Tidying Up Your Genealogy | The Barefoot Genealogist | Ancestry 

We're so glad you're enjoying the videos! 😊

You are so very welcome, Rh Ra! (~Crista)

That sounds really cool! I may have to check that out for myself. (~Crista)

Believe it or not, I did. (~Crista)

Cathy - Me Too! It sometimes leads to new vigor on brick walls!

I understand, fully, the sentimentality attached to some of these items. I have found that if I can take a good picture of the item (like old Christmas cards, for example), I can feel more confident in throwing them away. Hope that helps. (~Crista)

You can find the Family History Wiki here: wiki.rootsweb.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Family Tree Maker 2014 will still work as a stand alone genealogy program. However, because it is now more than five years old, it will not interface with Ancestry. I use the current version of Family Tree Maker (FTM 2017). It syncs with Ancestry and allows me to view hints and search Ancestry from within the software program. (~Crista)

I would recommend that you contact RootsMagic support for assistance with this matter.

Dan - Glad the tidying up helped you make a new discovery. Currently, no new DNA Circles are being created. This feature has been in BETA and is currently being re-evaluated.

Where are you seeing this?

Look at the URL. Delete everything from from "&hid" and after. Then hit enter. Now, you are looking at that same record as if it was a search/save record instead of a hint record. You can now save it to anyone in your tree.

Each tree is completely separate. So, deleting an old, outdated tree will not, in any way, affect your current, active research tree.

HI JoAnna, thank you for being with us for so long. We know what it feels like to come up against a brick wall when doing research. We have an article on our support site with some research tips and additional free resources that may be of some help. support.ancestry.com/s/article/Overcoming-Roadblocks-in-Your-Research?language=en_US

Thanks very much for stopping by, Adrienne! Census records can often be a good first step in finding a birth date, but won't always be an accurate year of birth. You can occasionally find that an individual (particularly adults, the ages for children will generally be more accurate) may not know their accurate age. We can suggest using that date as a starting point. You're welcome to save the birth year as an alternate fact or attached to the full birthdate, which ever makes more sense for you and that particular ancestor. Records may contain inaccurate information, so it’s best to seek and compare multiple sources.

I prefer to only list a singular fact for things like birth and death. A person can only be born once. They can only die once. So, I enter the date and then attach all of the evidence that supports the conclusion I came to. The conclusion may adjust as new evidence comes to light. I attach that new evidence and then, as needed, add why I chose the date I did in the description field for that fact.

This is a great time in your research process to start doing some "target testing." Identify living descendants of the great-grandparent who is the child of your mysterious great-great-grandfather, and invite as many of them to test as possible. At a minimum, you want one descendant of each child of that person. The more of them that test, the more likely you are to capture more of the DNA of that gg-grandfather and it greatly enhances your chances of connecting with matches that will help you solve this mystery. Hope that helps. And, if you need more tips just let me know. (~Crista)

She may have turned off her matches. That means that she can not see her matches and she can not be seen by her matches. This is something that people do sometimes when they make a discovery that they may not be ready to deal with. She may have learned something about her own parentage when her sister's DNA results became available, for example. Have you sent her another message recently?

Hi Ginger, we'd like to recommend reaching out to the support team of MacKiev in regards to your question regarding memory and Family Tree Maker and how to best install it. For all your questions regarding our platfom we're here to help!

www.mackiev.com/ftm/

Can you forward that email to me at ASK {at} ancestry.com? I'll have someone take a look at it and see if we can figure out why it isn't taking you to the right place in your tree. Thanks! (~Crista)

NShores that’s what I’m thinking., it says close relative but she looks a little younger then I am. I’m waiting for a reply. I’m 48 so I hope to find some of my roots before it’s too late 🙁

NShores I just hope she’s as open about it as I am that’s my fear.. I have no clue other than a name for my birth father and I believe that’s the line she’s coming from due to such a close relation. As my mothers line is 2-3 4-5 cousins

NShores unfortunately all I have is my fathers name and not even sure if I have the spelling right haha., that’s really cool though! Did you have anyone closer than grandfather that you have contact with?

NShores oh wow!! That’s too bad he never got in touch how did you ever find out he was a half uncle? At least you had help., 😊

NShores that would be great if your willing.,

The easiest way is to have them download a copy of their tree and email it to you. Then, you would need to use some desktop software, like Family Tree Maker, to import their tree, extract the pieces of it you want, and combine it with your own tree. The other option is to go to their tree and save information from it to your tree, one family at a time.

@@AncestryUS Thank you.

You can still get Family Tree Maker. www.mackiev.com/ftm/index.html

Hi Edward, thank you for the question. At this time it is not possible to merge family trees, we do have an article on our support site with some tips on how you can combine the information in your trees, support.ancestry.com/s/article/Unable-to-Merge-Family-Trees?language=en_US

K allinen - are you referring to a program on your computer, such as Family Tree Maker? Or do you mean extra pictures or documents actually stored on your hard drive?

Hi RocketRenee46! Thanks so much for stopping by! We're glad to confirm that although Family Tree Maker is owned and supported by Mackiev, it is still able to be fully synced with your Ancestry Family Tree. We'll include a link from our support center below with more information. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions and we'll be glad to help! support.ancestry.com/s/article/Family-Tree-Maker-FAQ

Scroll to the bottom of the page where you found the index, it should tell you where document is being held and how to obtain a copy.

Steph G Thanks Steph

Hi Patricia, thanks for stopping by. We would like to reassure you that we do not add or delete people from their family trees. Are you referring to a tree that is shared with someone else? If this is the case the person you share the tree with may be the one adding new people to the family tree.

@@AncestryUS No. I was actually talking about another dna, family tree service etc. It was meant as a generic question. Thank you very much for answering me.

@Alberta Frey you only have people in your tree that you have added. If you are copying from the trees of other people (which I would STRONGLY discourage), this can happen very easily.

Hi, S. F. Unfortunately, there is no way to do that currently. We apologize for the inconvenience.

I believe that the information in this video will answer your question. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DcrH0Jx4OVo.html

Click on TREES | Create and Manage Trees. Then, click on "Trees Shared With Me." From there you can REMOVE your access to a tree that someone else has shared with you.

If someone shares 512 cM of DNA with your father, this person is likely a half 1st cousin, a 1st cousin 1x removed. Look at the SHARED MATCHES your dad has with this person. Do you recognize any of those people? Is it possible that your dad's grandfather is also the grandfather of this match? The match that shares 2008 cM with your mom is likely either her half-sibling, her aunt/uncle, or her niece/nephew. Again, looking at SHARED MATCHES between your mom and this match, can you tell based on the matches they have in common which side of your mom's family tree they connect with. If it is only one side, they are likely a half-sibling or aunt/uncle. If it is both sides, it is more likely a niece/nephew. Hope that helps. Please ask more questions if you have them. (~Crista)

@@AncestryUS thank you I wanted to see if what I was seeing was right and you seem to be coming to the same conclusions I have. My biggest problem with the one on my mom's side is my nana always told her the guy she considered her father wasn't her father because she was married to someone else and they weren't divorced yet but separated and I guess she was seeing these guy my mom always thought of as her dad though they didn't get married until she was like 3 or something so she didn't know much about his side of the family since he was supposed to just be her step father. Then we did the dna tests and we weren't getting matches on her supposed dad's side so we tried her step father the guy she always actually thought of as her dad and we were getting matches so we're pretty sure he is her actual dad and not the other guy and the guy she shares dna with doesn't know who is father is so there isn't really anything to compare to since he doesn't have that line done. It's basically the same for the guy on my father's side his father doesn't know who his father is so he has a whole line missing and I can only go back 2 or 3 generations on two of his lines it's like they just don't exist before that, they were deleted or nobody else has done any digging any farther back. With the guy that's related to my father we have some matching surnames a couple places but no names that are in common not even in in siblings names. This is why I asked since it seems to be a brick wall on each side. Thank you for helping me it's pretty much what I figured but I wanted a second opinion on my thoughts. Much thanks august

That's a great question, Terri. I don't think you can. But, I did just put up a website. And, if you sign up for my newsletter, I will be sending out an email each time there is a new video. You can find it at cristacowan.com

Actually there is, sort of. Go to the play list section of the Ancestry channel. There is an “add to library” button. This adds the playlist to your library and I think you can see if there are unwatched videos. I don't think you can get an alert unfortunately.

Nice tip, Jason Jase! We appreciate you sharing what works for you with other visitors to our community. We'd also like to chime in and recommend using our custom tags to help you better organize your research. Click here to learn how to use them if you've yet to check this popular option out : support.ancestry.com/s/article/MyTreeTags?language=en_US . We appreciate your support and please call on us anytime you need a little assistance in the future. 🌳

In order to connect to Ancestry, you have to be using the most current version of FTM, which is FTM 2017.

You are welcome to find me on Instagram and send me a DM.

Stella, Thank you for sharing your story. When you look at your DNA Match list, how many centimorgans of DNA do you share with the top match on your list? When you look at Shared Matches with that individual and compare it with your full list of matches, how much DNA do you share with the highest match that is NOT shared with your top match?

Be careful when you are saving records like census records (where the whole family is listed). If a name is listed slightly different in the census than in your tree, the computer will think it is an entirely different person and add them to your tree again. Instead click on the "Not a New Person" link before saving the record.

We have checked the audio quality of this video on several different computers and mobile devices here and it is coming through crystal clear on our end. What exactly is the problem you are experiencing on your end?

The audio is crystal clear for me on my iPad. I do see a bit of lag syncing audio with video, though. Hey, Christa is a ROCKSTAR. Christa, I wish they would provide you more high end audio/video gear. It kind of looks like you may shoot in front of a chroma drop.

Audio is fine on both iPad and MacBookPro

It sounded ok to me on my iPad

I often hear a high “ringing” or buzz when she speaks. It’s something I’ve noticed on a lot of her videos over the years. I don’t know if she’s recording on a set or in a hall, or if she’s maybe using the built-in mic on the phone/camera, but I agree - get her a professional microphone and a sound engineer! Something where she’s not doing all the work to project her voice for the camera. I’m on an iPad mini today, but I’ve heard it on laptop or desktop computers, too.

Ancestry has billions of historical records. Your subscription enables you to access those records. Ancestry also gives you the choice of having a public or private tree. If you choose to have a public tree, you also agree to allow others to copy information out of your tree. If you do not wish for that to happen, you are welcome to privatize your tree.

@@AncestryUS copying is fine but when people used to get info/media from other trees it would link everything to the original poster to keep everything simple but now they can just blatantly make thier own copies and call it thier own contribution. Can you just help keep things more secure and go back to the old way of distributing or linking photos to others trees. My contributions stay original and you have more people paying for information and not leaving over duplicate hints. It's a win-win for us both. Privatizing my tree kills my research and makes me not want to subscribe anymore. A lot of hard work and dedication goes into me providing you with public information/ media you do not have. I am working for you...I've provided that and DNA and you need to scratch my back and not just take my 40 dollars a month and slap me in the face and tell me to make my tree private. I will share anything I have or find...all I ask for is credit when shared and not theft of the originals. You can keep it from being copied saved or screenshot but you have to actually take some of that money and put it back in security. If I have to pay to add these to my tree...so should others....and not by blatant theft.

And once you get your security back like you originally had let us be able to report and not keep anything except what the original poster had put up....that gets you more money and less hints I have to look at that are duplicates of what I researched or contributed in the first place....cut the clutter on your end please.

@@Buckshot00fan You will find i think that hints only encompass about 10 % of Ancestrys databases ,ignore them for the most part and use the card catalog to look for your family by relying so heavily on hints you're missing a lot that you're paying for

@@stephg768 yes I understand and thank you for the tip. I'm just on the give credit where credit is due kick. It makes people like me not want to share and make my tree motivate but that doesn't help the community or the company. I dont mind sharing but people taking credit for others work is very discouraging...I have so much more I could upload but I don't.