Each year I pay my Ancestry subscription so that I have the resources available at my fingertips whenever I have a question to answer.
I have been researching my tree for 30 years now and some of my research is very old and needs to be revisited. Whenever I see the shaky green leaves on Ancestry I tend to ignore them. I have finally decided that I need to check out the hints that Ancestry keeps sending me - there are 298 pages of them!
I have decided to concentrate on the 228 pages containing 4546 Record Hints in the set because many of the hints from Member Trees are riddled with errors and may mislead me. If I ever manage to get through this lot I will take a look at the Member Trees. The Record Hints should be more reliable!
One of the reasons for this new found zeal is that I want to identify my many DNA matches and having details of BDMs for collateral relatives will help in this regard. Previously I have concentrated on my direct line.
So what is my process? I am a bit hit and miss in the way I access the hints but have decided that I will use the Sort by Last Name, I realise that I may never get to the end of the alphabet!
I have a copy of my tree on my Family Historian database open as I look at the hints. I look at each hint and find the individual in Family Historian, I will add the fact and source there if it is a new one to me plus download any related image to the individual in question's folder on my hard drive. I then add the source to my Private Tree on Ancestry. If I already have the source on Family Historian I omit that step and just add it to the Private Ancestry tree. My Ancestry tree may not exactly mirror my Family Historian tree but I can live with that. My Family Historian tree is my Master Tree. I am selecting Ignore for those records that are obviously incorrect but am finding that sometimes Ancestry doesn't take any notice of my Ignores and subsequently reoffers the incorrect records, Grrr.
This is slow going but already in two evenings I have found several Baptism records that give me dates of birth for various ancestors, I have found a death for Mr GeniAus' Great-Grandmother (need to order certificate to make sure it is right), buried a few folk and have married off several distant cousins. These last ones are useful for my DNA matching.
It will be a long haul but at least I have started the journey and am getting more value from my Ancestry sub.
I have been researching my tree for 30 years now and some of my research is very old and needs to be revisited. Whenever I see the shaky green leaves on Ancestry I tend to ignore them. I have finally decided that I need to check out the hints that Ancestry keeps sending me - there are 298 pages of them!
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| 298 Pages |
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| Only 228 Pages of Record Hints |
One of the reasons for this new found zeal is that I want to identify my many DNA matches and having details of BDMs for collateral relatives will help in this regard. Previously I have concentrated on my direct line.
So what is my process? I am a bit hit and miss in the way I access the hints but have decided that I will use the Sort by Last Name, I realise that I may never get to the end of the alphabet!
I have a copy of my tree on my Family Historian database open as I look at the hints. I look at each hint and find the individual in Family Historian, I will add the fact and source there if it is a new one to me plus download any related image to the individual in question's folder on my hard drive. I then add the source to my Private Tree on Ancestry. If I already have the source on Family Historian I omit that step and just add it to the Private Ancestry tree. My Ancestry tree may not exactly mirror my Family Historian tree but I can live with that. My Family Historian tree is my Master Tree. I am selecting Ignore for those records that are obviously incorrect but am finding that sometimes Ancestry doesn't take any notice of my Ignores and subsequently reoffers the incorrect records, Grrr.
This is slow going but already in two evenings I have found several Baptism records that give me dates of birth for various ancestors, I have found a death for Mr GeniAus' Great-Grandmother (need to order certificate to make sure it is right), buried a few folk and have married off several distant cousins. These last ones are useful for my DNA matching.
It will be a long haul but at least I have started the journey and am getting more value from my Ancestry sub.
4 comments:
I don't think you ever keep up to date with looking at the hints Ancestry proposes. The more you build up on a timeline of an individual the more Ancestry finds to offer up for review
What a task you have set yourself but your work has obviously been rewarded already. I get annoyed with
FMP hints in RootsMagic as some of their hints are for facts I've already recorded with sources. And don't get me started on the inaccuracies I've found in so many family trees on Ancestry!
It's a challenge but my tree should be enriched by the experience. Ignoring quite a few!
A while ago, I decided to do the same - but I had over 10,000 hints! Little by little I have whittled it down to about a thousand and like you, I have found some really valuable information. Births, deaths and marriages as well as census information have all helped to fill out my tree.
I have looked at other member's trees and have found many mistakes but occasionally someone will have verification attached to a family member and that has been really helpful. Whilst I haven't copied any of the information from their trees, I have been delighted when I have found a birth or death registration that I didn't have. Then all I have had to do is verify it.
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