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I’ve used family search.org, which is free, and also enjoy using their app on my iPad.
Get a free account set up on familysearch.org, enter your own info, add your parents, and go back another generation or two.
I did this and was stunned at how much information was already there. It’s like working on your own corner of a huge jigsaw puzzle that others have been working on, too.
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!! I was poking around in Ancestry since I began again with this work of building my mother's family tree and I saw a piece of a family tree one of my DNA matches. Saw some familiar names and contacted him. And he replied today!!! oh my gosh I am SO EXCITED!!! Thank God for Ancestry.com!!! He's my second cousin. His mother and my mother were first cousins. Yay, I can fill in some more of my tree!! And I just had to share.
I have another question now for you Ancestry experts. Is there a way to make my tree visible to just this person? Or do I have make it completely public?
I think I mixed up another software with Family Tree Maker. Not sure, but yes, I see it now!
yep, TobyOberg is me. I wonder who K Potter is?
You should go and introduce yourself to K Potter. Click on Sam's profile below, on the right side, look at recent changes, show all. Scroll down to burial, you'll see Nov 6, 2020 with their name under it. Click their name, select send a message. It's that easy. You can also send them a message to their email. Maybe consider doing both or send the message 1st and if they don't answer, try their email.
Tell them you're a descendant of Samual and you're wondering if they're related. If they are, ask if they've done DNA. If they've done 23 and me and not ancestry, ask them to upload to my heritage so you can see if you match there. I'm gonna get you on my heritage too below...
I have another question now for you Ancestry experts. Is there a way to make my tree visible to just this person? Or do I have make it completely public?
You can send him an invite to your tree, its very easy to do. Log into ancestry, go to your tree. Where it shows the tree name in black on the tree view, click sharing. I usually do it by email, I never have luck using their user name. Make sure they invite you to their tree too.
By the way, I was connecting find a graves of your relatives the other day. Any relative that I found their find a grave page for, I edited their burial on family search to show the cemetery name, you click edit burial, their find a grave link is in the comments, paste it into a new browser tab. You can copy over the burial locations to your ancestry tree, it will then give you their find a grave as hints which you're able to connect without paying for ancestry. It's a freebie they give you. Any connected relatives on their find a grave hint will also be on the hint. That's why I try to do that. That's one of my missions on find a grave is to connect families in death because the memorial manager usually doesn't look for a spouse when they make the memorial.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tobyo
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!! I was poking around in Ancestry since I began again with this work of building my mother's family tree and I saw a piece of a family tree one of my DNA matches. Saw some familiar names and contacted him. And he replied today!!! oh my gosh I am SO EXCITED!!! Thank God for Ancestry.com!!! He's my second cousin. His mother and my mother were first cousins. Yay, I can fill in some more of my tree!! And I just had to share.
As you were
Well congrats on finding family! I'm always excited to find new people especially since both my parents were immigrants, all of my family is still in Hungary. I've had so-so luck with cousins so far. I really need to meet cousins on my dad's fathers side. I actually have a really good 2nd cousin match on this line at ancestry but the gal never logs in any more since I did my dads brothers DNA and confirmed how we matched. It's been 2 years. I really want to get her on my heritage too because I have matches on my fathers mothers side there that still live in Hungary. I would really love to confirm which are matches on his fathers side.
I've really clicked with a few matches, we friended on Facebook. You have to be careful because you never really know what they're like until you've been FB friends a good year, especially during an election. I never post politics on my Facebook but some of my cousin matches do. Some were anti-Trump, some anti-Biden. The anti-Trump ones go over board with their hate posts. If they were still working (they're retired) they would probably get fired for what they've posted, that's the type of posts they make.
Good to know you did your DNA too. You should download your RAW DNA and take it over to My Heritage to upload it for free. Ask your new cousin to upload theirs too. Directions are below for backing up your DNA RAW file, backing up your tree as well as directions on how to upload to my heritage.
Join my heritage with the link below then follow the directions to upload there. Since you had immigrant relatives, you should do well on my heritage with matches in Europe. Lots of European people do my heritage and not ancestry because its cheaper. They have a large Jewish DNA community, my heritage is based in Israel.
I do suggest you pay the $29 for the extra tools, it's worth it. Do not test at my heritage even though it seems cheap at their $49 sale because it costs $12 shipping and handling plus another $5 to mail it back, then the doozie, you have to pay a $100 subscription rate in order to get those $29 tools we get when we upload. The $29 is a one time fee and not yearly, so you pay it once and you're good to go. With the $100 subscription, they have to renew that every year. I don't know why anyone does DNA there when you can upload for free.
You'll love the feature of sorting matches by country. For me, it shows matches in Hungary, Austria and just about every European country. My dad's 83 year old brother in Hungary has 600 matches in the US. I couldn't believe that. I was always told my dad was the 1st to come here.
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Originally Posted by Roselvr
Family Tree Sites and GEDcom Files - Back up your family tree to upload to other sites
Ancestry - go to your family tree, next click the name of your tree in the top left corner, you'll see tree settings, click on it. On the right side you'll see a white box with Your home person in this tree; Your home person in this tree; Hint preferences; Manage your tree - Export your family tree data, as a GEDCOM file, to your computer, the GEDcom download will take a few seconds to generate.
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How to access and download your autosomal DNA results from AncestryDNA once you're ready to upload to other sites.
1. Navigate to the Ancestry.com website homepage.
2. In the upper-right corner, click Sign In to display the sign in window.
3. In the Username or email field, enter your username or email.
4. In the Password field, enter your password.
5. Click Sign In. Your Ancestry home page is displayed.
6. On the menu bar, click DNA > Your DNA Results Summary. The AncestryDNA home page is displayed.
7. On the right side of the page, click Settings. Your Test Settings page is displayed.
8. Scroll down the page.
9. On the right side of the page, in the Download your raw DNA data section, click Get Started. The Download your raw DNA data window is displayed.
10. Enter your password in the empty field.
11. Click Confirm. A window requesting that you check your email is displayed.
12. Check your email for an email from AncestryDNA with the subject line Your request to download AncestryDNA raw data.
13. In the email, click Confirm Data Download. You will be redirected to the Ancestry.com website.
14. Enter your username or email and password in the appropriate fields, and click Sign In. The Download DNA Raw Data page is displayed.
15. Click Download DNA Raw Data to download your raw data file. Note where you save the file on your computer
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roselvr
My Heritage - Go to your profile, At the top it says home, family tree, discoveries, DNA, photos, research; mouse over family tree you'll see import GEDcom and manage trees, click manage trees, on the far right under actions you'll see export to GEDcom. My Heritage is limited with free family tree accounts. I have 203 people in my tree, it's telling me I have reached the maximum and will have to pay to add more people.
Now to the DNA
My Heritage DNA is normally $79 but it goes on sale for $49. Note, you can upload your DNA from another company for free family matching, exporting DNA matches, contacting matches and shared surnames of matches. For a fee of $29, you can unlock other features like ethnicity, family trees of matches, chromosome browser, shared DNA matches, shared ethnicities, shared ancestral places. They also offer theory of family relativity that tells how you match some people. There is also a AutoClusters for DNA Matches which is a pay feature.
MyHeritage subscribers who already have a Premium, PremiumPlus or Complete Subscription do NOT have to pay anything to unlock the extra features for uploaded DNA kits. They can upload as many kits as they want and enjoy all the premium features for all uploads.
Join My Heritage, upload your family tree GEDcom file. To upload your DNA from another company, go to your profile, you will see the DNA tab where you can upload your raw data. They're saying they will eventually be charging to upload raw data. To upload DNA to another person in your tree, find them on the tree then click their name, it will open a box on the left that has the link to upload.
My Heritage has also gotten into health testing for $199. I've seen it on sale for as low as $99. I have not done it so can not offer experience. When you click the health testing link you can read what they test for. Here is a blog post I found Navigating Your MyHeritage DNA Health Reports
If you're going to upload to My Heritage but you don't recognize any of your matches, consider messaging your Ancestry DNA matches to ask them to upload for free too. I have 2 cousins that helped me out, It's really helped me see how many are related thru my maternal grandmother. I'm able to click a common match and follow them to see if one of my cousins comes up. They offer so much more to find matches then Ancestry.
Personally, I would not give anyone my DNA. I’ve only broken the law (over 30 years ago), my parents are dead and my relatives stink. : )
I’ve done a lot of genealogy research (really creepy: spell check came up with my maiden name when I typed the letter “g” for genealogy. Just now - as I wrote this. Just now. I haven typed my maiden name for several years. There it goes again. Mkay.
I got stuck with my search at a point because one side of my family has Native American and Canadian roots. Also, folks didn’t care so much about spelling in some regions regarding surnames. My great great grandad was actually one of the census writers/reporters . I only found out because I recognized his handwriting from and old letter he wrote in Seattle about soup and being old - and there was his name!
On my other side, my great aunt was a DAR member, supposedly. Briefly. I was able to trace things back somewhat to a small English town - found out that the family story of our having a bakery was more like having several taverns and arrests. I think my grandad was brought here illegally via Ellis Island. His mother lied.
I could not find great great greats - relatives were uncooperative.
I have found that the LDS site is the most helpful. I did find a lot over time... it used to be free and I think you can search the LDS site for free and decide whether or not you want to pay to review ship manifests and the like. Census rolls are limited and frustrating. I found a couple of people who I believe I’m vaguely related to. I found gravesites - even a random YouTube video of someone searching for a great uncle who was an actor in the 30s-60s. Fun stuff.
I don’t recommend giving out DNA. The best resources for family tree info are your relatives. I regret not asking more from all of them. My parents especially. My dad did really well “interviewing” his grand mum before she died - a traditional Native American ritual - the oral histories. I cherish every page.
Local historical societies are really valuable, as are libraries. Family trees are hard to fill out. I wish you all the best. If you have access to any personal documents and photos perhaps they can help. I have a civil war photo of a relative I can’t identify (daguerreotype? In a little velvet/golden frame) I have searched trying to ID his uniform without luck.
It’s a fun and interesting project to search out ones ancestors, but I’d try to do it without providing my DNA to anyone or spending a dime. You can find stuff without paying someone for it, it’s just a little harder and requires more diligence. Good luck!
Personally, I would not give anyone my DNA. I’ve only broken the law (over 30 years ago), my parents are dead and my relatives stink. : )
I’ve done a lot of genealogy research (really creepy: spell check came up with my maiden name when I typed the letter “g” for genealogy. Just now - as I wrote this. Just now. I haven typed my maiden name for several years. There it goes again. Mkay.
I got stuck with my search at a point because one side of my family has Native American and Canadian roots. Also, folks didn’t care so much about spelling in some regions regarding surnames. My great great grandad was actually one of the census writers/reporters . I only found out because I recognized his handwriting from and old letter he wrote in Seattle about soup and being old - and there was his name!
On my other side, my great aunt was a DAR member, supposedly. Briefly. I was able to trace things back somewhat to a small English town - found out that the family story of our having a bakery was more like having several taverns and arrests. I think my grandad was brought here illegally via Ellis Island. His mother lied.
I could not find great great greats - relatives were uncooperative.
I have found that the LDS site is the most helpful. I did find a lot over time... it used to be free and I think you can search the LDS site for free and decide whether or not you want to pay to review ship manifests and the like. Census rolls are limited and frustrating. I found a couple of people who I believe I’m vaguely related to. I found gravesites - even a random YouTube video of someone searching for a great uncle who was an actor in the 30s-60s. Fun stuff.
I don’t recommend giving out DNA. The best resources for family tree info are your relatives. I regret not asking more from all of them. My parents especially. My dad did really well “interviewing” his grand mum before she died - a traditional Native American ritual - the oral histories. I cherish every page.
Local historical societies are really valuable, as are libraries. Family trees are hard to fill out. I wish you all the best. If you have access to any personal documents and photos perhaps they can help. I have a civil war photo of a relative I can’t identify (daguerreotype? In a little velvet/golden frame) I have searched trying to ID his uniform without luck.
It’s a fun and interesting project to search out ones ancestors, but I’d try to do it without providing my DNA to anyone or spending a dime. You can find stuff without paying someone for it, it’s just a little harder and requires more diligence. Good luck!
He's already done his DNA at AncestryDNA and 23andMe, Roselvr is just suggesting he make the most of it and upload his raw DNA data to other sites. It's certainly your prerogative how much or little you want to invest in your genealogy research, but DNA helped me break down several brick walls in my tree that I couldn't have done with paper research alone. Some of those brick walls were ones I inherited from my grandmother's research, so neither of us were able to break them down, not in the 10-12 years I'd been researching, plus all the years she'd been researching too. Finally breaking them down with DNA has been some of the most exciting and rewarding discoveries I've ever had with genealogy.
And there are plenty of records that do require at least a small fee, as there are still many records undigitized and the city hall, archives, library, etc that holds the only copy of them will usually require a fee for a copy of them. There's also digital collections that are exclusive to Ancestry.com, or MyHeritage, or FindMyPast, etc, all of which require a subscription. If you've really never spent a dime on any genealogy records, you probably don't know what you're missing. Granted, some Family History Centers and Libraries offer free access to sites like Ancestry.com, but that doesn't cover undigitized records.
Thanks again for all the great information!! I'm still plodding through it all. But I have to say I'm a bit annoyed with this K Potter on familysearch. I'm going to call him/her he for ease of writing. I noticed when I began stuff there last fall that he had listed my sister as deceased. Oh, I think I know why: my mother died at my sister's house. Okay, so I fixed that and apparently when you change someone from dead to living it has to be approved? Then yesterday I saw that he had both my husband and myself as deceased and having been born about 1940. None of that is true so I fixed that stuff. I did send him a note but as yet haven't heard from him. I think I got the most annoyed when he put in my stepfather's information. I did not get along with this man so was really annoyed when I saw that because in one view it covered up my father's information so I thought it was gone!! It wasn't, it was just the view I was in at that moment. What the heck??? Who is this person and why is he keying all this information about my family?? Maybe I wouldn't have been so annoyed had I not seen my stepfather's information.....yea. Really did not like that man!!
Okay, done venting. Still waiting for K Potter to reply.....hopefully he can explain himself. but now I wonder if he's from my stepfather's family. Could be.
I just realized it could have been you Roselvr that added the information on my mother's second husband. If so, apologies. I know you were just adding information as you found it.
The Family Search web site is a great tool for genealogy research. You can easily get and download many historical documents (birth/death/marriage/census/military) for people and also see if persons are attached to tree members and follow the family relationship links. Just be mindful that any user can link documents and tree members to one another and often times there are incorrect assumptions made. Also be careful as there are sometimes many duplicate Id's for people. I tried to clean this up for my ancestors by merging many ID's.
The Family Search web site is a great tool for genealogy research. You can easily get and download many historical documents (birth/death/marriage/census/military) for people and also see if persons are attached to tree members and follow the family relationship links. Just be mindful that any user can link documents and tree members to one another and often times there are incorrect assumptions made. Also be careful as there are sometimes many duplicate Id's for people. I tried to clean this up for my ancestors by merging many ID's.
Yep! I've figured that out. This morning I found the ship my grandfather came to the U.S. on!! I also noticed that I incorrectly put myself in by using my married last name, so there are/were two of me. I can't recall if I was successful in deleting the wrong one. It's all a learning process.
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