Frequently Asked Questions

• How do I enter maiden names vs. married names for women in my family tree?

  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.

• What's the best way to handle name changes, nicknames, or alternate spellings?

  When entering names into your Ancestry^® Family Tree, it's important to be mindful of variations, official changes, nicknames, titles, and suffixes. For example, William might be known as Bill or Billy, while Robert might go by Bob, Bobby, or Rob. For surnames, variations can include extra letters or different spellings, like Larsen being spelled as Larson or with an extra "s" spelled as Larssen. As many people in the past couldn't read or write, spelling variations in names is common. Even if someone's last name was spelled a certain way, it doesn't mean it's accurate, as they might never have written their name themselves. For help finding records for people with different spellings or variations of their name, see Searching with Spelling Variations. For more detailed information on entering different variations of names to your family tree, click here.

• How detailed should location information be when entering births, deaths, etc.?

  If you don’t know the exact location, a guess is better than a blank.  Put in the name of the country at a minimum.  But, if you know the exact location, be sure to enter the name of the full location, including all jurisdictions. For example, Anaheim, Orange, California, USA or Radley, Berkshire, England. We also recommend entering the current name of the location into the birth, marriage, and death location fields. This allows the hinting, searching, matching, and mapping algorithms to work correctly.  You can enter the historic location name (or the name of the location at the time of the event) into the source citation and and record transcriptions you do in the notes or description fields.

• How do I correct mistakes or remove duplicate entries in my tree?

  Most duplicates are created when accepting Ancestry Hints^®, attaching records, or saving a person from one tree to another. When copying a person from someone else's family tree, type their name into the "Person in Tree" field to look for them in your tree. If their name is there, select the name and click Save instead of adding them as a new person in your tree. This will add their information to your tree without adding a person you already have. When merging people, you choose which facts and relationships to keep and which to remove. So, it's better to merge duplicate people than to delete one of them. For help preventing duplicate people in the future, see How to Avoid Creating Duplicates in a Tree. For information about merging entire trees, click here.

• What's the proper way to enter adoptive vs. biological parents?

  It is possible to add two sets of parents to your family tree. You can also select which set of parents you wish to appear as your adoptive parents and which set you would like to appear as your biological parents. If you don’t know the name of a parent, add the parent as “Unknown.” If an adopted person's name was changed upon being adopted, you may wish to include both names in the tree. When both names are included, you can choose which name appears as primary and which appears as an alternate. See Listing Adopted Family in a Tree for more detailed step-by-step instructions.

• How do I merge or combine multiple family trees I've created?

  It's not currently possible to merge trees on Ancestry^® - but there are other options, such as copying people from trees or merging duplicate people together Additionally, If you have a family tree on another website (or in genealogy software) that you’d like to upload to Ancestry^®, you can upload it in the form of a GEDCOM (Genealogical Data Communication) file. Once you have the tree on your account, choose the larger tree as the starting point and enter the information from your smaller tree manually or by copying people one by one from the small tree to the larger tree.

• How can I share my tree with family members? What privacy settings are available?

  To view a shared tree, your friends and family will need an Ancestry^® account. If they don't already have an account, they can create a free guest account. If they don’t want to make an Ancestry account, you can ask them for help filling in the details about people in your tree. You can change or revoke the level of access you grant to your tree at any time. If you would like for your family tree information to only be viewable by you and the individuals whom you invite to share access to your family tree, you can make your family tree private. Limited information about deceased individuals in your tree (like names, birth years, and birthplaces) will still appear in Ancestry search results (unless you prevent them from appearing), but no one can view your actual tree without your permission. If another member wants to view your tree, they can contact you to request to see it. See Family Tree Privacy for more information.

• What's the best way to print or export my family tree?

  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 attach DNA results to my tree?

  Connecting a public family tree to your AncestryDNA^® results can help you discover how you're related to your DNA matches (if you have matches turned on). See Linking a Tree to AncestryDNA^® Results for a step-by-step guide on how to do this. 

• How far back should I try to trace my family history? How many generations?

  We recommend building your tree backward past 1950, if possible (because the 1950 census is the latest census for which the United States has released data), then searching for relatives. For more current family connections, we recommend taking a DNA test. Ancestry has records from over 80 countries, with some dating back to the 13th century, so you can research beyond the 1950s if you like! For more tips on how to get started with finding ancestors, click here.

• What do I do if I can't find records for an ancestor?

  After building your tree as much as you can with the information you know, the next step is to purchase a membership and search for records. Without a membership, you have limited access to a number of free records. But with a membership, you gain access to many more records, including census, birth, marriage, death, and immigration records. One of the most useful resources when searching for records is our Card Catalog. The Card Catalog can provide you with quick access to records from specific collections, locations, and time periods. For tips on how to navigate the card catalog, click here.

• How do I handle situations like multiple marriages or children with different parents?

  If someone is married multiple times, simply enter their additional spouses.  Spouses are ordered on the profile page based on marriage date. If they have children with additional (non-spousal) partners, you can also enter those partners and adjust the relationships in the Edit Relationship screen.  Then, you can add the children to the appropriate set of parents.

• What's the difference between hints and verified information in my tree?

  Ancestry Hints^® can help you find more ancestors and fill in details about family members already in your tree.To help with your family history research, we automatically compare your tree against popular records, photos, and other members’ trees. If we find a possible match, we send you a hint. Sometimes, information in a record or in another tree will conflict with a fact in your tree. For example, you may find your great-grandmother in someone else’s tree with a birthdate of 1 January, while her birthdate in your tree is 2 January. See Alternate Information in Family Trees for steps on how to navigate these situations.

• How do I add photos, documents and other media to my tree?

  You can add your own records to your Ancestry^® family tree from the Facts tab on a person's profile page. For more information, see our article about managing sources in trees. To add or change a profile photo for someone on your tree, go to the person's profile page and click on the profile photo (or profile photo placeholder). For more information, see Adding or Changing Profile Photos. Media files uploaded to Ancestry^® must be 15 MB or smaller. 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. 

• What census records are available and how do I use them effectively?

  Depending on your membership type, you may be able to view census records from multiple countries around the work. For example, in the US, census record collections are available on our website from 1790 - 1940. In the UK, census record collections are available on our website from 1841 - 1921. The card catalogue can provide you with quick access to records from specific collections, locations, and time periods. On the Card Catalogue page, look in the top-left corner for the Title and Keyword(s) fields. If you know the name (or part of the name) of the collection you want to search, type it into the Title field. Searching by “1921 Census,” for example, will bring up search results that include the 1921 England Census. If you don’t know the collection name, enter terms into the Keywords field that are likely to be in the title, such as “1921,” “Wales,” or “Census.” For more information on the card catalogue, click here.

• How do I research ancestors from other countries?

  From any page on Ancestry^®, click the Search tab and select Search All Records. On the Search page, enter a location in the Place your ancestor might have lived field. Under that field, click Exact to country (if you entered only a country) or Exact to and select an option.

• What's the best way to organize and keep track of my research?

  When looking at records independently, it’s easy to miss problems with your research, like conflicting information. It’s also easy to miss opportunities to learn more, like clues and new avenues to explore. To cover all your bases, take breaks from gathering new records to review what you have. Organize the details in a way that makes sense. Timelines are good tools for analyzing and connecting the evidence you’ve collected. To make a timeline, review each record you have for someone and organize the facts by date, citing the source that verifies it. Reanalyze facts, looking for new conclusions you can draw based on the information you already have. Records may contain inaccurate information, so it’s best to seek and compare multiple sources. It often takes more than one record to verify that you have the correct information for the right person. For best practice tips on keeping track of your records, click here.

• How do I deal with conflicting information from different sources?

  Sometimes, information in a record or in another tree will conflict with a fact in your tree. For example, you may find your great-grandmother in someone else’s tree with a birthdate of January 1, while her birthdate in your tree is January 2. When you add something to your tree that comes with conflicting information, you can decide which fact to keep—the new one, or the one you had. You could also keep both, making one of the facts primary and saving the other as alternate information. With the great-grandmother example above, if you believe the right birthdate is January 2 but you’re not sure, you can make January 2 the primary fact and save January 1 as alternate information. For more detailed information on this, click here.

• What subscription level do I need to access certain records?

  A membership gives you access to the records on Ancestry^®. Different memberships give you access to different records. These records are useful for building your tree beyond what you already know. Your membership needs will depend on the type of records you are searching for. To determine which membership is best for you, visit our offers page to compare the benefits of each membership. To take your family research to the next level, you can also add-on an Ancestry^® Pro Tools membership. This add-on membership 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.

• How do I collaborate with other Ancestry users researching the same family lines?

  To discover other Ancestry^® members who are researching people in your family tree, use member connect to collaborate on your family tree research.