I have Norwegian questions, we ask him. www.antecedentia.com/about/
I have a particular challenge for my Spong line - the village in which they lived was sometimes referred to in records as Preston-by-Wingham, and sometimes as Preston-next-Wingham...BOTH are correct! It's frustrating. The village is now just known as Preston, but it can then be confused with places of the same name outside of Kent, England...
Yep. Place names get really confusing. Do you use the modern place names or the historic ones?
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics I prefer using the historical ones, but Preston-by/next-Wingham is annoying...I hate inconsistency, but neither is incorrect!
Hi. I would like suggestions on who to add to my tree?
It all depends on what you want to learn.
I would focus on direct genealogical and biological relatives, their children, and their siblings.
Genealogical and biological direct ancestors are not always the same. (My grandmother was adopted in the 1920s, so I include the family that raised her and the family that created her.)
We also need to research siblings and children of siblings to find clues to the past generations (and leverage DNA matches if you use that path).
After that, it's entirely up to you where you want to go and your research efforts are needed.
Personally I prefer documenting each variation of an individual's name and date/place of birth and death. I don't want to give the impression that I have 12 sources that provided me with the full name, dates and places. Neatening the data for final presentation purposes simply has to take a back seat to making Ancestry a useful research tool. When I wrote my masters thesis, I was required to cite the source of every statement that wasn't a personal observation, experience or opinion. It's tidy to merge all sources under the best version, but it hinders research in my opinion and grants a false level of validity to the preferred name and dates.
Pat, now that's rather interesting academic approach, but for me it's resolved when using a Research Log. Or linking sources/facts to RootsMagic and Family Tree Maker.
But, if that doesn't work for you, then the type of tree you're discussing would be better as a private family tree on Ancestry. That way you're research methodology isn't causing problems for other users since it's not an approach most would use.
And yet, I see what you're trying to accomplish.
Random question... Have you posted a video about the new Ancestry Parent 1 and Parent 2 matches? I see them under my daughter in laws groups, but they don't make sense. Thanks
We haven't yet. When something new like that comes out, we tend to take our time to evaluate it. If we put out a review video we don't want just a hot take but an actual analysis of things.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics OK great, Thanks. I think if they can do this it would be great.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics OK here's the first train wreck! They made an update. Parent 1 is European decent, parent 2 is Japanese. My daughter in law is 100% Japanese, LOL!
How can I find where my mistakes are? I need to clean up my tree.
Also I am having issues finding records for my gr grandparents from Pinnow, Prussia. How do I know if they still exist and narrow down which if the 15 it is?
To clean up your family tree you need to start with yourself and verify every generation that precedes you person by person. Reviewing each generation fact by fact is the only way to find mistakes and clear them out of your family tree. You validate each fact and each relationship by searching for quality genealogy sources and resolving conflicts as they arise.
As for the gr grandparents in Pinnow, Prussia, that question is rather complicated. You need to know the government that rulled Pinnow at the time your gr.grandparents lived there. It might have changed many times. The best way to discover that is to research general historical timelines for the area.
Once you know that, check out the FamilySearch Wiki to get an overview of possible genealogical records available and how to go about doing research in the different countries that ruled Pinnow during your ancestor's lives. www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Main_Page
If you get stuck and want to get some professional assistance, reach out to Legacy Tree Genealogists who have researchers around the world with expertise that can help you. www.legacytree.com/fhfanatics
So you asked for questions and here is mine. This situation occurs on both sides of my family. So, two of my mom's sisters married brothers. Likewise, two of my Dad's father's brothers married two of my Dad's mother's sisters. There is more of this family mixing (NOT incest) that has occurred as well but I don't want to become TOO confusing. So I found that I could only link cousins through one side or the other without creating the biggest mess I have ever seen. But I want to show my connections on both sides, how in the world can I do this? Do I have to create a whole different family tree so I can show those connections or am I just out of luck. I understand all the connections because I actually knew these people. But what about my decedents or extended family. These type of (double cousins) connections happened a lot in the past but I don't think it is a common today so youngsters might just give up on the details. Help.
I put a note in the description field of the marriage explaining how they are related to each other or another family member
Do you have a video about citations, I get my sources from family search and when I put in on my tree on ancestry I put a “web link” as a source. Is there a way I can put a source using the free version? I hope I’m making sense.
I do not currently have that video. But I can add that to the upcoming queue.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics thank you!!! I really appreciate it!!
Devon, why is your location preference to use historical names instead of modern or even what they were known as at the time of record creation? I have never considered using all historical names so I'm curious what the pros of it would be.
GREAT question. I made a video addressing this very topic. Check it out here and then let me know what you think by commenting on that video.
Where Did That Happen? Consistent Locations ESSENTIAL in Family Trees ruclips.net/video/KxMYCQ0xr3c/видео.html
Anyone adding the other name would be making a rookie mistake. I know about Oracle. And I also liked your video.
Thanks Tony for liking the video and leaving a comment. Many rookies make mistakes, I made TONS of them. I am trying to help rookies avoid these mistakes faster. Thanks for the support.
Wish I knew about this ten-year ago. My whole tree is a mess and it will take me ages to fix it. Of course, I'll have to wait to redo it due to a lot of reasons. And Ancestry won't clear your tree or anything like that.
You can delete your Ancestry family tree following these instructions. support.ancestry.com/s/article/Deleting-a-Family-Tree?language=en_US
Thomas MacEntee teaches about doing a Genealogy Do-Over that might be helpful genealogybargains.com/genealogy-do-over-start-here/
I tend not to go adding fourth or fifth cousins to my tree. I have a few third cousins recorded, but not too many. I've got most of my first and second cousins, but there are missing lineages because on my dads side my grandparents had siblings that they were not in contact with and were born after the 1895 cutoff, and at the moment it's hard for me to look for them myself. I have a good many of my cousins kids names but not much on their marriages. The kids range in age from 49 down to about 28. I wasn't in school yet before they started to be born, so a few of them have grandkids already.
Next week I'll discuss the difficulties when adding people to the family tree. You're making conscious decisions not to add the far distant cousins. For some doing genetic genealogy research, they might include them. For others, not so much. But the point is to be focused in their trees.
Here's the link for the next video ruclips.net/video/g-2ywQGkDs0/видео.html
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics i have however constructed some family trees that i've made private, because a couple of 5th cousins have shed light on my own tree with their dna testing, and have led to a significant confirmation of a birth record in 1821. The family was going through a surname change and they kept going back and forth for 80 years using two different surnames in records.
How do I merge two trees in one account, deleting duplicate persons? Then I want to rename the single merged tree.
There are several things you're asking.
1. To merge two trees, you can't do that on Ancestry. You'd have to do this with a program like Family Tree Maker or RootsMagic.
You will want to download one family tree into either program and keep that linked to Ancestry.
You will then download the GEDCOM file from Ancestry to your computer support.ancestry.com/s/article/Uploading-and-Downloading-Trees
And import that tree into your file in Family Tree Maker or RootsMagic.
For instance, look to the second heading on this page for how to import a GEDCOM file into an exiting RootsMagic File wiki.rootsmagic.com/wiki/RootsMagic_8:Importing_Data
Once the two trees are in the same file, then you would run the Merge Duplicate persons tools on RootsMagic (wiki.rootsmagic.com/wiki/RootsMagic_8:Merging_Duplicate_People) or Family Tree Maker.
Finally, once all the duplicates are combined, sync your tree with Ancestry.
2. Renaming a Tree in Ancestry
Here's Ancestry's instructions on how to do that
support.ancestry.com/s/article/Changing-the-Name-of-a-Tree?language=en_US
Go back to the death certificate image - "Oraeb" is probably a transcription error from "Oracle" (either human or AI - the first 3 letters are a match) due to the original handwriting. I've seen this dozens of times, especially in things like handwritten certificates and census records. In one census, my father Reuben, nicknamed Buddy, came out as Woody. I KNEW it was the right family due to other factors.
Mark... absolutely a great point. I thought during editing that I mentioned that it could very well be a transcription error. Am I mistaken? I have editing a number of videos lately, so I could be wrong.
But you're so right, sometimes a simple look at the original image resolves the questions of whether the place is correct or not. But also, a Google Search could reveal the mistakes as well.
Thanks for watching and sharing your insights. I hope you'll watch other videos and leave insightful thoughts.
How do I hire a professional to do my tree? I have taken my tree back to King Charles II and many others. I need a professional who can clean up my tree and help find more useful information
Update! -
I have a cousin who is Professional genealogist & historian, who verified all of my information and then I was able to contact my other side of the family (Ratliffs, Radcliffe) and he is mailing me copies of a book called “Our Radclyffe Heritage” I am very happy & excited that all was valid. My next mission is to join the sons of the American revolution society. Be blessed and thank you for all you do!
First, before you hire a professional, I would recommend you validate every generation from you to King Charles with quality genealogical records with great depth.
Then, I would invite you to find specific research questions that you would like a professional to resolve. "Who is the father of my 3rd great-grandfather on my mother's line?" When you have a challenging question like that, reach out to www.legacytree.com/fhfanatics.
Clean up work is not necessarily something professionals do. However, some newly minted professional genealogists will take up the cause and charge you more than you may want to spend. The best alternative might be to visit a FamilySearch center and work with volunteers over the course of many sessions to clean up your family tree. You'll also learn a ton along the way.
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics thank you so much for your reply. I will do all that you advised. Also I am now subscribing to your page.
@Family History Fanatics Update! I have a cousin who is Professional genealogist & historian, who verified all of my information and then I was able to contact my other side of the family (Ratliffs, Radcliffe) and he is mailing me copies of a book called “Our Radclyffe Heritage” I am very happy & excited that all was valid. My next mission is to join the sons of the American revolution society. Be blessed and thank you for all you do!
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics - Update! I have a cousin who is Professional genealogist & historian, who verified all of my information and then I was able to contact my other side of the family (Ratliffs, Radcliffe) and he is mailing me copies of a book called “Our Radclyffe Heritage” I am very happy & excited that all was valid. My next mission is to join the sons of the American revolution society. Be blessed and thank you for all you do!
What do you do if the town no longer exists but it is where your ancestor was born? How do you notate it? It got swallowed by a bigger town, now.
I say use the original town (city, county, state, province, etc) name and place the new name in the description of "Birth" info (Click edit on that birth entry and add the info). You can also add a separate Residence for the birth with an explanation. Some also use the "now" addendum e.g. Harrison County, Virginia (now West Virginia). I use Family Tree Maker (FTM) to help with some of those. It lets you add a historical name separately to an established place name and then I use that to update my Ancestry tree (FTM can synch info with your Ancestry tree). The main thing is to document both clearly. You may find in 5 years, 10 years you want to change something in how you've described it. I'm always learning of "new" changes and errors that need to be made after reviewing things later.
Thank you JCK 9500
Great question. I did several videos about What Locations Should I Use in a Family Tree? ruclips.net/p/PLcVx-GSCjcdkgWLmFnx-sOkAewjSmncmy
I hope you'll check this out when you have time.
HOWEVER, what you use depends on whether you have a preference for historical place names in your family tree or modern. Ancestry seems to prefer modern place names, while you can add whatever you wish. I prefer historical place names because it reveals history and points me in the direction of where records are located.
So, the decision is yours BUT as JCK 9500 said, make notations which ever way you go so that people can make the connection.
I always wonder if I should contact people who have my ancestors in their family tree, but they have made a mistake. Wrong person, same name.
I'd vote yes for contacting. Most will take it well, some will ignore it, some will ask for more info. Just approach with a kind word about their tree and say you appreciate it when others contact you about errors and hope they'll take it in the helpful manner it's intended. Just be sure to back up the who, what and why. It's the same with contacting people at Find A Grave, or on FamilySearch, etc. If the effort isn't made, the errors multiply (faster). I contact even if they haven't been active for a while. Sometimes (not often) they'll still respond.
You can always attempt to send someone a message if you think they have a mistake. I have benefited from people reaching out to me. And others have benefited from my reaching out to them.
However, be polite and undemanding. Politely ask to share sources for the decisions people make. If they are unwilling to make changes to their tree, you have to leave people be.
I always leave a note in other people's trees when I find a mistake. Sometimes they correct the mistake, sometimes they want to debate with me, but overwhelmingly, probably 90% of people or more, just ignore me. I leave the note in place though for as long as the mistake persists, my hope being that it will prevent newcomers from duplicating the error in their own trees. I recommend this practice to you.
Adding hints indiscriminately is how my mother assigned 36 children to her grandfather. (He had four )
Yikes!
Pay attention to the facts . Does the document match your ancestor exactly ?
Yes, pay attention to the fact. But, recognize that not every document will match an ancestor exactly. Documents can have errors. I explain this in this video ruclips.net/video/etiwNftjzWg/видео.html
Do you have a video on how to fix mistakes that others have put on your family tree on FamilySearch? It’s driving me crazy how many people will put down an ancestor for which they don’t have any documentation!
I have a playlist about fixing mistakes on FamilySearch. Some of the videos are from the 'old design' but the concepts are fairly similar.
ruclips.net/p/PLcVx-GSCjcdnyGiTmGWWUXmo5NCvpPatw
Leave comments on those videos and let me know if you have further questions.
My inflexible rule is never to put my carefully researched tree anywhere where others can interfere with it.
@@nickmiller76 I agree, but I can’t afford Ancestry, where I started my tree. And, when I quit using them I found out they don’t even let you keep a lot of the records that you found. What a scam! I’m now researching on other websites and didn’t know at first that Famiky Search was a collaborative tree. What do you find is the best place to keep your info?
One of the worst things for me is using other people's trees and they have the same kids names like five times, so if someone had 3 kids it'd be 15 kids but the same three names and I have no idea about their other children besides my ancestor so I would just add them all and then my tree is messed up, and there are SO many that have WAY too many kids listed like that, or also people will link their relative as a child of your relative that aren't actually related but it's so hard not to use people's trees esp when you hit a brick wall with no hints, I find myself just accepting parents, children etc like oh they must have found the info nobody else could find so you just add it to your tree and go to the next ancestor, especially if you can't afford ancestry except for one month so you're trying to hurry up and get as much done as possible before your subscription expires.
I would suggest letting it expire, removing any auto-renew, and getting the Black Friday sale. It's usually half off then. Even if you have to purchase it as "a gift", you can gift it to yourself and choose the opening date if yours expires too close to Black Friday. Don't forget you can always find documents over at FamilySearch too and upload them to an Ancestry tree while you are saving up.
Mirandnik... this is why I start the video off by hiding the Member Tree Hints. I know many people recommend using them for possible brick wall clues. But as you've said, it's so easy to mess up my family tree. Instead, I strive to build my family tree with records. What's interesting is many of the sources, photos, and so forth that others put on their member trees become hints or search result items when we search. Thus, the benefits of member trees is part of the hinting and search system. Another reason to ignore member trees.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and I hope you'll check out many of the other videos I have about genealogy research. Here's an Ancestry specific playlist to try ruclips.net/p/PLcVx-GSCjcdnM2mKWCpsjWo1p6kkjMaQz
Thanks pinwheelgirl for the money saving strategies. The other thing I would recommend is taking advantage of the Library Memberships for Ancestry and so forth.
Another thing to watch is “deceased” or “living”. Neither of these is a default position. It would be good if Ancestry always assumed “living” but it doesn’t.
I added lots of names to my tree from a trusted source who provided me with a descendants list but no birth or death details. My intention was to add everyone, then go back and do the research. Big mistake! I have living people marked as “deceased” from assuming the default was “living” and the only way to deal with it was to turn my once-public tree to “private” to protect my living relatives. Months later, I am still working through those entries!!
As Devon says, “slow down, be mindful”. It will pay in the long term.
Just curious. How did you add them? Ancestry does use the "living" default for someone who is a son or daughter or sibling of a parent born within the last 115(?) or so years and the "deceased" default automatically kicks in if the parent (or child or sibling etc) was born before whatever that actual limit is. I've tested it for others (using 109 yrs and 130 yrs) who had similar concerns but not one exactly like yours. If you added all of those people to parent(s) (even fake ones) with real or guessed at births (or no births), the defaults automatically kick in and you would see them, if you added them one by one. Uploading a separate gedcom would create a new tree. I'd honestly like to know. Definitely no fun. My big quagmire happened with merging various trees in FTM and uploading it. The merge in Family Tree Maker needs to be approached with great caution.
Lynne... good point about deceased vs. living. I believe FamilySearch has a default setting for living for persons with birthdates within a certain range. Outside of that, they'll default to deceased. With your example, I can see how things can get messed up. Ancestry can't privatize living persons if we mark them as deceased or we mistakenly think the default is living.
JCK 9500... I will admit that since Ancestry doesn't have the "Reasons why you think this person is deceased" notification while adding people to your family tree like FamilySearch does, I think people can mistakenly add people to their tree as deceased when they should be living with an accidental toggle of a button. Perhaps the solution is to have larger notifications?
Regarding merging... I would only expand your recommendation that merging on any platform (FamilySearch, RootsMagic, Legacy, Family Tree Maker, Ancestry, etc) should be done with caution. Would you not agree?
@@FamilyHistoryFanatics Oh yes, I'd love to see a "Reasons" or something like that on Ancestry. The weird thing too is that it's not always consistent in each situation where you can add a person or where that window pops up. I'll have to note it but there's been times I've done something like add someone from another tree (not sure if that's where I've had problems but it's the only example that pops to mind) and the default or what had been initially assigned changed.
Whatever the reason it can be frustrating and troubling (that's why I was curious how it happened for her). Since it's fairly easy to overlook or not think about doublechecking what's there (sometimes this applies to Sex as well when the default of Unknown) as you're zipping through; Id like to see a popup list of what's being added (w/age and life status highlighted) to quickly look at with an "Are you sure?" type of question requiring a yes/no response before it will save it.
Ha, no one will ever see this but YES! Merging without super care can be dangerous for your tree and your mental health 🙂! Part of the trouble is they don't go into enough detail (I know hardly anyone reads detail) about what happens with each section of data and more importantly, what are the main "gotchas" for your tree and much more!.
I knew at the time from a previous snafau to look and review very carefully but!!! I avoided losing people (I think!) but many of my sources (Ancestry tree downloaded to FTM) like Census and other records duplicated or triplicated(?) when reuploaded. I'll be cleaning those for a looooong time to come and this was 2-3 years ago. I also lost some of the media and all of my connections to all of notes I'd posted or others had for 8-10 years prior. Not a major loss but...I'll sign off ;-)
Eh. My tree is as messy as if I locked my cats up in a small room for half a day. Really tempted to redo my tree. I'm really envious of people who have the time and energy to make sure the info in their trees are correct.
I love your analogy!
Cleaning up a family tree is great to do when you're stuck, when you're frustrated or when you have low mental energy to climb your family tree. I discuss this in my video "When Life Gets Hard? How to Find Joy in Genealogy Research" ruclips.net/video/LqU3NHJYtps/видео.html
BUT, we can all slow down and be more thoughtful as we build our family trees to prevent messes from happening. Messes are different mistakes. Those happen for every genealogists. But taking a moment to ensure that we're not adding duplicate photos, stories that aren't stories, and having consistent place names for each new fact we add, that doesn't necessarily take that much more time. Am I mistaken?