Ancestry’s "Describe This Event" Tool

Have you noticed the new BETA "Describe This Event" option popping up on facts in your Ancestry family trees? If you have the feature it would show up in facts or timeline of a profile as seen in the above image. It's been active in my account for several weeks so I’ve been testing it out, and while it has a lot of potential for streamlining how we document our ancestors' lives, it definitely comes with a few caveats. Because it generates information strictly from linked records, it is heavily susceptible to transcription errors and misinterpretations. If an indexed record has an error or misreads a handwriting detail, that error is included in the generated summary even if there are corrections that have been made for it.  As with any AI generated text, there can be misinterpretations. Thankfully, the edit function allows us to clean up those transcription mistakes and add missing details manually

One of my biggest frustrations with adding detailed citations or notes directly to source records in Ancestry has been running into strict character limits. So far, the Description field doesn't seem to have that issue. Having an open space to write comprehensive event details, or lay out proof arguments without hitting a character limit wall is a huge win for thorough researchers and hopefully will inspire others to be more detailed in their research.

I’m still waiting to get access to the updated version of ThruLines. I’m eager to test out the new layout and navigation once it rolls out to my account.

Some of the new features at Ancestry

Trying out a few of the new features at Ancestry that were announced at RootsTech 2026.  I had the Ideas button for a bit but it is no longer showing on my account.  It didn't work very well for my tree and kept suggesting things I already had.  I do not have access to the Transcription tool because my level of subscription is US Discovery(I'm Colonial American on both sides & that level works better for me)   I do have several other of the new tools that were announced at RootsTech.

Ancestry's new Census Hint Comparison feature.
My 2nd Great Grand Uncle Henry Frizzell's census records

Discover Insights of Gallery Images

Hoping this new feature will catch on and help folks add descriptions, dates, image type and locations to their images.  If you have any of the fields blank it will offer Insights generated by clicking on the Insights Button(shown below).

  

Once the insights are generated the user has the option of saving or removing the generated text. I like that it explains how it came up with the location.  It was correct so I chose to save it.

The generated description was also correct.  The picture was of my Dad, with a hospital gown over this clothing so that he could hold his first child.  It did a very good job on this.  You can get an Insight to any of the fields if you clear them and then refresh the page.

The Insights Tool will be a good function to have if you plan on using their new digitization service,  AncestryPreserve. Ancestry delivers those digitally preserved files to your gallery. You will be able to add info to them just as you would any other uploaded files.

Ancestry has also streamlined the adding source citation process.  Hopefully this will encourage folks to add a source since it is a lot easier to do.  It is better to have some type of source citation than NO source citation.  I'm so happy to see this. I've never done change well but this change is something I am all for.

Also the Ancestry AI has been around for awhile.  You can ask it questions and have it interrupt 1950 census data and a number of other files.  The issues I run into with it are when the transcription is riddled with errors and / or my ancestor just out right lied.  Then some of the things it comes up with a not so great because they don't match what I know was happening within the family.  As far as I could tell any corrections I had added were not considered when generating the AI insights.  For me it was better on what was going on in the general area rather than within the family. 

How I am using Ancestry's Network Tool

I have access to the Beta of Ancestry's Network Tool.  At this point, it's only available to those with the ProTools add-on.  Since my main research block is my Cook ancestry, I've created several networks dealing with William Clifford Cook to try and pull together what I have and hopefully make some discoveries.

William Clifford Cook(1811-1882) Networks

• Purchasers at the Estate Sale of Jos S Cook 1838
• Involved in Robert Williams vs Wm Putman et al
• 1830 Bedford County TN Dist 9 Neighborhood
• W C Cook Deeds--Note Involvement Regardless of Role

Within those networks, I use the Stickies to make notes.  In the W C Cook's Deeds network, I create a Stickie for each transaction, which allows me to tag people from the network involved in each record, along with the date and location. The Stickies remind me of Trello (I have used Trello for some genealogy projects to organize my work)

I'm continuing to add people, events, and notes to the network, but the image above is a screenshot of what I have done as of this date. As I add people to the networks, I will need to research them and use the protools tree checker to merge duplicates and check for other errors.  

I've already discovered some overlap and new information because of using the network and working to learn more about the connections. When you review your notes, you can sometimes discover that you have errors, and correcting those will help to clear the picture.  

I love the ability to focus on a Network with the Tree Mapper.

Things I'd like to see as far as improving the Networks

• The ability to move, sort, and save how I view Stickies.  
• An +ADD A PERSON button at the top AND the bottom of a list
• The page view amounts(10 is the default) seem too small, which can hinder productivity (it does in other areas of the site--list of people, DNA match list, etc.)
• The SORT of the items in the Tree Mapper is done by Fact or Event type, but I'd like to be able to arrange that by date overall or at least by date under each Fact or Event.

The Networks tool is a great addition. I truly wish they would work on a Find & Replace tool for locations. That would not only help to improve Ancestry Trees but also the functionality of tools that rely on those trees, such as Thrulines and the ProTools Tree Mapper.

RootsTech 2019--Day 1

Today was the first day of RootsTech 2019.  Although I'm not physically there are many ways to participate.  Here is my take on Wednesday from the viewpoint of someone who is #NotAtRootsTech.


Wednesday's Live Stream

What’s New at FamilySearch?--Ron Tanner(FamilySearch International) talked about the exciting additions at FamilySearch as well as some new tools in the works.  I like the expanded fan chart(see mine below)  Also high-speed possible duplicates.  He also talked about an upcoming feature which will allow corrections to indexed images.  This is something that has been needed for a LONG time and I'm so glad to hear that's in the works.


Hear Them Sing! Social History and Family Narrative--Rebecca Whitman Koford CG, CGL
What a great reminder of something I need to do more of--write the stories of my ancestors.  She talked about using timelines to pull the history together.  I LOVE timelines.  They are such a great help in our research.

Uncovering Family Stories with British and Irish Historic Newspapers--Myko Clelland(FindMyPast)
Lots of great information on wildcard searching in this session.  Excellent list of the different types of articles in which you may find ancestors.  Get the App and download the handout!  It contains links to Newspaper sites, some of which are free.

Connecting Your DNA Matches--Diahan Southard
Great outline of what a genetic network is and how to create them.  Also, some tips about how to search for ICW(in-common-with)ancestors.  She also included a bit about the new features ThruLines(at Ancestry) and MyHeritage's Theory of Relativity.  I loved that she gave examples of why these are HINTs.and some situations where the suggestion is wrong.  I always enjoy Diahan Southard's presentations.


Wednesday's Hottest News

Today's hottest news--Genetic Network tools from MyHeritage(Theory of Relativity) and Ancestry(ThruLines).  Ancestry also has several other tools including TreeTags and AncestryDNA Custom Groups

The most exciting news for those with African American ancestry beyond the new tools for use with DNA research would be the donation of $2 Million dollars by the LDS church to the International African American Museum.


I also love the Extended Fan Chart mentioned in Ron Tanner's presentation.

My personal favorite announcement was that the GeneticAffairs' Autocluster tool will now be part of the MyHeritage Tools.  A VERY busy day!.

Share your Ancestry trees via unique invite links

Allowing people to view your Ancestry tree is now easier than ever.  This will be a huge help not only for DNA testers but for sharing in general. I will be using this for most of my tree shares.  It is almost impossible to send a tree share invite to those who use their name instead of a username and who aren't able to see the tree because of a lack of a subscription.  This will take care of that.

1. While viewing the tree you wish to share, select Tree Settings.  Under Tree Settings select Sharing.
Under the Sharing section, Select Invite People.

2.  Notice there are now 3 ways to share the tree.  Select Shareable Link.

3.  You can choose the roles:  Guest, Contributor or Editor.  Also, the option to allow them to see living persons is available by share link.

4.  Once you have selected the Create Link a unique URL will appear which you can share.  Please note the blurb above the URL for more info on how the link will work.

Note to Self

I've gotten in the habit of writing notes in the comment section of Records in my search results at Ancestry.   The comments help me remember details about the image and to know that I have viewed the image.  This is a great timesaver when the image is of an index.  I leave notes on how to navigate to the page it references and sometimes details about the names listed in the records.  This is particularly helpful with common surnames in my research such as King and Cook where there are MANY men with the given names, John, William, Thomas etc. An example of one of my typical notes is shown below.  If my notes are helpful to others, that's even better.   

An example of why we must ALWAYS check the image.

Digging thru Riddles in the Warren Co TN area I was reminded of why you should always click thru to the image for further examination.

Reading the index would make you think this household is made up of 2 Males.  That really doesn't make sense given that the head of household is female.  Even if she were a person of color she would be listed in Total All column.

I pasted the column headers in just above the snippet of Mary's entry so you could see how many in each age group and gender were enumerated. (Click image to enlarge)

The index did not include the 3 white females in the household.  

1 ------- 30-under 40

1 ------- 50-under 60

1 ------- 70-under 80

I left a comment on this entry to make others aware of the omission.  

When you think about how many people this information has passed thru it's amazing that we still have any of it.

This particular entry was from the Ancestry Database of the 1830 United States Federal Census.  That database was made using images digitized by FamilySearch of the census pages which were microfilmed by the NARA.  I do not know who indexed the census. Those pages of census data were collected by the census taker from someone in that household(and in some cases probably a neighbor).  From what I understand it was not uncommon for the census taker to collect the data and then write it on the census form later in his best...or sometimes worst handwriting.  I checked to see if the 1830 census pages still exist but from what I can gather the NARA only has the negative photostatic copies for the year 1830. [1]

Ancestry Database:
Ancestry.com. 1830 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.1830; Image 141 of 158.

Family History Library Film:
Census Place: Warren, Tennessee; Series: M19; Roll: 181; Page: 367; Family History Library Film: 0024539

Original data: 

Fifth Census of the United States, 1830. (NARA microfilm publication M19, 201 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

New Ancestor Discovery--most promising one so far

I had some New Ancestor Discoveries that showed up this past week on my AncestryDNA test.  The New Ancestor Discovery feature is still in Beta and I haven't really found it to be useful. These were a Shipman and McFadin couple and the father of the Shipman.  I have marked the New Ancestry Discoveries with an M if they are ones which also appear on my Mom's AncestryDNA test. They others and the new ones I have marked with a P(for Paternal) to note they are not ones I share with my Mother.

On first glance this doesn't really give much hope as this couple was born in the mid 1800s.  My Grandparents were born in the 1880s & 1890s.  and I have most of the direct lines back to my 4th great grandparents with the exception of my Cook(e) line which I only have proven to the 2nd Great Grandfather who was said to be born in NC in 1811.  Upon further examination of the couple I could see that they had people in early Bedford Co TN which is where my Dad's ancestors were early on in Tennessee's history.  It looks like the Shipmans were all listed as Chisums in the 1830 of Bedford Co TN.  Do not know why but see them in tax listings as Shipmans all other yrs.  Near them are Landers, Walker, and Turner families.  I should also mention that there are Shofners also on the same page.  I mention this because I have noticed matches with descendants of Martin Shofner.  There are also some Prince families on the next page(My Prince line married into the Putman line and was from Union Co SC).  I looked at the wife(Sarah Samantha McFadin) and worked her lines back to her grandparents. Bingo.....Her Paternal Grandmother is a Sally Brandon and a sister to my Nancy Brandon who married John King(they are my 4th Great Grandparents).  This may or may not be the connection but it possible.  The parents of Sally and Nancy are Charles Brandon.......and possibly Sarah Cook which further complicates this as she could be from my Cook line. This is a great argument for friends associates and neighbors research as well as cluster genealogy.  Families traveled together.  In colonial times and even up to the turn of the 20th century ...many people traveled in groups.   Families that had intermarried ...usually of the same faith as well.  Another cool thing about this New Ancestor Discovery is that in the grouping of what can best be described as the precursor to the Ancestry Circle(which groups together matches who have common ancestors with you in their tree) was that there was a group with which I share a rather large segment.  What's next...I will be looking more for more available records in Bedford Co. TN and the other areas in which the Brandon, Shofner, Landers  and Shipman families lived.  Hope to have more information to blog about from that.

Alfred & Fred have an awful lot in common

Working thru descendants of William Benton King and Eliza Jane Manire I began researching their granddaughter Edna Earle Foster.  Edna Earle was the daughter of Margaret Jordan King and William Leroy Foster.   Earle married a man by the name of Alfred Newton Mitchell.  You'd think that would be a name you don't see much...the full name at least.  I was searching thru Ancestry and I notice a link to the WWI Draft Registration Cards  One for a Alfred Newton Mitchell and another for a Fred Newton Mitchell.  So I looked at both of them wondering if he might have a double life.  Stranger things have happened.

Alfred Newton Mitchell

• DOB March 4th 1883
• Address Berwyn, Carter, Oklahoma
• Nearest Relative:  Wife Earl Mitchell
• Occupation:  Sec Foreman Gulf, Colorado & Sante Fe Railway
• White Natural Born Citizen
• Short with a medium build
• Brown Eyes and Brown Hair
• Reg. Date Sept 12, 1918

Fred Newton Mitchell

• DOB Feb 4th 1883
• Address:  Rio Grande Colorado
• DOB Feb 4th 1883
• Nearest Relative:  Wife Hanna Katherine Mitchell
• Occupation:  Stockman Farmer Self Employed
• White Natural Born Citizen
• Short with medium build
• Light Blue Eyes Dk Brown Hair
• Reg. Date Sept 12, 1918

Whew....one with blue eyes and one with brown eyes...
I did find them both in 1920 Census.  I checked that also to make sure ...and no the children don't have the same names.  :-)

I think this is how a lot of mistakes get in peoples tree...they see the Suggested Records and take them as fact and just add away.  Alfred Newton Mitchell is the father of several King descendants(specifically Descendants of Wm Benton King & wife Eliza Jane Manire)
Fred Newton Mitchell is not unless his wife Hannah Katherine Myers was a King descendant.  If she was she didn't come from the Wm B King lines.

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.

Regional DNA Studies

I received my Ancestry DNA kit this last week and took the test, mailed it and activated it on Ancestry's website on the 13th of this month.  In the mean time I have been trying to keep busy and not think about it too much.  I know....Good Luck with that.  In an earlier post to my blog I gave it my best guess on what I think my ethnic breakdown will be.  I am really looking forward to comparing the results with my tree.  Barring some kind of crazy find in the one line that I don't have back further than my Gr Gr grandfather I am pretty much colonial American with those lines coming out of Maryland and Virginia in the 1600 & 1700s.  By 1800s most of my lines were in Tennessee, USA with many in the area just prior to the formation of the state in 1796.  This has got me thinking about DNA research for areas.  I know there is a tool where you can take your DNA results and compare surnames but is there a tool available to the public where you can compare areas of the USA during more recent times that would be helpful to those looking for adoptions and non paternal events within the last 200 or so years.  Using both the Location & Surname together could help.  Something similar to a surname study but for a specific region.  If so I would be interested in a Colonial American one and also Early TN Settlers. Just some thoughts.