Some helpful tips for using the Ancestry.co.uk (or other flavours of Ancestry) website.
Free accounts
One of the most frequent topics. You can create an Ancestry account without giving credit card details, although if you sign up directly for a 14 day trial you WILL be asked for them.
See Ancestry UK’s own help on creating a free account.
Other Ancestry users can invite any others, including free account holders, to view their tree. Otherwise, the material such users can see is limited. this doesn’t stop them creating their own trees but they will of course be without any attached Ancestry sources.
Trees
Each family tree on Ancestry has its own unique reference number, giving a starting point in the style https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/tree/{number_x}/ To get such a link that you can send to other people, find a person in your tree, copy the link and delete the bit from person/{number_y}
If you want a specific person/people to see a tree, the ‘Share your tree‘ facility could be what you want. Sharing is a a tab under ‘Tree Settings’, available from the drop-down menu when browsing the tree – those you have already invited are listed on the Tree Overview screen. You can invite people who aren’t yet registered on the Ancestry site, using email. Removal of a person from the invited list doesn’t generate an email, your tree will just disappear from the list of trees they can select to view.
Tree access
Guests, contributors, editors These are the three possible roles when inviting people to your tree. Guest is only relevant if you have made the tree private or you want someone to be able to see details of those Ancestry has marked as living. Plus anyone invited to a Family Tree can see the attached records, provided that the person owning that tree has some kind of paid account on Ancestry. Contributors can only add stories and photos, not people, while editors can both add people and edit them.
The additional option as to whether someone can see ‘living individuals’ becomes available after you’ve sent the invite. See the Sharing tab under ‘Tree Settings’.
Linking to a tree on/from Family Tree Maker
Customising the front page
The Ancestry homepage can be tweaked quite a bit. Click on the ‘Customise your homepage’ link and explore the options – you can’t ruin the site. For instance, if you never use the Shoebox facility, no point having it show, and if you find the Member Connect Activity fascinating and sometimes helpful, rather than annoying, why not drag it up to the top of the page?
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