My Most Used Ancestry.com Tricks (SOME YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT)

When you use Ancestry every day, you pick up a few tricks. Here are my most used, favorite tricks, to make building your family tree easier. I'm always looking for ways to save time and be more efficient, as a professional genealogist I want to give my clients the most bang for their buck. Here are some of the time savers I use as well as some of the features you may not know about - my professional secrets.

0:00 Intro
0:23 1. Search - do it - not all in hints - catalogue too.
2:44 2. Search features - column on side & check box
6:11 3. Opening hints to view and save
9:19 4. Adding parent and merging
10:51 5. Images to facts - sometime automatic, but if not...
12:31 6. Tree settings
13:39 7. Census hack - census search

🙋‍♀️ ABOUT ME:
Learning about your ancestors is fun! It’s detective work at its best. My professional genealogy business, Ancestry Consulting by Aimee, and my You Tube channel were born out of a desire to help others discover their family history. I have been working on my genealogy since a teenager and have been helping others as a professional genealogist for almost 10 years. Whether breaking through a genealogy brick wall, determining parents through DNA matches, beginning genealogy research, or discovering your family origins, I want to help you build your family tree! Happy hunting!

#FamilyHistory #Genealogy #Ancestry #familytree

Check out these other genealogy YouTubers: Genealogy TV, Family History Fanatics, Geneavlogger, Ancestry (Barefoot Genealogist), Genealogy with Amy Johnson Crow, and of course, keep watching me, Aimee Cross - Genealogy Hints.

Thumbnail photograph of magician courtesy o Ahmed Sheraz on Unsplash.

"Something Elated" by Broke for Free.

"Ice Cream" by Joey Pecoraro on YouTube Audio Library

[AncestryAimee]

Sorry I missed visiting with you live! I was off on the time zone! I’m hanging with two of my amazing kids and four granddaughters! What I’m most thankful for this Thanksgiving - love my fam!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

[zhubajie]

Always check the pictures. Even my mom's high school picture was wrong. She was the one next to the one shown. :D

[faustbos]

I like your search of census for a name in a particular area. I've done similar things with street names. Having an Italian last name, you can almost be sure they would be spelled wrong. I have managed to find the streets in the census where I know the ancestor lived (based on phone directories). You do have to do a fair amount of eye balling, but it is effective. Also, as a general rule, I also look up and down the street to see if I recognise names. I learned that my dad's girlfriend when he was kid lived across the street from him. I actually knew her, as she and my dad spent her last 30 years with him. I found her living across the street just by eye balling the name. Italian families always knew others from the old country and they tended to congregate in the same area and in fact same apartments. You never know what you might find, when you don't know exactly what you are looking for.

[mysterj]

Fun video! In particular, your census evaluation tip and using the search screens to include/filter relevant data gave me ideas for searching for some 'lost' 2x great grands!

[jamistardust]

This was great I've used Ancestry for 5 yearsand You showed me some things I didn't know and I'm going to start using.Thank you for explaining things I previously may have avoided using as much as I could have.

[richardgore]

Just watched this video and I am so glad that I came across it. The hint on census evaluation is a HUGE help! Thank you for posting these videos :)

[DaveForrest]

I use the same technique you showed for adding a parent then merging with duplicate. Must make sure you merge with the correct duplicate. I have many instances where cousins in my tree have the same forename and surname and even born around the same time. So, before I merge, I temporarily prefix the forename with an x, then merge, then delete the x. eg, in the case you showed, I'd change the name of the target person to xElmer Quam. In fact, I do that for any time I might need to merge two people where it's a common name in my tree.

[marilyncarey]

Thank you. I be been using ancestry for over 15 years and still learnt new stuff! Especially how to get rid of that side record box. I know I’ve accidentally stumbled on records with the old layout but have never known how it happened or how to do it deliberately. I especially want the description box when adding records. There were other tweaks that make the processes I’ve been using for years more streamlined. Thank you very much again.

[kimberlynalda]

Wow. I'm just getting started so I will admit a little overwhelm from this video but I can tell that you REALLY know what you're talking about and I'm sure that you are tremendously helpful to your clients!

[BrendaGarcia-viog]

I'm new here. And it is overwhelming! Thank you for the tips that is going to help me a great deal. And it seems like everybody had at least 12 kids! And siblings!

[tedblack]

I have been using Ancestry extensively for over a decade. My family tree has grown to more than 30, 000 people. I had already discovered most of your tricks, but did learn a few refinements. Thanks.

[evfusion]

Thanks Aimee - a great video. Particularly liked your trick seven; will definitely be using that one now.

[gerry]

Hi Aimee, Thank you for this video I cant find my Family and had almost given up but know i will watch you video and also subscribed i was so impressed Gerry from Canada

[cathyhughes]

Thanks for the tip on census evaluations

[lynnscott]

You give a lot of great ideas and it’s very helpful to be able to follow your cursor. I’ll never remember them all, but I’ll save your video.

[ridif]

Very helpful, Much thanks ! Greetings from Italy

[pinwheelgrl]

I have been using Ancestry for a very long time and didn't know some of this! That tip about looking for more same-name people in the census - it's a big problem in my tree, thank you!

[brendaashton]

Thank you Aimee for the tips on card catalogs and attaching images.

I have a couple of roadblocks and have my fingers crossed that the card catalog will help provide answers.

[JP-zndw]

I found my grandfather in 2 census records - he was visiting someone and was counted there as well as at home.

[lionwings]

Valuable information! Thank you so much.