Celebrity Genealogy Research - My Family
USING ANCESTRY.COM
How to Start Building Your Family Tree on Ancestry.com
Once you’ve gathered your initial family research—names, dates, birthplaces, and other key details—it’s time to organize that information in a format that helps you easily track your ancestors and family connections.
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Why I Recommend Ancestry.com for Genealogy Research
I chose Ancestry.com as the starting point for building my family tree. While there are other genealogy websites available, I’ve found Ancestry’s platform to be user-friendly, visually clear, and easy to navigate. The site also frequently offers free trials, so you can explore its features before committing to a subscription.
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Getting Started with Your Family Tree on Ancestry.com
Follow these simple steps to begin your family history journey:
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Create an Account
Choose a memorable screen name and password. Write them down in a secure place, but don’t worry—Ancestry offers easy recovery options if you forget them. -
Start a New Family Tree
Click on “Create a new tree” to begin. Enter your personal details such as:-
Full name
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Birth date and place
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Spouse’s name
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Children’s names
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Parents’ names, birth dates, and birthplaces
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Siblings’ names and details
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Add Extended Family Members
After entering your immediate family, expand your tree by adding relatives such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Include as much verified information as possible to help Ancestry generate accurate family connections. -
View and Explore Your Family Tree
Once your data is entered, Ancestry.com automatically organizes your family members into a clear, easy-to-read family tree. This visual layout helps you see relationships at a glance and serves as the foundation for deeper genealogy research.
As you begin to add names and information, your tree will slowly start to form. The more information you add, the larger the "tree" becomes. As you add different generations, the tree will begin to branch out. Soon your tree will be filled with names of people you know.
With every person and piece of information you add, you are entering data in the Ancestry.com database. This database then begins to match your information with the data stored in their computer system and soon you will probably start to see a small green leaf appear next to someone's name. This green leaf indicates a "hint". Click on the person with the leaf attached and you will be taken to another page that will list available hints for that person.
Click on the green box named "review" to be taken to a page with additional information. For the examples above, if you click on the review button for the 1891 Scotland Census, you will see the name of your relative and the people that were in the residence with him/her at the time of the census. Often this is a valuable way to find previously unknown siblings along with birth information.
In a lot of cases the information contained in census records may not be exact. For example, a birth date may be listed as "about 1820" rather than the actual birth date of April 15, 1817. This is commonplace for older census records but can at least provide a starting point until you find the actual birth date of your relative.
When possible, click on the actual census or other record to view it in detail. Most census records have been transcribed by volunteers, and while their intentions may be good, their accuracy in names and spellings can sometimes leave a lot to be desired! Don't blindly accept the information shown in the hint as fact - check your details.
Building Your Family Tree on Ancestry.com: Tips for Smarter Genealogy Research
As you begin adding more detail to each person in your family tree, you’ll start noticing new Ancestry.com hints appearing. Sometimes this happens gradually, but other times you’ll hit what I like to call a “rich relative vein” — when suddenly, ancestors seem to appear out of nowhere, revealing fascinating connections and information you never knew existed.
This stage can be both exciting and overwhelming. As your family tree grows, it’s easy to drift into the realm of distant relatives — like fourth cousins three times removed from your second cousin’s spouse. While you can certainly add anyone you like, be mindful that including non-bloodline connections can clutter your tree and distract you from your direct lineage research.
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Using Information from Other Ancestry.com Members’ Trees
One of the most valuable features of Ancestry.com is the ability to view information from other members’ family trees. These shared trees can offer incredible clues about ancestors you know little or nothing about.
However, it’s important to verify before you copy. Simply clicking to add information directly from another member’s tree can quickly create confusion and inaccuracies. Names are often repeated — for example, “Jane Smith from London” might not be your Jane Smith from London.
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Pro Tip:
Before importing data, write down the information you find and manually enter only what you’ve verified as accurate! This extra step will save you countless hours later when you discover that someone else’s tree may have contained errors or mismatched relatives.
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Accessing Foreign Records on Ancestry
When you subscribe to Ancestry.com or use a free trial, you can choose from various membership packages. It’s best to start with your local Ancestry site — for example:
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Ancestry.ca for Canada
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Ancestry.co.uk for the UK
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Ancestry.com for the United States
Begin your genealogy research with records from your own country. Once you’ve explored local resources, you can upgrade to the World Explorer package, which gives you access to global records — perfect for tracing immigrant ancestors or international family branches.
For example, if your great-great-great-grandfather immigrated from Italy to New York City in 1820, the World Explorer plan allows you to search Italian and American records side by side. You can even filter by specific countries or record types to uncover hidden details once the automatic “leaf” hints have run out.
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Public vs. Private Family Trees: Choosing the Right Setting
Ancestry.com allows you to control who can view your family tree, giving you two main options: Private or Public.
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Private Family Trees
If you value privacy, setting your tree to private ensures that only you (and people you specifically invite) can see the details. Any hints connected to individuals in your tree will also be marked private. This protects your information but limits your interaction with other researchers who might have useful insights.
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Public Family Trees
If you set your tree to public, other Ancestry.com members can view your data — but they cannot edit it. A public tree increases your chances of connecting with other users researching the same ancestors.
By keeping my own tree public, I’ve connected with distant relatives I never knew existed — some of whom provided valuable information and old family photos. These experiences have been incredibly rewarding, but always remember: use common sense. Never share personal information online until you’re certain who you’re communicating with. Even a newly discovered relative is still a stranger until verified.
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Final Thoughts
Building your family tree on Ancestry.com is a journey of discovery filled with unexpected connections and exciting historical finds. Take your time, verify your sources, and decide how public you want your research to be. By following these genealogy best practices, you’ll build a more accurate, meaningful family tree — and maybe even connect with long-lost relatives along the way.