FAQ about Ancestry.com

Guest Blogger: Lauren Kuntzman, MCDL Family History & Learning Center Manager

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At Medina County District Library (MCDL) we offer access to Ancestry Library Edition (ALE). ALE can be used for free, by anyone visiting any of our library branches, to research their family history. You can read all about ALE in this blog post. We often get questions about how the subscription resource Ancestry.com, compares to Ancestry Library Edition (ALE). For this month’s instructional blog post, I’ll try to answer a few of our most frequently-asked questions:

1. How does Ancestry Library Edition differ from Ancestry.com?
2. How do I search for and view records in Ancestry.com?
3. What are some of the features of family trees in Ancestry.com?
4. What are the subscription options for Ancestry.com?
5. Do I need to subscribe to Ancestry.com to research my family history?

1. How does Ancestry Library Edition differ from Ancestry.com?
Ancestry Library Edition (ALE) differs from Ancestry.com in four specific ways: the quantity of records included, the interactive/personalized features, DNA, and resources for learning. Here are more details on these topics: Records

If you look in the “Card Catalog” for Ancestry Library Edition (ALE), you’ll find that it has 10,387 record collections. The “Card Catalog” in Ancestry.com, on the other hand, reports that it has 32,684 record collections. According to ProQuest (the information content company that distributes ALE) when compared to Ancestry.com, ALE does not have...

• As many newspapers (and newspaper-related content, like obituaries)
• As many family and local history books
• As many passenger lists and immigration records
• Freedman’s Bank Records
• The “One World Tree” collection (note: this collection has been discontinued)
• The “Biography & Genealogy Master Index” (a master index to Who’s Who in America? and similar publications)

Interactive/Personalized Features ALE doesn’t have three interactive features that are available to Ancestry.com subscribers. These include: -- Message Boards - In ALE, “Message Boards” can be read, but not added to. With an Ancestry.com subscription you can answer members’ questions, as well as post your own questions to the boards. This feature is less active than it once was, as Facebook and other social media platforms see more use today. -- Family Trees Hints - ALE offers no means of building a family tree online; this feature is reserved for individuals with an Ancestry.com account. Users begin to build their tree by entering information about themselves, then details about their parents, their grandparents, and so on.

There are five hints for my 2xg-grandfather... I'll need
review those carefully, to make sure the hints are accurate.

Once these details are entered, Ancestry.com’s servers begin automatically searching records to produce green leaf “hints.” Just remember -- these are only hints. Look at every document and evaluate them carefully! Another detail to remember -- Ancestry.com’s hint servers only search about 10% of their records… so the other 90% of the records need to be searched manually! -- Community - Since ALE isn’t an account tied to an individual, it doesn’t offer ways for users to collaborate with other users. This feature is available to Ancestry.com subscribers. Under the “Help” menu, users can select the “Community” menu item. Among other features, this enables a subscriber to connect with researchers and search the Ancestry.com user profiles. DNA Testing

A third category in which Ancestry Library Edition (ALE) differs from Ancestry.com is in DNA. ALE has no connection to or option for DNA testing. (Note: While ALE doesn’t have an option for DNA testing, there are alternatives available including 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, and MyHeritage.) If you buy a DNA test from Ancestry.com, when you register your test, you’ll be prompted to create a free account. With a free account, you’ll be able to view your DNA test results, including your “Ethnicity Estimate” and your “DNA Matches.” With this free Ancestry.com account, you can also do the following:

• start building a family tree and get hints
• use Ancestry.com’s “ThruLines” ™ to get suggestions about which ancestors you and your DNA matches share (this feature requires having tree linked to your DNA results and is like a hint system for DNA results -- evaluate this information carefully, too!)
• view Ancestry.com’s “Card Catalog”
• access, search, and view a few record collections that are free (like the 1880 and 1940 censuses)
• access record collections that are made free for a brief period of time (example: Irish records were free to use during March)

The free account has limits though. With the exceptions of the free record collections mentioned above, you will not be able to view records in the database. Resources for Learning ALE and Ancestry.com differ in how they teach users about family history research and using the database. In ALE the “Learning Center” and “Charts and Forms” are displayed prominently in the top menu. These resources include tips for research, maps, and blank copies of family group sheets, research logs, census records, and more. Ancestry.com, on the other hand, offers “Ancestry Academy” which includes webinars on various topics. The blank copies of charts and forms are available on Ancestry.com, too, but they aren’t as prominently displayed -- or as easy to find. 2. How do I search for and view records in Ancestry.com? Searching for records in Ancestry.com is exactly the same as searching for records in Ancestry Library Edition. My colleague Lisa has already written a great guide to this, which you can read here: https://mcdlgenealogyspot.blogspot.com/2016/04/ancestry-library-edition.html. Lisa’s blog post also contains excellent information about the interface for viewing records. The only real difference between ALE and Ancestry.com, is that Ancestry.com requires a paid subscription to view almost all content. Viewing records on Ancestry Library Edition is free when accessed at MCDL. 3. What are some of the features of family trees in Ancestry.com? Building a family tree on Ancestry.com is fairly intuitive. Once you begin entering information on yourself and your family, within moments you’ll likely see “hints” appearing to direct you to records. Remember to search for more records directly through the search interface! Every individual in your tree will have a profile page with four tabs, including “LifeStory,” “Facts,” “Gallery,” and “Hints.” Since we’ve already addressed the hint system earlier in this blog post, here’s an overview of the other three tabs:

The “Facts” tab is the most important one (in my opinion). It is illustrated in the image above. In this tab you can view any records you’ve found and attached to the individual (whether generated by a hint, or one that you found through searching). These records are saved as “Sources.” You can also add non-Ancestry sources here manually, as well as hyperlinks to any page on the Internet. Information from the Ancestry.com records will begin to generate a timeline of "Facts" about your ancestor’s life, as well as a list of family members, including parents, spouse(s), and children.
In the “Gallery” tab you can upload your own photographs, newspaper clippings, and other documents that aren’t available in Ancestry.com. As you may have noticed above, I added a photo of my 2xg-grandfather, Edward. This content then can easily be shared with “cousins” on Ancestry.com. The “LifeStory” tab is an automatically-generated biography of your ancestor. It includes facts about their life (created from records you find on Ancestry.com and life events you add to the “Facts” tab) as well as maps and historical facts for context. As your tree grows, you’ll want to keep in mind your options for privacy. Information on living individuals is always hidden from anyone but a tree owner/creator, but you have three options for additional privacy, including making your tree...

• public (allows all Ancestry.com users to view your data on deceased individuals)
• private and searchable (so Ancestry.com users can see that your tree exists, but have to ask permission to view it)
• private and not searchable (your tree is totally hidden)

You can invite other Ancestry.com users to view your tree with various privileges (guest access, viewing living people, and/or editing rights). Non-Ancestry.com users can be invited to the tree, too, but they will have to create a free account; this free account works similarly to the ones created by AncestryDNA test participants. It’s important to remember, that if you stop subscribing to Ancestry.com you won’t be able to access the tree you created there. Some software (like Family Tree Maker 2017 and RootsMagic) will enable you to sync and backup your tree onto your computer. At the very least, you’ll want to download and save a copy of your tree as a GEDCOM -- a computer file type specific to family trees. You can do so by clicking into your “tree settings” and selecting “export tree.”

And don’t forget, there are other options for creating online family trees. One alternative is FamilySearch, which allows users to collaboratively build online trees, with links to records and added photographs, for free. (Note: In a couple of months, our instructional blog post will focus on FamilySearch, so be sure to stop back and read more then!) 4. What are the subscription options for Ancestry.com? As I’ve discussed above, there are a few situations in which you can have a free Ancestry.com account. These free accounts provide limited access to records and information on the website. Another option is the free 14-day trial, during which time you’ll have access to all of Ancestry.com’s records. At the end of the trial period, you’ll have to decide to cancel your account or subscribe at one of their three levels. Ancestry.com subscription levels differ in terms of record access:

• “U.S. Discovery” gets you all of the U.S. records on Ancestry.com
• “World Explorer” gets you all U.S. records, plus Ancestry.com’s international records
• “All Access” includes all of Ancestry.com’s U.S. and international records, as well as access to two other databases: Newspapers.com Basic and Fold3.com

5. Do I need to subscribe to Ancestry.com to research my family history? It depends on what your research goals are... If you’re researching Ohio ancestors and need Ohio records then an Ancestry.com subscription may not be necessary. The records you can access through ALE (and FamilySearch) may be sufficient to help you solve your research problems. If you’re interested in DNA-testing -- and want to find biological relatives in the United States -- then it is important to consider that Ancestry.com has the largest DNA data pool and gives you the best chance of finding the most matches. When you think about whether or not you want to subscribe to Ancestry.com, consider if it is the right tool for the job you’re trying to complete. Hopefully, the information above will help you determine if Ancestry.com is right for you -- or if an alternative like Ancestry Library Edition, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA or 23andMe is better-suited for your research needs. And, as always, if you have more questions about Ancestry.com or researching your family history, please feel free to email the MCDL Genealogy Team at me-team.genealogy@mcdl.info.