How to Attach Friends, Associates, and Neighbors (a.k.a. FAN Club) to Your Ancestor on Ancestry.com

[@allibroberg]

I know this is an older video but this really helped me - my Russian great grandfather helped a lot of Russian people in his church get acquainted in American culture and he was their point of contact after they were deceased and he inherited a TON of photos. I have been digitizing a bunch of photos that he had and don’t wanna lose the information of these people but also don’t need them accumulating space in my parents garage. 😊

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it helped.

[@lisaaneepeacock]

This is amazing! I have a brick wall, that I am trying to break down…. I have a newspaper article of everyone that attended their 40th anniversary. Most of them were family, but I am going to try this with some of the others on the list.

[@GenealogyTV]

Fantastic! Yes... it is the FAN club that is the key to most brick walls. We have Elizabeth Shown Mills for this great concept.

[@NiamhCreates]

You can also add Chris Tegner as a "spouse" to Madsen, and then edit their relationship to "Friend". They would still technically be part of the "spouses" list, but they would be officially listed as a "friend".

[@GenealogyTV]

Great idea. Thank you.

[@ChristolJ]

I use this same trick of attaching the person then removing the relationship when I am adding DNA matches to my tree until I discover the actual connection. I use the tree tags for 'DNA Match' so I can find them easily when I figure out the biological connection. Thanks for the video Connie... Love your ideas and tips

[@Ascertain20]

Thank you! I was wondering if I could do this for my DNA matches too!

[@GenealogyTV]

Thank you @ChristolJ

[@bemchickity]

OMG I love this! There are so many family photos of gatherings and such with family friends and whatnot and because of that I always wanted to know an effective way to add these "FAN Club" peeps. Thank you so much for sharing!

[@claguire831]

This sounds like a good way to use Ancestry for some of the historical event research I’ve been doing. For instance I’ve been researching the murder of a speakeasy owner in our home town, and I created a tree for her, to help learn more about her. But I’ve also been researching the police, the suspects, the perp, the coroner. Instead of doing separate trees for them, I can add them to her tree!

[@GenealogyTV]

Yep! Good idea.

[@danielledriscoll128]

I love this addition to your floating tree tip. I have a fan club person that I am unclear their relation, but helped my family after a natural catastrophe. This will help keep them in view, as I dive deeper into that time period.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks Danielle

[@eliza33888]

I use web links to link to the match page for each DNA match I add to my tree. I also just started putting the number of centimorgans in the suffix box. Then I put the link to the tree profile in the match page notes.

[@GenealogyTV]

That’s an interesting use of the Suffix field.

[@eliza33888]

Genealogy TV I only do that for matches related to the brick wall I am working on, since I am going back and forth between my tree and WATO on DNA Painter

[@GenealogyTV]

Just wanted to let you know that I'm using your comment in this Friday's video called "Your Questions Answered!"

[@janicemoerschel4428]

I had already created a separate family tree for a friend of my grandmother's family - but I really didn't need it. I found that I was able to "save this person to my tree," and choose my own family tree. She now appears in my tree by herself! The basic info is there but it looks as though I'll have to go and attach the records I had attached in the friend's tree. I think this works fabulously and it's really simple if the person you want in your tree is already in another tree! Had to share this tip.

[@cathyc6725]

Fantastic! No pun intended. This could be helpful for the unexpected parent or informal adoption research. Often the bio parent/parents are in the FAN club

[@lizofpnm]

I would suggest that you add the weblink before you delete the parent relationship. Saves you having to do the tree search steps. Love the video. Added a link in my Facebook group. :)

[@GenealogyTV]

Good tip! Thanks!

[@junebutka6571]

I like to date my notes and comments. That tells me my train of thinking at that time and why.

[@GenealogyTV]

Just wanted to let you know that I'm using your comment in this Friday's video called "Your Questions Answered!"

[@junebutka6571]

@@GenealogyTV That is awesome. Thank you. Cousin Russ Worthington does this. I did this before but privately. Russ talks about the importance of this in his presentation. I want to give credit where credit is do.

[@uptergroveGreg]

Great tip Connie! (Thanks Christa for sharing too!). I can see using this to keep track of godparents, when they are not already immediate family. All of the French Canadian baptismal records mention le parain / la marraine (godfather / godmother), which I can add as text notes to the baptism fact, but I like the idea of adding a weblink to be able to jump to their profile directly. (And, so often, they end up being related down the line anyways!). Keep up the great work - love your videos - always informative.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks Greg. Great idea about adding God parents using this method.

[@yvonnethompson2931]

What a great idea! I have lots of so called "aunts and uncles" who were friends of my parents who I can now add to my tree! Well done Connie and Crista

[@NiamhCreates]

Holy organized note-taking, Batman!

[@GenealogyTV]

Too funny.

[@loveandacademics]

amen!

[@debandrew2802]

This is great! I needed to add a grandson to a man, who we don’t know which of his sons the grandson belongs to. Genealogy Happy Dance for this tip, thanks.

[@kathleeneveritt8284]

This is so Cool! It can become easy with technology to get focused on simply going for dates and locations - filling in the blanks. However, the joy is in the stories, the relationships and mysteries. You are making my Ancestry investment much more palatable. Thank you.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks

[@paulaseiple336]

I use the weblinks to alert myself to any of my ancestors that have a Wikipedia article or if the home they built has a Wikipedia article as a historical building.

[@GenealogyTV]

Good idea!

[@billhillman3263]

I have just begun to work on my old family movies that my dad took in the 60’s onward and put them on you tube , then I will put web link in my Ancestry tree to the video for each person in that particular video, if you understand what I mean.

[@GenealogyTV]

Great idea. Oh I like that so much. I’d love to use that idea on a video. Could I use a link to one of your family tree and or videos?

[@billhillman3263]

Genealogy TV I haven’t connected any just yet. I had to digitize the old film and right at the moment I am editing them. I was hoping someone who had already done it would comment with any suggestions to help doing it.

[@billhillman5050]

@@GenealogyTV Just as a test I did a short video of my grand father and put it on You Tube this morning as a test. Here is the link to my grand father in Ancestry: www.ancestry.ca/family-tree/person/tree/46800595/person/6610097396/facts Go ahead and use it if you wish.

[@GenealogyTV]

If you have a KZbin channel, it's really easy to upload (for free) then use the URL in the link. Maybe I'll do a video on that too.

[@ricklipsey9873]

@@billhillman5050 Thanks so much for sharing this! What a beautiful tribute to your grandparents. I just received ten 400-foot reels of 8mm film that had belonged to my grandfather, some labeled 1961. I hope to create something similar to what you've done here. Would appreciate any tips you have, specific software you used, etc.

[@madmax72]

I think this is a great trick. I want to start doing this right away.

[@genieangel8384]

Awesone tips ...thank you! Will use this right away :)

[@daviddwertman1508]

I have a few "Quick and Dirty" trees for DNA matches that I don't know yet how they fit but I have the DNA match's relations a few generations back that are in my tree - now I can connect. Great

[@GenealogyTV]

Excellent!

[@GenealogyTV]

Just wanted to let you know that I'm using your comment in this Friday's video called "Your Questions Answered!"

[@melissahinton8928]

Ii am guessing you could use this for slave research too? If you know the slave owner but your relative did not inherit DNA from them but you still want to mark the relationship?

[@GenealogyTV]

Yes absolutely. You can link anything you want this way. Thanks for sharing the idea.

[@roxismith6122]

That's so cool! Thanks for sharing the details!

[@AlexFrew-kv2vg]

Is there a way to view, as a collective, at once, all of ur FAN club members, in ur whole tree. Keep up ur great work. I thoroughly enjoy ur genealogical vlogs.

[@GenealogyTV]

You would need special software. I know Chart Masters prints them. Check with them.

[@aquilaclark814]

Thanks for the video I’ve learned a lot with this one.. I probably will never be as good as you are ..🤣🤣But thanks to you I’m a little better today in working with ancestry and family search😋😋

[@GenealogyTV]

Ah... thanks!

[@sfi3907]

To add a new unrelated person I just save the data I'm reviewing to a new person in my tree. That way I don't have to link and unlink them. They are still in the tree as you show in the tree search.

[@patnoble466]

S Fi I do the same thing. The trick is to find a record and add it to a new person. That person can be unrelated and float. You can’t add a new unrelated person to your tree without adding a record, BTW: When you have added a new person with a record, be sure to click the source link again to be sure the entire record was imported to your file. Ancestry typically only imports a starter amount of the available data.

[@GenealogyTV]

Good point to both of you!

[@shona2542]

Excellent tip. Thanks for sharing!

[@sba0529]

Loved this, I have a few folks that have foster parents that I can use this on. I would be interested in in seeing more about how you keep your notes, that you briefly showed us on the eight pages for Christopher Madden. Is this the same stuff I would find on ancestry’s timeline? If so, what is the benefit of keeping a separate typed up notes (with footnoted citations). I am struggling with trying to keep/start a research log and notes. I’ve got multiple notebooks with notes, two halfhearted attempts at a log and no way to really go back and find what I’ve already done. It’s a mess. What is a simple easy way to keep track of all this? Maybe you already have a video related to this. There are many options as I’ve seen others videos, but they don’t seem to work for me. I’d be interested in your approach to this.

[@GenealogyTV]

SBA I hear you loud and clear. I have a few videos that might help you. These all kind of go hand-in-hand with each other... and my methods. Good Filing Habits from the Start kzbin.info/www/bejne/bajLp5SZit5_fq8, Research Notes kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJqVeJxsjrGZes0,, Turbo Scan for quick way to scan your notes & papers kzbin.info/www/bejne/pn_RZXSBhL2blbM , and Research Logs kzbin.info/www/bejne/eqbUZK1-rL6WgrM Hope that helps.

[@GenealogyTV]

SBA Just wanted to let you know that I'm using your comment in this Friday's video called "Your Questions Answered!"... and next weeks video too. You're getting your own video response to this one. :)

[@sba0529]

Genealogy TV Awesome! I’m looking forward to your information.😃

[@The_CR_Phil]

Terrific tips! Thank you!

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks Phil. Thanks for joining us as a channel member!

[@PaulaTalbert]

In FamilyTreeMaker 2019 I can add unrelated people, then once I find the link, I can attach them.

[@riverhawkenw]

This is great information!! Thank you :). Also, where and how is a good place or way to add stories to an ancestor? Love your program!!!

[@GenealogyTV]

You can add stories as a text document or say Word document in the gallery, or you can use the notes (private) section... or you can use the public comment section for others to see.

[@janisrodriguez8584]

Thanks for the tip. It is kluge and not very informative. I guess you could type your Notes from your ancestor’s notes page into the friends page. The Master Genealogist (TMG) software does this MUCH better by allowing the user to attach family and non-family witnesses to any tag. This made it easy to have, for example, a property or deed tag with the grantor and grantee attached to the tag. Or a burial tags which identified the pallbearers. Or a wedding which identified bridesmaids, groomsmen, etc. it worked great for censuses, too. Later TMG added a wonderful Associates window you could include in your layout which showed all the associates, the event/tag/fact they shared with the person whose page you were on with live links to the associate. This made it easy to see your fan club! It would be great if Ancestry could implement both of these features! Regards, Jan

[@janisrodriguez8584]

FYI John Cardinal’s new program “The Master Genealogist to GEDCOM (T2G) is tackling TMG’s export of witnesses into GEDCOM and, from there into Ancestry and other genealogy programs that can not accommodate witnesses, by cloning the tag for each witness and inserting the sentence for that witness into the description field of the cloned tag. T2G also adds the witness’ role to the name BMDB events to avoid confusion. Depending upon the TMG sentences for that tag, the result is that each witness’ tag should refer to the other witnesses, at at least the principals, of the tag. Unfortunately the witness are not physically linked to each other due to Ancestry’s current limitations.

[@grainesutube]

This is neat. You can also web link to a different tree.

[@grainesutube]

Oh, I should mention that you can use this separate tree to research this FAN to see if the FAN's ancestors might have a relationship to your relative.

[@GenealogyTV]

Yes.. you can. I'm a fan of keeping one tree for my family though. No pun intended.

[@GirlthattheFIRST]

Now what about all the trees on ancestry that you look at for possible relatives or trees of DNA matches that you don't see the connections right off but would like to view again later on.....???? Is there an efficient way to do that? I'm afraid to just place as a link under one of my relatives in case I loose track of who they are or might be attached to. I have way too many trees ongoing but keep tabs open for future viewing. It would be nice to have them all under one file versus just as a bookmark on my browser.

[@GenealogyTV]

I use the notes feature on the DNA Cousin Matches to note those I want to investigate further. You can also use a color coding system (that you create) on the cousin match page. Recently, Ancestry has added the feature to be able to see your notes right on the cousin match list which is really convenient. So you could use ALL CAPS or something to make those notes "TO REVIEW LATER" jump off the page to catch your attention. I always date my notes so I know when I last made a note. Those notes are private, only you can see notes. You could use notes on the profiles of your ancestors too, but know the "Comments" are public and "Notes" are private. BTW, just know that Ancestry encourages you to keep one tree for better search results... although have several myself, such as working a missing parentage problem, client trees.. and such. I hope that helps.

[@GenealogyTV]

Just wanted to let you know that I'm using your question in this Friday's video called "Your Questions Answered!"

[@julius4858]

That is such a scuffed solution. Would've loved for Ancestry to build something in, where I can enter when I started meeting people etc.

[@julius4858]

Fun fact: Ancestry lists that as the actual solution on the help page under "adding non-relatives". What the hell.

[@SusanBarrettPrice]

Sadly, weblinks don't merge into Family Tree Maker 2019. Must links be added manually. Is there a way you build FAN Clubs within Family Tree Maker or does that just wind up being an Ancestry tool? Thanks for all you do!

[@GenealogyTV]

You can create a fan club anywhere you’re working in. I personally don’t use family tree maker as much as I used to, I do it all on ancestry.

[@brigittetheall9187]

Great Info-Thank you both!

[@karenhiggs8603]

That’s awesome - thank you.

[@GenealogyTV]

Yeah I liked it too! I've started using it on all of my research.

[@loveandacademics]

Thank you!

[@GenealogyTV]

You bet!

[@emmab7403]

Now it lets you add "other" but wish it then had a field you could tag onto other to specifiy what exactly

[@AuntieJensFamilyTrees]

Couldn't you also, after adding the person to the tree, connect them with records? Since you have records that link them already, couldn't you tag them both and then in the notes column of that record mention they are a friend of the family?

[@GenealogyTV]

Yes I believe you can, I've just not done it that way. Someone else also mentioned that too. I guess it comes down to whatever works best for you. Thanks for the comment Auntie Jen!

[@BrandiFink]

I have a question. Instead of making a web link, could I create a source with minimal information? Could I skip the "source" info and go right to the citation with their name as the title and FAN Club or Cluster Research somewhere in the description with their profile as the URL? That would allow me to link them to the events. I am working on a brick wall, and it's becoming a bit of a spider web. I'm searching newspapers and finding people who signed probate documents for my deceased ancestor. I'd like to be able to link them to the newspaper articles where they appear together. But I'm not sure if creating a source would mess up my citations. :/

[@GenealogyTV]

Brandi. There are a lot of questions here, but I get it. What you are trying to do is Correlate Evidence. I teach this at the GTV Academy. genealogytv.org/about-genealogy-tv-academy/ Here is a clip from the KZbin channel that might help you think about how to keep track of all those FAN club members. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJzcYqRmhquXgbc

[@jos.4276]

Complicated workaround. A better solution would be an option to have a FAN collection--searchable and reportable.

[@loveandacademics]

Is there one about doing this is familysearch?

[@GenealogyTV]

Not really. FS doesn't work the same way. I'll have to give this some thought.

[@ismaelugarte7042]

How did you get that bar under your ancestor?

[@GenealogyTV]

Ismael I;m not sure what bar you're talking about. What does it say or look like? If you can give me more detail I might be able to help.

[@ismaelugarte7042]

The bar that says "Family Tree View notes view comments, 0:19

[@bebe1.1.1]

👍🏽