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Do you want to create a family tree on Ancestry that looks great and is super functional? Then, be sure to add these things to your family tree to make your genealogy research fun and shareable.
You see how to do each of the following suggestions in the video listed below.
1. Adding Photos to Ancestry Ancestor Profiles
As you build your tree, you should be sharing photos you have gathered. Share photos of family members, places they lived, original documents, and artifacts.
After you upload a photo, be sure to add details about the image. Don't neglect this step. It's like finding unlabeled pictures in a photo album or shoebox. Add the following:
Type of image
Date of the photo
Description: detailing the who, what, when, where, and why of the picture.
As a bonus, if you have multiple people in your pictures, you can link the photo to everyone in the image without uploading the image numerous times!
2. Add MyTreeTags to your Ancestor Profiles
In February 2019, Ancestry released MyTreeTags. I've written about how to use MyTreeTags in several posts. And yet, they remain an underutilized feature on Ancestry. So please take advantage of this tool with its cool person filtering technology.
MyTreeTags can identify DNA relationships, life experience, relationships, and research status. You can even add custom tags which I discuss in this blog post.
Other Ancestry members will be able to see the tags you add to your ancestors if your tree is public. However, they will not be able to edit those tags. But you can also use the tags to filter and sort your ancestors by common traits or research status.
Watch this video to see how to make the changes to your Ancestry Family Tree.
3. Cite Your Personal Knowledge
Did you know that you can serve as a source citation for the knowledge that you have?
You can!
Do you know the name of your parents?
Do you know what day you celebrated their birthday?
Did you attend a relatives' funeral?
You can be your own source.
Be sure to complete the templates as you would any genealogy source citation. In the box for transcription, state why you know what you know. For instance, I might say, "I can attest to when and where Penny Brown was buried because I attended the funeral."
Oh, and be sure to select all the facts that your testimony supports. Then you'll activate the purple lines in the FACTS tab from the source to the facts for which you provided evidence.
4. Cite Your Personal Knowledge
As you do genealogical research, you probably have a lot of notes that you're taking. Ancestry has a built-in note-taking service that can help you keep your notes where your research.
I discussed this feature in a previous blog post entitled, How Do to Keep Track of Genealogy Research Notes.
Remember, notes will be private. However, any comments, similar to notes, will be public if your family tree is public.
Be sure to grab our Free Guides and Templates on our Resource page.
5. Add More Details to Facts
Did you know that you can add more details to the events listed in the timeline?
By adding extra details to these life events, you can visually keep track of your ancestors, their movements, and the things that happened in their life.
For instance, you can have a Resident event based on the 1930 census. You may the place as Windsor, Colorado. But you can also add a street address, occupation, who lived together, property values, or anything discovered on the census.
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6. Customize Your Ancestors Timeline
Often we look at our Ancestor's Fact Pages. It's where we make the most changes and add sources.
However, when we click on "Life Story," Ancestry creates a timeline of those events. It even may share starter stories about an event.
You can customize your Timeline to include events about family members or historical facts. This feature can help you visualize your ancestor's life and analyze your family tree data quickly.
Your timeline will expand as you add more events associated with a date on the Facts Tab.
There are more things you can do to enhance your Family Tree. What are some that I forgot? Let me know.
For More Ancestry Tips and Tricks
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