Five Things You Can Do This Weekend to Clean Up Your Family Tree | Ancestry

Take a quick research time out and do a little family tree spring cleaning. Join Crista Cowan for five tips to cleaning up your family tree. You might be surprised at how it refreshes and revitalizes your family history research when you learn to look at it in a different way.
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Five Things You Can Do This Weekend to Clean Up Your Family Tree | Ancestry
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[@Shocarnee]

I have discovered your channel this week and I just wanted to say THANK YOU 😊 The information you share has helped SO MUCH!

[@karisnewell7670]

I really appreciate your videos Crista! Thank you so much!

[@kareninascott3899]

I love your videos Christa! Thank you so much!

[@TracyMinsterman]

As always, very informative Crista. It's great to add some things to my to-do list that I can do quickly. So many times, I only have a short span of time so I don't want to get tied up in an extensive research project where I have to stop in the middle.

[@teresamanmiller4568]

Thanks for sharing this

[@marylumetz2782]

Thank you. I started with FTM duplicates and am feeling much better about "tree cleaning." My attention span is short. This is a great help.

[@jfparkes]

Thanks. Good job.

[@jamesday5636]

Cool Crista! I want this done ...it as a pre curser for the "fancy framed one " with a tree we can hang in our home. However we keep going back, now at 10 generations! I found one for 9 generations... if I go further back it doesn't have a tee drawing and gets way to big!!!

[@donnadeganhart4099]

I have no publish button, but to the right on my screen, under my name, is "Share, Print, and Find a Person buttons. I clicked on print and Voila! I got a printed tree. Yay!

[@colinsmith6116]

Hi Crista. That was very interesting and informative. I have been doing Genealogy for twenty odd years now but you still open my eyes to things that I can do to make it easier. Thanks.

[@AncestryUS]

We're so glad you enjoyed this video and picked up some helpful tips and tricks, Colin! We wish you the very best with your ongoing research. 😊

[@beatricehuhn946]

Once you get to click on publish, I am not getting what you are showing. Mine takes me to purchasing on the publish tab.

[@suzannemcclendon]

I realize that this video is a little better than 7 years old, but it still has great information. I can't seem to print out my tree like is shown in this video, which is disappointing. But, thank you for the tip about using list view to find and fix errors. I have been getting very frustrated with one of my research projects that is going nowhere. This tip will give me something to work on while I regroup on that project. Thanks again! Have a blessed weekend. :)

[@AncestryUS]

Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Suzanne! We're glad to hear that the information in this upload was helpful to you. We'd be happy to offer some tips for printing your tree, though. You'll be either able to print it at home, or organize to have it professionally printed as a poster or book. You'll find more information about these options below, which we hope can help! Thanks so much for dropping by so we could provide this, and have a great day. 😊 Link: support.ancestry.com/s/article/Printing-a-Family-Tree

[@suzannemcclendon]

@@AncestryUS You're welcome and thank you! This path to printing seems to have made all the difference in the world. Thanks!

[@AncestryUS]

Hey again, Suzanne! Thanks so much for letting us know. We're glad we could help a little! 🙂

[@suzannemcclendon]

@@AncestryUS You're welcome. Have a blessed day. :)

[@carlaneufeld8895]

When I opened the Data Errors Report, some of the errors were indicated as possible duplicate event such as birth. Each of these "duplicates" belongs to a different source. The duplicates are not exact duplicates in that each has varying amounts of information. One might have just a birth year and another may have the complete birth-date. But they are all listed as possible duplicate event on the Data Errors Report.How do I reconcile this?

[@Bigburma]

Some good ideas for checking the accuracy of your research

[@newton123ish]

Hi. Can you help. I don't have 'Collaborate' 'Learning Centre' or 'Publish' on the toolbar on my version of Ancestry. Do I need to upgrade?

[@AncestryUS]

The site changed about a year and a half ago. The new menu items are Home | Trees | Search | DNA | Help | Extras. The collaboration and learning center items are now found under HELP. And, the publish items are found under EXTRAS.

[@marissafindlay5224]

In the video you talked about standardizing surnames. What is the protocol? I have a number of surnames in my lines that as you go back further in the line the spelling changes. Should I be standardizing this and noting individually when records spell them differently? What is the best practices?

[@AncestryUS]

Using the Genealogical Proof Standard, I come to a conclusion about what the name was for the person when they were living. Of course, you have to keep in mind that many of our ancestors never spelled their own name. They often couldn't read or write. And, in most cases, spelling wasn't standardized until the 1930s or so. In those cases, I use a standard spelling across all the generations, only changing it when there is an obvious change (like an immigrant, for example). I hope that makes sense. (Crista)

[@marissafindlay5224]

This is very helpful, Crista. Thank you! I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. For example let's say I have a Smith in one of my lines. Let's say one generation it switches to a Smyth (while still in the US) then I would standardize all last names to Smith, but noting any variation in spellings and why in that individual person. If there is a variation of spelling that changes when they cross the ocean would I use 2 standardizations (one for each country/language) or would it be standardized throughout?

[@freddieslaughter1107]

I've been away from Family Tree Maker and can't remember how to enter information about people, have you covered this before?

[@bearpawz_]

Freddie.. I have FTM for Mac, but haven't had it long enough to completely figure it out yet. :p If you go on ancestry. com's website, select "Collaborate" (in their toolbar) then scroll down to "online support community" ..you'll see a section about Family Tree Maker on there. You can ask questions and other members will try to help you out. :0)

[@herminebernstein6566]

Can you print the lists of people?

[@julieleverett6201]

I have been working through my family tree now for some years and am getting to the end of whom I can record as being 100% right. I feel now that it is as complete as I can get it without it becoming a fictional piece of work. I would now like to put my first family tree into a scrapbook. At first this seems a pretty easy thing to do, but I am having great difficulty just knowing how to start. Who do you put first? How do you make the pages flow? Have you or anyone else out there created a scrapbook about your family tree. If yes I could use some tips on where to start (the panning stage).

[@AncestryUS]

On Ancestry, if you click on EXTRAS and then Photo Books and Posters, you will see a service that can take your family tree (and all attached documents and photos) and automatically create a 4 or 5 generation book for you. If you are making the book only for yourself, you can start with yourself. If you are making it for your siblings and/or cousins, you might consider starting with your grandparents.

[@Rspenesmit]

I just went to the extras and saw that ancestry.com no longer does the books and posters, it's now owned by another website that charges a lot for printing these things out, so now there is no more Publish button and now you can't print out a book as you mentioned here without paying for it, and we pay enough for ancestry, DNA and other things, so is this video useless now, or is there any other way to do what you mention here.

[@karenhalgren3889]

I've tried the publish feature that you mentioned here but all I get is items to order-no tree for printing...can you help..thanks!

[@bodysin-sations5466]

ok I thought it was just me, having the same problem. Did they ever get back to you?

[@bodysin-sations5466]

Bodysin- Sations, fig it out, you have to do it as if you were ordering it and then there is an option to print vs. purchasing

[@pamadams7881]

Bodysin- Sations

[@gakik50]

how do you go to that person to fix the error...can you click or double click on that person to bring him up or what

[@gakik50]

never mind finished watching the video and you explained it ...sorry

[@bajajayne]

Hi, I like your videos - very helpful. I do have a problem with my Family Tree that I cannot find in your videos. I created the Tree and went off on a branch from my Father's side of the family, and when I had a discrepancy with a name spelling, I deleted the one I knew was wrong (as if there are two siblings on a branch, but you know it's the same person). When I deleted that person, it somehow "un-did" a lot of my work, or a I thought it did. In actuality, it seems to think I have two Trees of the same name. All the people and facts are still on there, but it depends on which relative I click on. It seems like it might be a software error, but more likely my error. I have gone ahead and duplicated some of the data, but it still seems to be two trees and one tree, depending on who I search for. I just want to combine all that information together. The other weird thing is that when I go to Manage Trees or any other options I can find, it still states that I only have the one tree. Very confusing. Any tips you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

[@AncestryUS]

It sounds like you might have some duplicate individuals in your tree. If you have your online tree synced with Family Tree Maker, it is very simple to fix. On FTM, under the EDIT menu, you can "Find Duplicate People." This will allow you to locate duplicates in your tree and merge them. This will likely fix some of the relationship problems you are encountering that make it look like some people are connected to your tree and some are not. If your tree is only online, you will need to go through your List of All People on your tree and find the duplicates one by one and then merge them. (Crista)

[@Rspenesmit]

How Do you print your Family Tree out now, as you show here, now that ancestry. come does not have the Publish button anymore.

[@AncestryUS]

You can find the MyCanvas feature under EXTRAS on the main Ancestry menu now. It is called "Photo Books and Posters."

[@Rspenesmit]

Ok, thanks, it looks like now that My Canvas is an all Paid deal now, I was just looking to print out my entire Tree as this video shows, I know it no longer has the publish button in this video, but even the mycanvas feature does not seem to give any option to print out a copy of your entire tree of names, at least if it does, certainly not for Free, Ancestry. com needs to stop farming things like that out to places that charge, most people like us, can't afford to constantly keep paying for every single additional thing, on top of the ancestry.com subscription.

[@AncestryUS]

When you create a project on MyCanvas, preview it and there is a print button. You can print it to your own printer.

[@debraprice284]

What do you use now that Ancestry doesn't use Family Tree Maker anymore?

[@AncestryUS]

I'm still using Family Tree Maker (FTM) every single day. It still sync with my Ancestry Online Tree and I still get leaf hints and can attach records directly from Ancestry. The only difference is that Ancestry no longer owns FTM. It is being developed, supported, and sold by a company called Software Mackiev. (Crista)

[@jamesdarnell8568]

@@AncestryUS That's not the only difference. Only the latest (Mackiev) version of FTM now synchs with the online tree. I have FTM 2014 and it will not synch. Kind of a shady way for Mackiev to get everybody to update to their software.

[@lilolemev4406]

CAN you help me ??? I have both Family tree maker(older version) and Ancestry... Steps to make a new gedcom file to split trees by families ??? I know there is a way to do this FORGOT how.. H E L P pretty please...

[@pattyunderwood7706]

I do not have a "Publish" button. Then how do you do this?

[@AncestryUS]

Hi Patty, thank you for reaching out to us. This video is about 7 years old and some of the features on it are no longer available as presented. You can still print out your family tree by following this guide: support.ancestry.com/s/article/Printing-a-Family-Tree

[@kristinayang2635]

Is this still an option today?

[@tinkinc85]

Oh I misunderstood. I thought you were going to talk about ways of cleaning up the gene pool in your family tree

[@ptj4620]

Lol… if only, every family has at least one

[@rjb6327]

Not available in 2020

[@kylesober7957]

Print.....I have over 16,000 people in my tree

[@AncestryUS]

Are you looking for printing suggestions?