Utilizing FindMyPast Tree-to-Tree Hints for Genealogy Research

Tree-to-tree hints on FindMyPast are a new tool to help you to compare your tree with others. And although the ability to compare your trees with other researchers is not something new in genealogy, Findmypast has a different take on things.

In this video, I walk you through all the steps to access the Tree-To-Tree hints and explain the current limitations of these research suggestions.

When you have opened up FindMyPast, after logging in, there’s a couple of ways you might be able to find these hints.

The first way is, it might appear as a prompt on the home page.

The second way is to access it from your family tree.

If the relative has a tree hint, you’ll find it with the tree icon, like the image below.

As you would expect in any tree-to-tree comparison option on online trees, on one side of the screen is the tree suggestion, and on the other side is the information from your family tree.

The one thing that makes FindMyPast different is that they definitely emphasize privacy.

For you to see tree-to-tree hints, you have to share your deceased ancestors with others. You can allow this in the “Tree Settings” for each tree. (see image).

Meanwhile, other FindMyPast subscribers must also allow the sharing of their deceased ancestors.

At the time of this filming, you can not see the sources and attached records for the member trees. You can also not view who created the family trees that are recommended as hints. (Read this post for more details about FindMyPast privacy and updates to Tree-To-Tree Hints.)

The current guidance from FindMyPast is to use the tree-to-tree hints as suggestions.

Watch this video on YouTube.

If the FindMyPast Tree tree-to-tree suggestions pan out, then accept it.

To do this, click the “Yes, Next Step” button.

Then decide bit by bit which information you want to keep and which information to reject.

Avoid using the “Update All” option and review each bit of information.

You can:

When you have processed all of the tree-to-tree information, click the “Save changes to tree” button to complete the step.

After you make these changes, FindMyPast starts looking for new records that might be valuable to your research.

Give it a try. You just might like it. Just be careful that you consider FindMyPast tree-to-tree hints as clues.

Review the following blogs and videos for more tips about FindMyPast