Creating My Family Tree

 

This week on the podcast, we are discussing ancestry, genealogy, and DNA testing. I’ve been interested in my family history since I was very young, having been told my entire life that my maternal great-grandmother was part Native American. I’ve talked about my genealogical journey on my family website, and as I mention in the podcast coming up Wednesday, I’ve had some exciting finds and some frustrating failures. I pretty much gave up on my research when my kids got really busy with school and extra-curricular activities, as I just didn’t have time to spend on it, but now that technology has made the search so much easier, I feel the need to get back to it. Already, I’m starting to daydream about trips to Salt Lake City to research the archives there, and I’m tempted to test my DNA on multiple sites to see if anything new pops up. But really, I think I just need a place to start, and that’s with me.

I decided to start a family tree on Ancestry.com since they offer a free 14-day trial and I know at least one distant relative who also has a tree there; I thought I might be able to add her data to mine to build my tree quickly.

It took me only a few minutes to get my account started and to begin adding my family members to the tree. The process is guided for new accounts, and although I found it a bit annoying at first, in the end, it turned out to be a blessing, as I was able to add the better part of three generations to my tree in a matter of minutes without my genealogy notebook at hand. I did have to do a bit of editing on the tree, as it insisted on naming my daughter (and co-host) Christen Carlson, even though her name changed to Murray when she was adopted by my husband. I’m not sure what the precedent is for that, so I may have to do some research and I may have to change it back.

One of the things that did surprise me was the wealth of documents and information that is handily available with the ease of a mouse click. While adding my maternal grandmother to my tree, Ancestry offered hints about some possible document matches. When I clicked on the link, a pop-up appeared with marriage, birth, and death records that filled in some missing information that I had skipped when I added her to the tree.

All in all, it looks to be a powerful tool for researching and documenting ancestry, which is a far cry from the old Family Tree Maker software and handwritten records I used way back when. I can’t wait to get back to my tree to fill it out some more. I also need to decide if I want to keep the membership after my 14 days are over. If I cancel, my membership will revert to “Guest” access, and I can still access and edit my family tree, but all these wonderful search tools and documentation will no longer be at my fingertips. It’s a hard call, and I’ll have to think about it.  In the meantime, I think I’ll go add my DNA results to the GEDMATCH website and then come back to this family tree. How big can I get it in 14 days?

Have you used an Ancestry.com family tree? Do you have a subscription to Ancestry? I’d love to hear about it! Join us on the Facebook chat group, MMC Chat, or comment below.