Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the difference between Worldwide Subscription and Ancestry Pro Tools?

  Ancestry^® Pro Tools is add-on membership that gives you access to advanced DNA and family history tools designed to improve your tree’s accuracy and showcase the people in your tree like never before. Pro Tools provides access to advanced DNA and family history tools, including smart filters, tree checker, tree mapper, enhanced shared matches, and more. These features are not available as standard with any of our memberships. This is an add-on membership only. To purchase Pro Tools, click here.
  

• Will ProTools help me advance research on "half" cousin matches?

  To find half cousins using ProTools, you can leverage the "Shared Matches" feature, which allows you to see which DNA matches you share with other members, effectively identifying potential half-cousins by looking at matches that share a common ancestor with you through only one parent line; the key is to analyze the shared DNA segments and family trees to pinpoint the specific half-cousin relationship within the shared matches list. You can read more about our Pro-Tools features here.

• Does ProTools help when you can't seem to go further because of the living people being hidden?

  Ancestry^® Pro Tools gives you access to advanced DNA and family history tools designed to improve your tree’s accuracy and showcase the people in your tree like never before. Pro Tools provides access to advanced DNA and family history tools, including smart filters, tree checker, tree mapper, enhanced shared matches, and more. To view all of the Pro Tools features in more details, click here. To purchase Pro Tools, click here.
  

• How do I navigate to the Tree Insights page?

  To see tree insights, you need an active Ancestry^® Pro Tools Membership. To access Tree Inisghts you must be signed into your Ancestry account. Once signed in, go to the homepage by clicking ‘Ancestry’ in the top-left corner. On the homepage, in the top-right corner, find ‘Pro Tools shortcuts’. Under ‘Pro Tools shortcuts’, click More Pro Tools. Under Tree insights, select Explore your insights. You'll see insights for the last tree you viewed that you own or can edit. To see insights for a different tree, open that tree first, then follow these steps again. Please note that you can only access tree insights for trees you own or can edit. For other trees, ask the owner or editor to share the insights with you.For more information on Tree Insights, click here.

• How much does an Ancestry ProTools membership cost?

  Pro Tools requires an active Ancestry^® family history membership. Your Pro Tools subscription will automatically renew at list price every month until you cancel or until your Ancestry family history membership ends. This add-on, billed monthly, membership costs $10 USD.To purchase Pro Tools, click here.

• Why does my ProTools not show up on my iPad or phone, just my computer?

  Pro Tools features are not currently available in the Ancestry mobile app. However, they are available on the Ancestry website with an active Pro Tools membership.

• What is the benefit of enhanced shared matches? Can I download the enhanced match list?

  Enhanced shared matches lets you see how much DNA your matches share and how they might be related. For example, you can see how much DNA a match (B) shares with your shared matches (C) and their Ancestry-predicted relationships. For tips on using shared matches, see Using Shared Matches in Your Research. The enhanced shared matches are currently only available via the website.

• How do I redo a tree? Should I cancel the old one and begin the new one?

  When starting a family tree, it's usually best to start your tree with yourself and work your way backwards. This way, you can use the information you know to find the information you don't know. Occasionally people enter incorrect information and feel as though they need to create a whole new family tree to start over. While this works well for some, it is not always necessary, as you can fix common issues within your family tree, quite easily. Our family tree resource page has detailed information on how you can do this. If you would like to start a new family tree, you can follow this step-by-step guide to starting a family tree. If you'd rather hire a professional genealogist to build your family tree, see Hiring a Genealogist.

• Is there any way to 'splice' an entire shared branch from someone else's tree to your own or do you have to do each person individually?

  It's not currently possible to split family trees on Ancestry^®, but there are two ways to get similar results: duplicating your tree, and saving people from one tree to another. People can be copied either from public family trees posted by other members or from other trees on your own account. Copying people from other trees on your account can be useful when trying to move people between trees. One person at a time can be copied from a tree. For more information, click here.
  

• How do I divide my tree into several different trees?

  It's not currently possible to split family trees on Ancestry^®, but there are two ways to get similar results: duplicating your tree, and saving people from one tree to another. To create a duplicate tree on Ancestry, download the tree you want to duplicate, then upload it again as a separate tree. After creating a duplicate tree, you can delete the people that you don't want to include in the new tree. If you plan to change both trees after creating the duplicate tree, we recommend keeping your original tree as a backup and downloading two copies. For more detailed information on how to do this, click here.

• Is there a way to print my family tree from Ancestry? Are there printable tree options?

  If you want a physical copy of your tree, you can either print it at home with a personal printer or have it professionally printed by our printing partner, MyCanvas.There are two formats available for printing an Ancestry family tree: a horizontal view and a vertical view. For more information on which option best suits your needs, click here.

• How do I stop hints for persons I do not want hints from?

  While you can’t turn off all hints, you can stop receiving hints from other members’ trees and hints about potential relatives. You can adjust your hint settings through your account settings. For a step-by-step guide on how to do this, please click here.

• Where (on their entry) is the best place to put alternate names of a specific person?

  On the person’s profile page, you can add their alternate name as an ‘also know as’ fact. To do this, go to the person’s profile page in your family tree > click on the Facts tab, then select + Add in the Facts column > in the drop-down menu, choose Also Known As > in the Description field, enter the alternate name > click add. For more information on alternate names, nicknames and name changes, please click here.

• How do you get rid of entries you've made that you later realize are wrong?

  There's a lot to keep track of with family trees, so we've compiled a list of articles to help you edit or delete incorrect entries, within our Family Tree Resource page. When you come across an error, don’t panic, as this is usually something you can fix, whether you have attached a hint to the wrong person, accidentally duplicated a person within your tree, or added a wrong relationship to your tree, our Family Tree Resource page will have a support article, with step-by-step instructions to help you fix the error.

• Can you use pictures from other users' family trees?

  If a tree is public, photos and documents are visible to other Ancestry members, but files connected to living people are private and not shared. Media files uploaded to Ancestry^® must be 15 MB or smaller. From your list of search results, click a photo to view it. To save the photo to your tree, click Save to my tree. Select a tree from the drop-down menu and start typing the name of the person you want to save it to. When you see their name appear, click on it. It will now be connected to your tree. If you upload files to a public tree that you later make private or delete, your files may continue to exist publicly or privately on the family trees of people who saved them to their trees while your tree was public. Tips on uploading media can be found here.

• How do I navigate ThruLines?

  ThruLines^® helps you see how you might be related to your DNA matches. We look at the family tree linked to your test to find people in your tree who are also in your matches' linked trees. ThruLines uses information from family trees; they don't change the information in trees. If there's inaccurate information in your tree, you may receive inaccurate ThruLines. Only you and those you invite to see your DNA results can see your ThruLines. ThruLines are available for ancestors up to 5th great-grandparents. ThruLines don't appear for 6th great-grandparents and beyond. To learn more about navigating ThruLines, you can view Crista Cowen’s video on understanding ThruLines here. Additionally, you can review our ThruLines support article here.
  

• I'm working on both my husband's and my trees. We both have done the DNA. Would you recommend I do two separate trees or build my husband's off of mine?

  Although it is a personal preference, if you each have your own tree, you can link your AncestryDNA^® results to that tree. Connecting a public family tree to your results can help you discover how you're related to your DNA matches (if you have matches turned on). A DNA test's owners, collaborators, and managers can link it to a tree. Only one tree can be linked to a test at a time. You can learn more about linking a tree to a DNA test here. If there are people in your tree, that you would also like included in your husband’s tree, you can copy them to that tree (provided your husband has added you as an editor to his tree). People can be copied either from public family trees posted by other members or from other trees on your own account. Copying people from other trees on your account can be useful when trying to move people between trees. One person at a time can be copied from a tree. For more information, click here. For more information on getting started with your family tree, view our family tree resource page here.

• How do you enter wives’ names: first name + maiden name?

  When entering anyone's name in a family tree, enter their last name at birth (maiden name). Using birth names in family trees ties people to their original families, ensures that married people's pre-marriage names are recorded, and maintains consistency in your tree among single, people who married once, and people who married more than once. If you don't know someone's last name at birth, leave their last name blank. To add or edit a person’s name in your family tree, click on the person’s name > select ‘Quick Edit’ (or in the app, ‘Edit Person’) > Edit the fact and choose ‘Save’. For more information on adding people to your family tree, click here.

• Is it possible to have a ProTools membership, then take a break, and then re-start a ProTools membership a few months later?

  Yes, you can cancel or pause the Pro-Tools membership at any time. Pausing only Pro Tools won’t affect or pause any other memberships, like your family history membership, but you can pause multiple memberships at the same time. For help, read Pausing a Membership. You can then restart the membership at any stage in the future, and for more information on our Pro-Tools membership, you can read this link here.