Ancestry.com Help

[Greg L]

I started my family tree on Ancestry and an overwhelmed by all of the hints. I need help understanding how to use the hints and delete irrelevant ones. If you like ancestry I would really appreciate your help.

[villagetinker]

As I recall there are 2 or 3 clubs for thi type of research, I would suggest contacting the clubs directly. the list is on district.gov, you will need to use the search function as the list is over 3000 clubs and almost 200 pages the last time i looked at it.

[2newyorkers]

I sent you a PM.

[Rainger99]

Genealogy-African Amer SIG
2SAX6,7,8,12@2:30PM-HB
Hibiscus Village
Recreation Center Carol LaSalle clasalle585@gmail.com (864) 378-2478

Genealogy-Brick Wall Solutions
4Wx12@8:30AM-SA
Savannah Regional
Recreation Complex Nancy Heydt noheydt@comcast.net (352) 430-2076

Genealogy-Eastern European SIG
1TH@1PM-SB
SeaBreeze Regional
Recreation Complex Carol Myers srm684@aol.com (352) 633-8295

Genealogy-Genealogical Society
4Wx12@10AM-SA
Savannah Regional
Recreation Complex Patricia Adams Welcome to The Villages Genealogical Society website! (http://www.vgsfl.org) adams007@comcast.net (352) 751-6966

Genealogy-German SIG 2TH@9:30AMLK
Lake Miona Regional
Recreation Complex Steven Buhrow steven.buhrow@pm.me (571) 278-8796

Genealogy-Italian SIG 2Mx6,7,8@1PMSA
Savannah Regional
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Genealogy-New England SIG
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Genealogy-New To SIG
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SeaBreeze Regional
Recreation Complex Carol LaSalle clasalle585@gmail.com (864) 378-2478

[ElDiabloJoe]

Ahhhh, the flood of Hints. I highly recommend you take your time and ONLY approve the hint info IF you can verify it is YOUR ancestor. Too many people blanket click all the info to add to their tree and it very quickly gets convoluted. I leave hints un-approved until I can confirm with other family or census records that the hint I'm approving is actually MY relative, since so many people have similar names.

[blueash]

Sent you a PM. I have done dozens of trees. Do not believe hints, evaluate. Do NOT believe trees you see online. Someone makes a guess, wrongly and everyone else then copies it. Always try to get a document to verify. I would be happy to help you. If you are looking at Missouri data, noticing you have St Louis, it is hard as not as much is available as for some other states. But death certs are all at Attention Required! (https://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/Archives/ArchivesMvc/DeathCertificates#searchDB)

for 1910 to 71

Digital newspapers start page is
Missouri Digital Newspaper Project | The State Historical Society of Missouri (https://shsmo.org/collections/newspapers/mdnp)

and the library of congress has others
Search U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present << Chronicling America << Library of Congress (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/titles/)

Familysearch.org is excellent as well although their search function can be a challenge

[Hankofthedesert]

I have found the Mormon Church to have lots of information available and you don't need to be a Mormon.

[Worldseries27]

If you are ever fortunate to win any powerball, mega, lottery etc, good luck btw, your relatives will find you.

[ElDiabloJoe]

... But death certs are all at Attention Required! (https://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/Archives/ArchivesMvc/DeathCertificates#searchDB)

for 1910 to 71

Wow!! What a great tool! It appears they digitize and make immediately publicly available any death certificate more than 50 years old. I wish the states of my search interest did the same (CA, MT, NY, CT)! I mean a direct and immediate image link. I hate using Vitalchek, their service is a complete ripoff!

is excellent as well although their search function can be a challenge

Concur.

[MandoMan]

I have found the Mormon Church to have lots of information available and you don't need to be a Mormon.

Ancestry.com was started by Mormons and used LDS databases. It was sold to a bigger company in 2010, but its headquarters is in Lehi, Utah.

[Rsenholzi]

I have been researching for quite some time. My advice is get as much info from the oldest people in your family as to what they know - names , birthdays, areas they came from , etc. Next look at the census to find those family members first. That will give you birthdays which is the best way to get the most accurate info. Once you go through the census’ , you will find additional info that will lead you through the rest. If you can get access to newspapers , those will give you additional info on family members that you may not know. Wedding announcements are good for this because back then they listed who attended the weddings.

[Rainger99]

I have been researching for quite some time. My advice is get as much info from the oldest people in your family as to what they know - names , birthdays, areas they came from , etc. Next look at the census to find those family members first. That will give you birthdays which is the best way to get the most accurate info. Once you go through the census’ , you will find additional info that will lead you through the rest. If you can get access to newspapers , those will give you additional info on family members that you may not know. Wedding announcements are good for this because back then they listed who attended the weddings.

You will be amazed at the number of mistakes in the official records. I had an uncle and the county had the wrong middle name on his birth certificate. I told them it was wrong and they wanted me to pay to correct their records! The record is still wrong!

[Villages Kahuna]

You’ll probably be able to create a reasonably complete and accurate family tree back 3-4 generations just by the recognition of names, with very little reliance on the Ancestry hints.

As one who spent a whole lot of time during the pandemic building a tree that from my fraternal grandmother goes back to the 1400’s. That was the same with my maternal grandmother. My maternal grandfather? No luck at all going back more than four generations. The ‘family story’ was that my great-great-grandfather who born in Finland, stowed away on a ship from Norway to New York, where he got into the U.S. with forged documents and a changed name.

But to try to answer your question.

—Typically, I’ll start with the ancestry family trees created by other members. You can pretty much tell which people have been careful with their research and whose trees might be more reliable.

—Pay attention to the surnames, dates of birth and death, and locations of birth and death. In generations long past, people tended to remain very close to where they were born. Amazingly so, actually. So if those factors don’t seem to “track”, ignore the Hint

—Pay attention to the birth, marriage and death documents. As public documents, they can be more reliable Hints. Same with the Census information. There can be mistakes in the spelling of names, but the census was an official function every ten years to count and identify residents.

—Some of the Hints are copies of family histories. Read them. They can be helpful and very interesting.

—A lot of the Hints are photographs, family crests, etc. Save them if you wish. I tend to ignore and discard them.

—Maybe the most important entries to make sure make sense are the dates of birth and marriage. There was no birth control many generations ago, so families were huge by todays standards. But does the date of marriage make sense? Would a woman start bearing children at age 12? Not likely. Can a woman still be bearing children into her 50’s? Does a life span more than about 80 years make sense?

—-And like real estate, location, location, location. Generations of families seemed to live in the same communities. Make sure the Hints reflect that,unless there’s historical proof to the contrary.

Have fun! Building your family tree is a whole helluva lot more satisfying than watching CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC.

[blueash]

Wow!! What a great tool! It appears they digitize and make immediately publicly available any death certificate more than 50 years old. I wish the states of my search interest did the same (CA, MT, NY, CT)! I mean a direct and immediate image link. I hate using Vitalchek, their service is a complete ripoff!



Concur.

FYI, NYC has recently begun free online access to birth, marriage and death certificates. Not all dates are there and their search by name misses a LOT of people.
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/records/pdf/HistoricalVitalRecords_2022-03-16.pdf
But it is a start.


Digital Vital Records - Historical Vital Records of NYC (https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/digital-vital-records)
shows what years have been uploaded. Warning they include the year even if only one document from that year is online.

Then you chose either the beta search function or browse by year and borough. So far there are 10 million documents to view. Happy hunting.

[DAVES]

I have found the Mormon Church to have lots of information available and you don't need to be a Mormon.

I believe Ancestry.com is run by the Mormons. DNA tests are inexpensive and will get you true, unbiased results.

In many families you find shocks. Relatives denied by altered, buried family history

[DAVES]

You will be amazed at the number of mistakes in the official records. I had an uncle and the county had the wrong middle name on his birth certificate. I told them it was wrong and they wanted me to pay to correct their records! The record is still wrong!

Amusing, I do not fill out surveys with correct information. My sister was all upset when she discovered a website called SPOKEO. It listed her address, her husband, her kids and even her dog's name. On me, due to some information they found on me. It says I am 150 years old and can buy and sell Buffet. People I know. My aunt must have looked me up, because she is now the only one I know. Amusing, she does not know when I was born, my birthday. I am now far younger, for better or for worse. It is still not correct but getting closer.

Far as the wrong middle name. It was common for people to change their names unofficially. My dad used his middle name as his name and it was an abbreviation of his real middle name. My mom lied about her age. She was actually older than my father.
My dad knew and used to tease about it. When, she put in for social security it was yet another pain to correct the records.

[Smokpol]

I started my family tree on Ancestry and an overwhelmed by all of the hints. I need help understanding how to use the hints and delete irrelevant ones. If you like ancestry I would really appreciate your help.

Do your research, get your names & dates Then explore the hints. You need to do the primary research and supplement with info gleaned from hints. Hints are basically other people’s input into the database. You can use documents in hints to attach to your ancestors (if name and basic info is matches your info you found for your ancestors).
PM me if you need more help…

[ElDiabloJoe]

Good info on the NYC databases, Blueish, thank you!

Amusing, I do not fill out surveys with correct information. My sister was all upset when she discovered a website called SPOKEO. It listed her address, her husband, her kids and even her dog's name. On me, due to some information they found on me. It says I am 150 years old and can buy and sell Buffet. People I know. My aunt must have looked me up, because she is now the only one I know. Amusing, she does not know when I was born, my birthday. I am now far younger, for better or for worse. It is still not correct but getting closer.

Far as the wrong middle name. It was common for people to change their names unofficially. My dad used his middle name as his name and it was an abbreviation of his real middle name. My mom lied about her age. She was actually older than my father.
My dad knew and used to tease about it. When, she put in for social security it was yet another pain to correct the records.

^This!! My paternal grandfather and maternal great-grandfather were embellishing story tellers (i.e.- liars). They would give complete B.S. answers to census takers and when applying for initial passports (after they left Ireland and became U.S. citizens) and on visa declarations. The maternal great-aunts would fudge their ages so they could travel alone or as adults to bring back other children.

Ya gotta check, double-check, triple- check, confirm with family and seek even more records. Then hold it all and sit on it a while to percolate before deciding what "facts" to enter into your tree. Caution is the key here.

[fdpaq0580]

Good info on the NYC databases, Blueish, thank you!



^This!! My paternal grandfather and maternal great-grandfather were embellishing story tellers (i.e.- liars). They would give complete B.S. answers to census takers and when applying for initial passports (after they left Ireland and became U.S. citizens) and on visa declarations. The maternal great-aunts would fudge their ages so they could travel alone or as adults to bring back other children.

Ya gotta check, double-check, triple- check, confirm with family and seek even more records. Then hold it all and sit on it a while to percolate before deciding what "facts" to enter into your tree. Caution is the key here.

Too much trouble for me. I give up. Think I'll just identify as some fun blend of humanity and call that "close enough".