PRESENTER:
Getting the Most Out of
Ancestry.com
Crista Cowan
Professional Genealogist
15 Mar 2014
Are you getting the most out of your Ancestry.com subscription? Even if
you don’t have a subscription, are you aware there are many things you can
access for free?
We will cover four of the major areas of the Ancestry.com website and show
you our favorite tools for advancing your family history research.
3 Family Trees
Build a public tree on Ancestry.com. (It’s free.)
 Living people are private as long as birth dates are within the last 100 years
and there is nothing in the death date field.
 Share your tree with family members. They don’t have to have an
Ancestry.com subscription to view, contribute to, or edit your tree.
 List the reasons you might want to have your tree public vs private.
Public Tree
Private Tree
Sync your tree with Family Tree Maker.
 Check out our YouTube video called Family Tree Maker: Five Reasons To
Use (And Love) It at http://ancstry.me/FTMFiveReasons
Use the power of the shaky leaf and suggested records.
 Only the top ~10% of our most popular databases are hinted as a way to get
people started in their discoveries.
 Once you determine a hint is for your ancestor, attach the record then be sure
to pay attention to suggested records.
 What’s still missing?
Search
Visit the Ancestry.com Learning Center at www.ancestry.com/learn.
for account questions or technical help, call 1-800-958-9124.
PRESENTER:
Getting the Most Out of
Ancestry.com
Crista Cowan
Professional Genealogist
15 Mar 2014
Global. . .Database. . .Fuzzy. . .Exact. These are just a few of the ways you can search on
Ancestry.com. You can search by person or location. You can use the Card Catalog to
discover what is online before you begin your search. We will share our best search tips
and tricks to help you find all of the available information about a given ancestor.
Why should you search?
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What are you searching and what are you searching for?
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How should you search for the best results?
 Search directly from your online tree or Family Tree Maker software.
 Make sure you are using the ADVANCED search form.
 Do NOT mark anything exact the first time you do a search.
 View search results by RECORDS to see what floats to the top of the list.
 View search results by CATEGORY to look for specific records.
 Iterate on your search for specific databases.
Become familiar with the search filters.
Name
 Wildcards = * for multiple characters or a ? for a single character. Field must
be marked “exact” to activate the wildcard.
Dates
 Only mark exact if you know what appears on the record you are looking for.
 Age range functions like a wildcard and is activated only when marked exact.
Locations
 Don’t mark them exact when in a birth, marriage or death field.
 Use the lived in field (and mark it exact) to narrow your search results to a
more specific location.
Visit the Ancestry.com Learning Center at www.ancestry.com/learn.
for account questions or technical help, call 1-800-958-9124.
PRESENTER:
Getting the Most Out of
Ancestry.com
Crista Cowan
Professional Genealogist
15 Mar 2014
Collection Priority
 Set collection priority based on what you are researching and check the “show
only records from these collections” box.
 View whatever types of records you are most interested in at the moment.
Does the record exist?
 Use the Ancestry.com Family History Wiki, www.ancestry.com/wiki, to learn
more about what records exist. Search it by location and record type.
Does the record exist online?
 Use the Card Catalog to find out what records exist online.
 Filter by record type, location, and time period.
 Found a database of interest? Always read the source information and
database description to learn what is included and what is not.
Other ways to search the records on Ancestry.com
 Search by location from the place pages.
 Search by record type from the category pages.
 Search by ethnicity from the ethnic pages.
Bonus Tips:
 To create a trail of links and be able to toggle quickly back and forth between
indexes and images - Right-click, open in new tab.
 Transcribe documents into your notes field to ensure you have analyzed the
record completely and recorded the family story.
 Attach records to each person in your online tree or in Family Tree Maker.
The information you include and the attached records help generate more
hints.
 Don’t just search for your ancestors. Document the lives of entire families.
Search Tips and Tricks Notes:
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Visit the Ancestry.com Learning Center at www.ancestry.com/learn.
for account questions or technical help, call 1-800-958-9124.
PRESENTER:
Getting the Most Out of
Ancestry.com
Crista Cowan
Professional Genealogist
15 Mar 2014
Collaborate
 Review Recent Member Connect activity regularly.
 Check your own messages regularly to see who is trying to contact you.
 Update your public profile.
 Use the Member Directory to find others researching the same surnames and
locations as you.
 Search the Message Boards to find golden nuggets of information.
 Post to the Message Boards when you are looking for additional information.
Learning Center
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Hundreds of hours of video tutorials.
Research guides.
Blank forms.
All free!
For more genealogy education join Crista Cowan every Tuesday and Thursday at 1:00
pm (Eastern) for The Barefoot Genealogist on http://livestream.com/ancestry
Watch archived presentations on our YouTube channel at http://ancstry.me/TBGVids
Visit the Ancestry.com Learning Center at www.ancestry.com/learn.
for account questions or technical help, call 1-800-958-9124.