Ancestry.com is the world’s largest online genealogy subscription website and has over 70 million family trees, thanks to its two million plus members. Several key benefits for creating a family tree on Ancestry.com are 1) learning more about your personal genealogy, 2) sharing the family tree with other genealogists and your family, 3) receiving lots of hints (shaky leaves) on ancestors, 4) automatically creating family group sheets and ancestor family histories, 5) having multiple source verification for each ancestor, and 6) access to the world’s largest genealogy database.
Besides the 16 billion records in 32,700 worldwide record collections, the Ancestry family trees have helped many genealogists find their ancestors. Many genealogists have discovered their ancestors with the help of other genealogists, listing the same ancestors in their family trees, thus saving lots of research time by providing crucial information on the same ancestors.
Members can easily create a family tree on Ancestry by listing their parents, grandparents, and more generations with other relatives using a template. Members can even add photos for each ancestor. One of the nice features is seeing a shaky leaf appear on each ancestor within minutes, providing members have added the ancestor’s full name, correct birth and death dates, and locations. The shaky leaf may indicate a family tree that another genealogist has listed or a census record or a newspaper article and more for that ancestor. Fort Collins and Loveland libraries and Family History Centers have the Ancestry database and family trees available for free. Try searching for your family tree on Ancestry.com today!
~ Bob Larson is an instructor, regional speaker, library genealogy volunteer, and is currently the Finance Chair for Larimer County Genealogical Society. Visit our website at www.lcgsco.org and our Facebook page at www.facebook.com.lcgsco to learn more about genealogy and our many upcoming events.