Ways To Clean Up Your Family Tree | Ancestry
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- Опубліковано 24 лип 2024
- Similar to having a clean home, having a clean family tree, can make things calmer and happier. It can also make it easier to find things, easier to know where things go, and easier to acquire new things. Join Crista Cowan for a look at some simple ways to clean up your family tree.
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Ways To Clean Up Your Family Tree | Ancestry
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Thanks for the helpful hints, Crista!
Always enjoy rewatching past videos....always learn something new!! Good reminder to clean up trees and the importance of doing so! Thank you so much
We're glad to hear you've found the upload to be helpful, Carla! Thanks so much for watching, and have a great day!
Very helpful.. thank you.
Wonderful information. I am now having a clean up....I thought I had a reasonably tidy tree...oh dear. I hope my home is not in the same state! Now being sorted...thank you for the information...
Thanks again Crista! Love this one because I've made everyone of the mistakes you listed. You talked a lot about how the matching works with Ancestry. Does the way you name your sources have anything to do with how Ancestry matches. Here's example, the down loaded source from ancestry into FMT would have in the Title field: 1910 United States Federal Census. If I change that to 1910 United States Federal Census Missouri, would that impact matching since the NARA does not include Missouri.
The act of genealogy and finding records finally makes sense to me but I am worried that my tree is messy even if I only add a source if I am sure it is correct. I am terribly confused about documentation. Do you keep a tree building software on your computer? And how do you update both without it getting confusing? Do you still keep many paper documents? and how do you organize those and make sure they are noted in all your different trees and databases. It's a lot! And I feel like I can't get the hang of it and things are getting lost in the various websites and trees I use.
Thank you!
Hi Jesse, we are glad to see that you enjoyed the video.
Thanks Crista, very helpful. Is there a way to remove unwanted repositories from your own personal sources. Had a clean-up and did some renaming of repositories. Now there are some I don't want, but they still appear when I go to add a new source?
There isn't a way to do that, that I'm aware of. I'll submit it as an enhancement request.
This is a great video. Thanks!. My pet peeve is finding out others take my tree and add a non-related person to it. This is why I keep my tree private. However, I look at linked trees in hints, and if I see they are truly connected, I will reach out and share info.
We're thrilled to hear that you found this particular video packed full of useful insights, MyLife3636!❤️
We hope you have built a tree to be proud of over the years and are pleased to learn that you like to share your knowledge with other researchers on occasion too! Such collaboration is at the very heart of what makes our community special and we very much appreciate your support. You may also like to check out our back catalog of videos available over on our Facebook page to learn even more from our inhouse experts : facebook.com/AncestryUS/videos/?ref=page_internal . We trust that you will continue to makes great strides in your project in the months and years to come and hope you will call on us anytime you need some support. 🌳
@cristacowan is there any way to clean up the places dictionary. merge duplicate. up date spelling. Thanks Carolyn
* For Germany the system rarely provides data-proof, some is announced but can nt be viewed.
* Country sould be writen in english or original like Deutschland? I started writing both assuming that it could be faound easier by the searchmaschines, but after hearing you talk about standardisation.
* When I search people I always never get a hit (in no version of the search) which is VERY frustrating! What is the reason for this? I assume missing german data?
* sometimes only a year is known. In some records it says abt about or before, how would you proceed?
* how to solve the language-barriers? For example Bavaria, Bayern, Saxony, Sachsen etc.
* Is the a way to track when and where names where changed, like Müller into Mueller, Muller, Miller, ?
Great video! What's the standard for entering dates with two years (e.g. 15 Jan 1653/4)?
Just like you have done it.
bless you! @ sneeze
What do you recommend doing for nicknames ancestors are known by (which are in addition to their legal or given name)? For example, Lloyd Smith is known by his nickname "Dan."
There is a nickname fact that you can add on the person profile under the FACTS column on the FACTS tab.
Looks like a great video, is there a corresponding post for those of us that don't have the time to watch a video?
I much prefer written information as well, not just because of the time commitment to watch something, but because it's always easier to refer back to and find specific points within.
Hi, I am filling in my Ancestry info and I have a big tree and growing. I have to input more than 20 family trees above the last one but because the tree is big, it says that it will not show the last entry until I refresh. But this means I have to start from me and zoom out until I find the last entry I was working with. This is a bit frustrating to say the least.
"Your current expanded tree view will be available if you leave and return later. However, because of the number of branches in view, any additional branches you open may need to be reopened when you return."
Hello LookOutForNumber One! We regret any concerns and welcome this opportunity to provide some insights. Our family tree program don't have a limit when it comes to the amount of people you can add, but if your tree is very large you may not be able to display all branches at once. What we can recommend is to view the tree with a couple of generations at the time, starting from someone higher up in your tree. If you need to close your tree and then open it again you can use the tree search tool to find the profiles you were working at recently, and then display the tree from there. You can find the tree search tool towards the top right hand side corner. If you click on it you can then type in a name and press on that person in the list below to display the tree from his/her angle. You can find more information and tips on navigating within a family tree here: support.ancestry.com/s/article/Navigating-an-Ancestry-Family-Tree. We hope this helps a little. Many thanks for being a valued Ancestry member!
My date standard is to write out the month because I get Jan, Jun, and Jul confused. For names I will put the married name in parentheses and more specifically the married name for my family if married multiple times. That helps me figure out where this person fits in my tree and they are grouped together in the index so I know whom I definitely need to work on.
It is your choice. But, if you watched the video, you hopefully realize that going against the genealogical standards will cause problems with the automated systems like hints, searches, and DNA matches.
Although I understand the value of genealogical standards, I put the married name in parentheses when I don't know the maiden name because of a difficulty that occurs when I leave it blank. As an example, I found a record with the maiden name for a Sarah whose surname I had left blank, but when I tried to attach the record to the correct person, I found five Sarah No-Surnames, and the only way to determine the right one was to attempt to attach it to each one, then back out of it if it wasn't the correct Sarah. So I use the parenthetical married names to facilitate finding the right person when I'm ready to attach a record. I did this going forward after running into the problem, but I STILL have quite a few no-surname people that are going to give me problems when I find additional records for them. If there's a way around this problem, please let me know.
mildrilyn davis Yes, that is why I do it. I had a grandmother (several greats) and I knew her married name was Gardner because that is her son's name. I knew she remarried and her last name became Dearth because of family legend supported by a census records with her remarried and the youngest Gardner son in the same household. But it took years for me to find her maiden name. So she was (Gardner) in my tree until I did. ( And when I did I found like three items to support that!)
Will Alternative Facts be shown next to the facts on the profile? Just wondering if have to look for them in a place other than the view of the profile.
Yes. Alternative facts show up on the facts timeline.
Places... On the one hand, I want Ancestry (and Family Tree Maker) to recognize the place on the record. On the other hand, some places are now ghost towns (i.e., they no longer exist) or the jurisdiction has changed (e.g., Monongalia County was in Virginia in 1850 but is now in West Virginia; many county boundaries have changed). How would you recommend I record that? [I've been defaulting to present-day location so that I can use FTM to help me plan for road trips.]
I always use current locations in the PLACE/LOCATION field and then put the historical location in the description. (Crista)
one more,
*one use of a tree is to use it for constallations, therefore the order of siblings is important and the program will not keep the order because it wants to bring the main married couple together, thefore I have started to enter for example 3/6 before the name indicating the 3rd of 6 siblings. Is that a good idea, of better place it in the suffix field?
*I have seen pleople put numbers in thesuffix-filed. What for? Is this recommended?
I would not put anything other than names in the names fields (including the suffix field). The children will be automatically placed in order based on their birth date.
what abbreviation should we use for before. i have used "bfr" but when i do this i get an error message.
Use bef.
I have ben adding question marks for unknown names, will that interfere with hints/search? ???????
It will. A "?" is a wildcard on Ancestry with some specific parameters. I would recommend leaving the field blank or putting in five underscores (_____).
kinda off topic, I am going to the genealogy conference in Pittsburgh (1st one I've ever attended) ... what can I do to prepare for it to make it a rewarding experience ?
That's a great question, Lynda. First step is to secure a hotel. ;-) The rooms reserved at local hotels for the conference rate go quickly. Second step is to determine if you have any research to do in local archives or libraries. That will help you decide if you want to tack an extra day or two on to your trip. Third, as soon as FGS puts their conference schedule online, take a look at the class schedule and decide ahead of time what your schedule will be.
I provide some extra tips in this video (starting at about 25:00): ua-cam.com/video/GhlZ3iCGyhA/v-deo.html
I have been using the date method dd/mm/yyyy on family tree maker, I noticed on Ancestry that it automaticaly uses d/mm/yyyy should I change ancestry to dd/mm/yyyy ?
Hi, David. That is a great question. We're happy to help. When you are entering a date in a genealogy tree, the dates should be listed in dd mmm yyyy format. We recommend making sure all of the dates in your tree are in this format. If you’re unsure of the day or year, use the words before, after, or about before the date. You can also use ca. (circa) to indicate an estimate. We hope this helps, please let us know if you have other questions.
What do you do if the person had serveral names? A Nikname by which they are known, an official name or translated name or even a totally differentname of an artist? (I guess in this case I would pack it into the notes) ...
You can add it as a NAME fact. And/Or you can add it as an AKA fact.
I'd like to find out how I keep getting doubles and triples of the same person all the time. Even after merging there still there, so I have to delete them and start all over again. You talk about frustrating and confusing.
Ireland has 'counties' shown in a unique way. I have many ancestors from County Cork (as do many others) and I am unsure how to record that in my family tree. Do I make it "County Cork" or just "Cork?"
If I know the name of the town or parish, I would record "town name, Cork, Ireland." If I didn't know the name of the town, I would record "County Cork, Ireland." (Crista)
Thanks, Crista.
I'm wonder, in the Places section. What is the standard for Orangevale, Sacramento County, California, United States of America? I wonder if it is Co., rather than County, CA rather than California and USA rather than Unites States of America This may sound silly but I'm thinking it may make a difference if I'm not keeping with standard. Thanks for the video...it really helps.
I would record that as Orangevale, Sacramento, California, USA.
You mention using maiden names. Do you mean "only" maiden names? Should I add their marriage names in the name section if I know them or just go with the maiden name? BTW, thank you for the video. I haven't gone to far into my tree and have been able to do house cleaning sooner rather than later.
That help tremendously! Thank you so much. I started cleaning out the married names and the search engine is giving me more hints.
I use "NN" in place of the portion of the name I don't yet know.
I also use only the maiden name in the name field - but put variants, including the married name, as alternative names.
Two questions. When someone has a title...Capt John Smith or Sir John Poole. I note the title in the SUFFIX box...will that confuse the search engine? When someone has a NICKNAME...they are called MERCY but they were born MARY I put MARY MERCY in the first name box? Would that be correct? Town records have her as both.
It's great that you are thinking about ways to capture all of the information about a person's identity. But, a title can change throughout someone's life and is not, technically, part of their name. There is a TITLE fact that you can add in the timeline. This allows you to enter a date associated with the title. So, for example, if someone received a military commission on a certain date and received the title of Captain, you could add that. Or if they received a medical degree and became a Doctor.
Similarly, with nicknames, there is a fact for that and AKAs. I choose to use those instead of the name field because it allows me to add description information - for example, "she was baptized as Mary but her family and close friends called her Polly."
Hope that all makes sense! (Crista)
BUT...what if sometimes the person used two different names on census, et cetera? For instance...Mary Ester Merritt and May Merritt? Or Adelbert H Wallace and Bertie Wallace? Then later, Bert Wallace.
After watching this, I will, from now on, take the town of the census and ignore the post office associated. Example: North Castle, New York, post office Pound Ridge. Pound Ridge just confuses things.
After listening to this video I have been wondering what to do. I guess it is my OCD but when a record differs or only includes a portion of a fact, I have always documented, made that a separate fact. So I might have multiple name facts for someone: Sally Mary Smith (Smith the maiden name) as the preferred, then Sally M Smith, Sally M Jones (Jones being the married name), and Sal Jones. For birth, for example, preferred (23, Jun, 1965, Collegeville, Montgomery, Pennsylvania, USA) then another birth fact (Jun, 1965, Montgomery, Pennsylvania, USA) and (Jun, 1965) and (about 1966). Each of these has one or more sources that document that fact.
In your video, if I understood correctly, my method of documenting what I have found will “cause problems with the automated systems like hints, searches”. But is seems so wrong to add something like a name source to a fact that is so very different from what is reported in the source record. In the above example a census record, once Sally is married, will not document that her maiden name is Smith instead it documents that she is now going by “Jones”.
Joanne, Your method is not wrong. Just a different preference than mine and it can cause some problems with the automated systems. A deeper understanding of the Genealogical Proof Standard might help you understand a little better why I choose to the this the way that I do. You can watch my full series on it here: ua-cam.com/play/PL0xuz8BBkD4jfsZ9sdWL1qjd9eclwhzL6.html
Please let me know if this still doesn't make sense or if you have additional questions. (Crista)
God video on what we can do in our personal trees, but I would like ancestry to clean up there records as well. Example, locations. Often times counties are left out just city and state and those states are even some times are MN instead of Minnesota or CA for California. If ancestry also followed these standards better beginners would fall into these pits. We attach what ancestry has written, not realizing it may not be accurate. Crista mentioned that the indexes were created however the indexer felt like creating them. Maybe now it's different but a look back at old in house records for a clean up as well could be a positive use of time. After all, if ancestry is consistent more and more new and old researchers will start following.
Thanks for the suggestion, Wendi. We do have an ongoing maintenance project for cleaning up old databases where Ancestry created the record. However, when the index was not created by Ancestry (created by an original archive holder, a genealogical society, or some other entity) our content agreement with that organization does not always allow us to make changes to the index.
Also places... If you want me to use Ancestry's recommendations for place, please revert to the old system in which the first recommendation was State, Country or County, State, Country (instead of listing every @#$!@@@!!! city within the county, etc.). I can't tell you how many times the system has plugged in a city name I did not type or want just because it was at the top of the list and I couldn't get away from the recommendations keeping my original entry intact. Put it back the way it was, please.
Not sure what you mean. Are you talking about the type-ahead? I haven't noticed anything changed recently. Can you clarify and I will take a look? (Crista)
Sorry for the delay responding. My messages kept getting lost.
Up until about a month ago, when I started to type "Ohio," the first entry on the drop-down list of suggested places would be "Ohio, USA" followed by "Ohio County, Indiana, USA" and other counties named Ohio, followed by any cities beginning with "Ohi" and so on. It was easy to select a match to what I was typing. Now, when I begin to type "Ohio," I get an alphabetical list of every blessed town in every blessed county in Ohio (i.e., Akron, Alger, Bath, Bellefontaine, etc.). This forces me to type the full entry instead of finding it quickly (and thereby avoiding typos). And even after I've typed the full entry, the drop-down list still starts with cities and counties I do not want, and sometimes I am unable to tab past the suggestions without an unwanted, erroneous entry being automatically inserted into the record. If I'm not vigilant, this "help" is introducing errors that have little or nothing to do with the data I tried to enter. The computer logic seems to have lost the prioritization that used to make this a useful feature. Instead it lists every possible entry containing the string I type, which is not at all useful unless I'm entering the exact city. thx for asking. :)
Thanks for the feedback. I'll have someone take a look at it.
This has been fixed!!! I can't thank you enough. xoxoxoxoxoxxx
Yeh, but FTM's Duplicate Person finder keeps finding the same possibilities, which I have declined each time (like the many twins and triplets). Wouldn't it be nice if there were some way to mark individuals as "multiples" or to tell FTM to stop reporting the same "matches"? Honestly, my report is pages and pages long, but I don't run it often enough to remember every "match" I have already debunked. It's exhausting.
That's a great suggestion. Please visit softwaremackiev.com and let them know you would like that feature.
It took a little exploring to find the page with the "Suggestions" button, but I got there eventually. Thanks for steering me there. :)
What's the standard for entering days in dates? You show "dd/mmm/yyyy" If the date is the 1st thru the 9th, shouldn't the day be shown with 2 digits, 01, 02, ..., 09? This is NOT the suggestion given by Ancestry.
The leading zero is not necessary for numbers 1-9.
What I have found in DNA matches sometimes Ancestry will have a DNA match that is not accurate. I have a John Tate born in Virginia and lived most of his adult life in Warren County Tennessee. I have a DNA match that has a John Tate born about the same year in Virginia but moved to Kentucky about the same year. While these two John Tate's were probably related they were not the same people and the common ancestor probably goes back a couple more generations.
What if you went a little crazy with enthusiasm when you started, and took info from other people's family tree as if it were sourced and factual, quickly going through a number of generations, each with a myriad of small inconsistencies and errors that you just glossed over and tried to make as much sense out of as possible? (I'm using the pronoun 'you' as if this weren't me that has committed this terrible sin.) Do you now need to go back and delete all those family members that do not have direct source information for things like birthdays, death dates and marriages?
LOL you aren't the only one who was a little over enthusiastic when starting a family tree!
What I did is made a new Public tree and made my old tree Private, so my errors were not spread to others the same way. Now I am filling in my new tree and making sure I have plenty of sources attached, and everything is properly formatted. It isn't a quick easy fix but it is much easier on my sanity working on a fresh tree now that I know what I am doing after a few years of experience. How realistic an option this is might depend on the size of the tree and how much "damage"has been done. My old tree was only just over 4000 and my new tree is up to 1300+. I am sure my new tree isn't error free or as full as the old one yet but I feel much better about the information I am sharing.
This sounds like exactly what I need to do. I have also thought about how my mistakes are now propagating throughout the system, and that can't be good. And my tree is still less that 2K, and will surely be much less when done correctly. I have tried for months now to clean up duplicates and bad dates, but I realized that even my cleaned up branches were still not based on anything other than someone else's unsourced info. So I really like this idea of a new tree that is public, while I can use the useful parts of my old tree at my leisure without worrying that someone is going to conclude that they are of royal ancestry on account of my mistakes! Thanks for this info, very helpful.
Between your comment and Hayden's, I am now ready and motivated to start over. You have both pointed out benefits that I had not thought of. I am sure that re-doing the tree with the attention it deserves, I will find much more interesting info that I had previously overlooked. Also, I feel a certain connection to the folks in my tree, as if they are new friends that I am just getting to know, so going back and finding out even more actually sounds enjoyable. Thanks for the comment!
Thank you Stephen Smith! I too, MIGHT have gone a little crazy when I join ancestry after working on FTM for years. I believe the first night, I had taken Mr. Patsy's family back to the Crawford castle in England. I THOUGHT that I would have my family done by the next night. Who knew that mistakes, duplicates, wrong information and only family folklore were in all of the information that I copied and believed and SHARED? I still laugh at myself thinking I had solved all of the family Crawford generations.
Where do you find the alternative facts?
Fantastic!!!! That's a really, really, terrific idea, the best idea. Huge! Believe me.
...Sad...
Thanks, Lolly. As funny as the other comments are, this is actually helpful.😉
my issues include tons of misinformation on both sides of my family
How do you politely tell someone that their information is incorrect?
I usually will send a private message to the tree owner that says something along the lines of, "I see that you have John Smith's parents listed as William Smith and Mary Jones. I have discovered a document that says his parents are George Smith and Elizabeth Williams. Would you be willing to work with me to compare records and determine once and for all who John's parents really were?"
If the individual does not respond within a month or two, I might (if it is important enough to me) go back to their tree, find John Smith and leave a public comment on the tree that states, "I have found evidence that John's parents are, in fact, George Smith and Elizabeth Williams NOT William Smith and Mary Jones. I came to this conclusion because of [X, Y, Z.] If anyone has any reason to suspect that my information is incorrect, please contact me by clicking on my user name and sending me a private message."
Hope that helps!
Great idea to go back and add that public comment! I sometimes do send notes, but didn't think of this.
You say the standard for date is DD MMM YYYY, so please tell Ancestry to STOP removing the leading zero from the day field. stop it stop it stop it. please.
I don't ever use the leading zeros so I've never noticed they were "removed." Interesting. It shouldn't matter one way or the other, but I will double check to see that it isn't affecting anything. (Crista)
In my tree, only one digit means it's a typo. One easy way to avoid unnecessary errors.
If you should have a text file listing of any good number of these dates, perhaps leading descriptions of events that happened on those dates, the lack of a leading zero will result in mis-sorted records if you use a straight-forward textual sort of the records.
If your computerized database supports a date data item, then you can generally set that date. Once it's set, it can usually be formatted for displayed in any convenient manner and it will then be consistently represented. Computers are very good at that.
I wish more people would follow the standards. I get tired of correcting dates because they'll put 03/17/1800 for March 17 1800 and they tend to put every last name the lady had including a maiden name and then I got to figure out which of those 2 or 3 or 4 etc last names was the maiden name, if I don't already know the father! and I'm tired of having to remove stars and 3rd Great Grandfather or what ever they tend to put on there to remind them how the person is related to them - just b/c it's their 3rd great grandfather doesn't mean it's mine! and for the love of god stop putting names in all caps, it's very ugly and makes trees look horrid! rather it's the entire name in all caps, or just a 1st name or just a last name.. Write it the way it's supposed to be!
I also wish Ancestry would give an option for non marriage but had children together I had to add a description to my own part of the tree that I was never married to my children's dad. Because the only option I had when I added him was either put him as a Spouse or not add him at all, and I wasn't going to leave him off he is part of my kids - even if we're not together any more
Two people do not have to be spouses to have children together - not even in family trees. Once you added your children's father, just go into his profile on your Ancestry tree and click on EDIT | Edit Relationship. Then click the big X by your name. That will remove the spousal relationship between the two of you but keep you both in the tree as the parents of your children.