SHARING YOUR FAMILY TREE

Showcase & share your family history with your family today. The tools on Ancestry make this easy and enjoyable to do. Read on for tips

1. Tree sharing

One of the easiest and most important ways of sharing your family history research with family members is simply to share your tree. Ancestry have made this very easy to invite others to view your tree, even if they are not Ancestry patrons.

2. Add photos

Make your tree even more interesting to family members by adding photographs. Family members will be able to leave comments too, perhaps providing clues and adding insights to the family history.

3. Make use of Custom Tags

Use Custom Tags to create searchable themes – these are useful for your own research, and may spark the interest of family members too. For instance, you may wish to create a custom tag called ‘football supporters’, ‘dress-makers’ or ‘military ancestors’. It is entirely up to you.

4. Create stories

Adding biographical information helps to bring an ancestor’s story to life, gives you the opportunity to preserve those precious nuggets of information, and allows you to introduce an ancestor to your family members, or remind them of associated family anecdotes etc.

5. Custom events

You can personalise your ancestor’s story further by adding ‘Custom Events’. Perhaps you wish to include information about their sporting or musical achievements, or details of their prize-winning pets. This is all about their story – the people and events that make your family unique.

• Click on an ancestor’s profile, then use the ‘Add a Biography to Personalize the Life Story’ box.

• To add a tag, select a person on your tree, then add a tag from the window on the right-hand side. You can choose from existing tags, or create your own ‘Custom Tag’. • Using ‘Tree Search’ you can then filter to reveal a list of ancestors to whom that tag applies.

• Select a photo, and then add dates, places and comments about each photo. TIP! Choose one of your ancestor photos and use it for that ancestor’s profile picture to help to personalise your tree.

• Choose ‘Sharing’. • Decide if you wish to share via email, username or a link. Select the appropriate level: guest, contributor or editor. Click on the information icon to learn more about each of these three roles.

• Select your tree and go to ‘Tree Settings’.

• Select ‘Add’ / ‘Add Event’ / ‘Select an Event Type’.

• You may add a description and a photo to the event, thus enriching your family story further.

• To organise your photos, go to Media Gallery.