Did you receive an email from Ancestry Support Forum?

NO NEED TO PANIC: If you are one of those who has gotten an email from Ancestry Support to change your password, don't panic. As someone who uses the support there I also got this email.  It was sent so that you can be transitioned to Ancestry Support Forum's new platform. What you are changing is the password you used to log on the Ancestry Support Forum....NOT changing your Ancestry Password. The Ancestry Support section has had a separate log on from your Ancestry subscription acct for as long as I've used it. That's not to say that you didn't use the same password or username when you created the Support log on that you did your Ancestry acct. but the email is legit if you check the headers and it looks something like this

From: Ancestry Support
Sender: noreply@salesforce.com 

To: rmbeck***@gmail.com 

Subject: Welcome to Ancestry Support! 

There has been a notice below the masthead at the Ancestry Support Forums for a good while now announcing that they were changing to a new platform. You can navigate to the new site from the Ancestry.com site by Selecting HELP from the menu and choosing Support Center from that drop down menu..

[Update:  As a member and reader of several online forums I had watched the panic spread about the email and posted this only to let my fellow researchers know that it was a legitimate.

I agree it was not the best means to announce the change....however the email was consistent in form with those I get when someone adds info to their tree, shares a tree or DNA with me  or when Ancestry "Discovers" new hints.]

DISCLAIMER:  While I use many products and services in my research I am not affiliate with any of the companies who provide any products or services I have used. Any products or services I use were paid for by me. If at any time I receive free products or services, I will state that before my review or opinion.  I do not speak for or represent any of these companies.  My opinions are just that...MY opinions just as you are free to form your own opinions

Reminder to Tennessee Residents--Select Genealogy Databases Available thru TEL

If you are resident of Tennessee you have access to a number of genealogy databases from the comfort of your home thru the Tennessee Electronic Library 


Currently you can access the following thanks to TSLA's agreement with Ancestry.com.

Tennessee, Delayed Birth Records, 1869-1909
Tennessee, Death Records, 1908-1958
Tennessee, City Birth Records, 1881-1915
North Carolina and Tennessee, Early Land Records, 1753-1931
Tennessee, Early Tax List Records, 1783-1895
Tennessee, Enumeration of Male Voters, 1891
North Carolina and Tennessee, Revolutionary War Land Warrants, 1783-1843
Tennessee, City Death Records, 1872-1923
Tennessee, Wills and Probate Records, 1779-2008
Web: Tennessee, Supreme Court Case Index, 1809-1950

HeritageQuest(made available thru ProQuest) and a few other databases are available as well.  Some may require your library name and card number while other's will check your IP address to iusure you are in Tennessee.

If you are a resident of another state, check with your state library to see what they offer.  I think it's highly likely that they too have some free databases available.

1838 Tax list-Williamson Co TN--Dist 25

Snippet from the C section of the 1838 Tax list for Williamson Co Tennessee's 25th Dist. which includes my Wm C Cook and Joseph Cook among the Crick family which married heavily in the Putman(Wm. C's in-laws) family.

Names shown on the Dist 25 listing.  The writing was a bit difficult to read but not as bad as some I've come across.  I'm sure there are errors on my part.

		Williamson Co TN
		1838 Tax List Names
		District 25

1840 Williamson Co TN Census Head of Households

A look at the head of households in Dist 25 of Williamson Co TN in the 1840 Federal Census. This is the area where Joseph S Cook AND Wm C Cook are listed among the tax records in 1838. Wm C Cook is listed among the tax records of Bedford County's 10th Dist in two tax years prior to that(1836 & 1837)

* Name is not a duplicate and households differ in age breakdowns.

Williamson County, Tennessee District 25 pages 204A-206A (Beginning: Image 190 of 198)
Ancestry.com. 1840 United States Federal Census [database on-line: https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8057]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Finally have New Ancestor Discoveries at AncestryDNA

After having results for my Autosomal DNA testing from AncestryDNA for a year and four months I am finally just now getting New Ancestor Discoveries.  I had contacted them last year about not having any despite my both my Mother and my Daughters test having In Common New Ancestor Discoveries that I should have also have gotten since my daughter would have gotten them from me.
Their response was a canned one see copy and paste below:

I told them that their response was not logical given the info I mentioned above.  My tree does have almost 9000 people in it but that is hardly large in comparison to a lot of the trees hosted there.

Interestingly enough the New Ancestor Discoveries that I have are not the ones that my Mom and my Daughter share(which my daughter would have gotten from me)  These are Paternal New Ancestor Discoveries.  I can tell because they all have one thing in common--the Putman line which is my Dad's Great Grandmother's line.  My daughter now has these in addition to the Maternal New Ancestor Discoveries she had.  She also has another New Ancestor Discovery which is not showing in mine yet and which also ties to the Putman family.

In addition to these New Ancestor Discoveries I also have a  new milestone of 600 4th cousin or closer matches.  Perhaps my sister's DNA results will be in soon.  The status on it went to lab processing last week.

Ethnic results updated at DNALand

Admittedly I have not done much at DNAland other than register and upload my autosomal DNA test but I had heard that they have new Ethnic breakdown results so I went to check it out.  I think my original results was very generic there.  Something like 90+ European. Seems to be somewhat better now(see the screenshots below)  I still only have one close match there who is also a match at FTDNA.  This match is on my paternal side but beyond that I cannot tell where the connection is since my request to work together to find the connection has went unanswered.  I am sending an update and I hope that will spark a response.

Shows the Ethnic Breakdown in pie chart form

This shows where on the map the ethnic matches were located.

A more detailed explanation of that is included or not included in each grouping.  This varies from site to site--at Ancestry..the ones available at GEDmatch, 23&me and FTDNA.  To date this is the best explanation of what is included  at this site ....the other sites need something like this.  If they have it...it is not easily found.