Trying Ancestry's Pro Tools Suite: Tree Checker

Ancestry recently introduced their new Pro Tools which is an add-on subscription. As a current subscriber to Ancestry with a US Discovery Membership, I was given the option to add the tools which I did for a monthly fee of $9.99. My plan is to cancel the Pro Tool add-on before next month's charge.  This will allow me to test drive the tools and see if they are an option for which I can justify spending money. 

I have a good number of trees with my main tree containing 18000+ people.  It took it awhile to index my main tree.  

Tree Checker--I am all for anything that allows us to make corrections more easily.  Possible Errors had only two tabs on mine:  Possible Duplicates, and Other Possible Issues.  You can further filter the list by clicking on More Filters 

Family Line
    Direct Line
    Paternal Line
    Maternal Line
    End of Line

Events & Places

    Birth 
    Marriage 
    Death 
    Lived In
    Any Event

Possible Errors

    Possible Duplicates
    Other Possible Issues
Hints
    Has Hints

I noticed that once I corrected or merged I was given the option to View All Errors.  This was not helpful.  It had opened the selected issue up in a new tab(I'm on Chrome.) An option to close this window and refresh the previous screen would have been more helpful for the process. 

Beyond the duplicates, the error that I noticed the most in my tree was caused when I'd added the 1940 census.  Some of the children who were under 5 in 1940 had gotten a residence fact associated with their profile.  I believe this was corrected at a certain point and it's no longer necessary to remember to uncheck that box when adding those under 5 from the census record.  It would be nice if there was a way to work on specific errors other than have them all lumped in the "other possible issues" category.

It discovered a "floater" in my tree and displaced this error when I clicked on the  "!"

Sometimes my floaters are intentional--other times they are from me sloppily deleting a parent, spouse or child of that person and losing them within the database.

We can expect to see changes in how the tool works these next few weeks errors and bugs in how it works are reported and modified.  It is hard to get a workflow going for the error connection process. I don't feel that the Tree Checker should be part of a paid tool suite, mainly because of the value it brings to Ancestry's tree database when people use it and make corrections. It should be available to anyone who is building trees at Ancestry because the accuracy of those trees help to improve the Hints, Thrulines and Suggested Records etc.

The Tree Checker is just one of the tools in the Pro Tools suite.  I will be trying out some of the others in the next few days and share my thoughts on those.  I am excited about the Map Views but that's a topic for another day.

RootsTech 2019--Day 2

Day 2 of RootsTech 2019.  Here is my take on Thursday's happenings from the viewpoint of someone who is #NotAtRootsTech.

Thursday's Live Stream

Making the Leap—Becoming a Professional Genealogist (Power Hour) --Luana Darby, Valerie Elkins, and Anne Teerlink  If you are thinking of going professional as a genealogist, this session was so FULL of great information.  Make sure you download the handout.  This presentation made me so glad that I have never wanted to go Pro. Not that I don't aspire to have my research at the professional level.  So glad they are now streaming the Q & A for the sessions today.

Finally! German Church Records and How to Use Them on FamilySearch--Trish Melander
Trish told the story of how the German Church Records were saved by Paul Langheinrich.  These are on FamilySearch and she showed how to navigate to them either using Records or Catalog.  I also enjoyed the case study by Karl Bodamer.  Loved the use of the Geogen site.  This has given me several ideas on where to search when working on my daughter's paternal lines.

Thursday General Session: Patricia Heaton--It was fun hearing from Patricia Heaton.  She's a funny lady.  She was so excited about her DNA reveal.

What You Don't Know about Ancestry (Sponsored by Ancestry)--Crista Cowan
YouTube feed was not working on this Livestream but I did manage view via the RootsTech.org homepage.  I think everyone wanted to hear what Crista had to say and that broke the feed. She talked about the new tools at Ancestry:  MyTreeTags™, DNA Matching List. and ThruLines™. ThruLines have replaced DNA Circles although you can still view your circles at this time if you have DNA tested.


Heirloom, Documentation or Junk: What to Keep or Toss--Janet Hovorka
What's important to keep? Preserving your personality.  Who should inherit specific items? Organize and explain what you can now. Preserve your digital materials. Who will you pass the torch on to...who will best preserve your precious items'  She also brought up the need for a Digital Will.  Definitely, something to think about.


Perilous Assumptions: Revisiting Those First Finds--Kris Rzepczynski
Love the case studies especially the one of the letter found in the WWI records.  An amazing account!  I've been researching for almost 30 years.  I need to revisit ALL of my earlier research.  Sometimes we build our own brick walls..


Thursday's Hottest News
The official announcement of the new Ancestry Tools.  Also monitoring social media and genetic genealogy Facebook group members' post as they worked with the new tools was insightful.  The announcement that GeneticAffairs' AutoClusters would be coming to MyHeritage was officially made and that option appeared on my account at MyHeritage this morning.

Link to RootsTech 2019 Day 1  --