Connecting Floating Trees to Your Main Tree on Ancestry.com
Vložit
- čas přidán 19. 07. 2024
- How do you connect a Floating tree to your main tree on Ancestry.com? (A viewer asked). In this episode, I’ll demonstrate how to use floating trees, branches, or floating ancestors which can be a huge advantage when researching your family history. This genealogy tutorial answers the questions… What is a floating tree, how to find a floating tree, how to connect floating trees, and some strategies and tips to help you with your genealogy research.
This can be done on any genealogy website that allows you to control your own family tree (like Ancestry, MyHeritage, or various family history software). This does not work as well on platforms like FamilySearch or WikiTree. FamilySearch and WikiTree are one giant collaborative tree, so using this Floating Tree strategy is not very easy to use or maintain on these platforms with regard to Floating Trees. I find Ancestry is the best for this Floating Tree strategy.
The advantage to using Floating Trees is that you can use the search algorithms to help find connections, use it for DNA matches you want to explore, and once you figure out the connection, you can easily connect that Floater or Floating Branch to the main tree.
Additionally, I’ll show you how to create an alternate father and label him as a step-father. This same step can be used for various relationships such as adopted parents.
We’ll talk about hyperlinks, MyTreeTags(R) and a lot more.
OTHER VIDEOS
🔴 How to Create a Floating Tree on Ancestry
• How to Create a Floati...
🔴 Genealogy Research & Family History Records Checklist to Grow Your Family Tree
• Genealogy Research & F...
🔴 Use DNA Cousins without Trees (Ancestry)
• Use DNA Cousins withou...
🔴 AncestryDNA's New Update: Dividing DNA Cousin Matches by Your Paternal and Maternal Branches
• AncestryDNA's New Upda...
❤️ GET STARTED - JOIN the GENEALOGY TV ACADEMY
genealogytv.org/about-genealo...
📝📝📝THREE DIFFERENT WAYS to find the HANDOUTS!
📝 1) Become a CHANNEL MEMBER at the INFO ACCESS level $9.99 per month. This gets you all the handouts. czcams.com/users/genealogytvjoin.
As a Channel Member, find the handouts by scrolling through the blog posts on the Community tab at czcams.com/users/GenealogyTVC....
📝 2) All handouts can be PURCHASED INDIVIDUALLY ($5 and up) at genealogytv.org/handouts/. Here you will get a redirect and an email to download the handouts.
📝 3) Become a monthly PATRON at the HAPPY DANCE level ($15/Month) or more. You will get early release of the videos and the handouts are emailed to you, when they become available. / genealogytv
❤️BECOME A GENEALOGY TV CHANNEL MEMBER and help support Genealogy TV - see perks!
czcams.com/users/genealogytvjoin
👉 Subscribe to Genealogy TV
/ @genealogytv
🛍️ Genealogy TV’s AMAZON STORE full of Connie’s favorites. www.amazon.com/shop/genealogytv (Amazon Affiliate)
✅ Genealogy TV WEBSITE
genealogytv.org/
✅ GTV on FACEBOOK
/ genealogytv
✅ SIGN UP For GTV’s NEWSLETTER
mailchi.mp/a0862c6473aa/genea...
🌳 Subscribe to Ancestry.com (affiliate) prf.hn/click/camref:1101l4aFW...
📰 Subscribe to Newspapers.com (affiliate)
www.anrdoezrs.net/click-91101...
❤️ TIP JAR - If you like the videos, please consider becoming a Patreon member.
/ genealogytv
🌳 Subscription to ANCESTRY.com (affiliate) prf.hn/click/camref:1101l4aFW...
📰 Subscription to NEWSPAPERS.com (affiliate)
www.anrdoezrs.net/click-91101...
▶️ SUBSCRIBE to NC ANCESTRY (North Carolina Ancestry) at
/ ncancestry
TIMING
0:00 Intro
0:30 What is a floating tree?
2:18 Getting oriented
2:51 Make yourself a home person
3:41 Creating a floating person
6:25 Grab the url for web link
9:20 Create tree tag for floating tree
10:40 How to connect a floating tree
13:18 Adding an alternate father
14:30 Merging duplicates
I am a fanatic for genealogy, family history and DNA to research my American ancestors. I create the best free genealogy videos and webinars on CZcams. I am a professional genealogist; I teach research skills and records research. The best videos on “Genealogy TV” (CZcams) are about learning research notes, logs, staying organized, genetic genealogy, finding missing ancestors, and where to find family history records.
Best CZcamsrs for genealogy are Genealogy TV, The History Guy, Aimee Cross Genealogy Hints, Family History Fanatics, Geneavlogger, Legacy Tree Genealogy, , Ancestry, FamilySearch, Useful Charts, Dear Myrtle, Genealogy with Amy Johnson Crow, and 23andMe.
#Genealogy #GenealogyTV #FamilyHistory
Music Credits for Song on Word Tree Open Circus Waltz Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
What a wonderful suggestion about linking the URL! I have a massive floating tree that is awaiting confirmation of a biological parent relationship that I working to confirm through DNA research. Again, just one great idea makes it worth the price of admission!
Wonderful! Thanks Bill!
Love the idea of creating a custom tag for Floaters! I had no idea I could filter by tree tags either, so I learned 2 cool tricks. Thanks! Debbie from Phoenix
Awesome Debbie from Phoenix. Good to hear from you.
Thanks, some good pointers there.
I sometimes put floaters in my main tree, mostly for unexplained dna matches.
I also sometimes get floaters, including "singletons", which get disconnected and forgotten, e.g. when new information about a spouse or a child, is found and the old wrong spouse or child. Or when I deliberately put in two "John Smith" children with slightly different information to see where they lead when can't be sure which one is correct.
Ancestry's system should provide a "forest view", where all disconnected sub-trees / floaters are shown, as I'm sure quite a few people as they get deeper into ancestry are using (disconnected) sub-trees.
This was very helpful. Several years ago, I created a tree for one of my grandfather's cousins hoping that that would connect me to the relative that they had in common. I believe my great-grandmother was his mother"s sister. I haven't solved the mystery, but had I known about floaters then, i would have created a floater.
I have created floating trees when im reviewing church or cemetery records for smaller communities where my German ancestors lived; i have later been able to connect some via other records (marriage, death, census). The big advantage has been that i now have the original records already associated to the *new* ancestor.
Wonderful! I never thought to add a Custom Tag for floaters. When I saw your video on adding web links a few months ago, I started adding them for the same people on Family Search and WikiTree so I could quickly jump back and forth. You always give me new ideas.
I can’t take credit for the tree tags. That came from other viewers.
Sheila here. Thanks for the tip! I have photos of friends of the family. I had already found them on Ancestry and added them as floating people. But now, using that web link trick, I’ll never lose them. I also created a custom tag called Floating Photo People. 😊
Yay!
So Helpful! I'm a beginner & my head is swimming! Lol Glad this is able to be saved!!
Oh stick around. This is the perfect channel for you. There is a beginner playlist here... czcams.com/play/PLiMXWjHlj5RR12Cc859K76dLKP14t8sAo.html
Hi I am a new member of your group. This is first video I have seen as the member, and I already have learned something that I did not know and needed to know. Ray
Welcome Ray. Thanks for joining the channel membership.
Excellent video. Thank you. Floaters or a.k.a. doubles in my case, are easily managed by
merging but I never thought about the hot links, great idea. I do like the Tree Tags for mapping
out dna connections. My way of alerting viewer that there is a dna match connected through that person.
Wow, after watching this I'm going to be working on all of my floating trees. After having my DNA done I found out that there were no DNA matches to who I always thought was my maternal grandfather. Being in my 70s I'll probably never figure out who my maternal grandfather was but, with these helpful hints, I'll be able attach possible connections.
Never say never. Keep plugging away at it. You never know what you'll find.
I didn't understand what a Floating tree was. Thanks for the video. I have several individuals for whom I can use this for.
Awesome. Just make sure you’re using custom tree tags to mark them as floating. Otherwise, you may not be able to find them again.
I always learn something new from your videos!
Very cool! Thanks for building on the floater information via connection to tree.
You bet!
Thank you so much! I always learn something new with your videos!
You are so welcome!
Game changer! Thanks, Connie.
Thanks
Excellent video, really clear and helpful. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for another informative video and for the handout. Have a blessed week!
Thanks, you too!
@@GenealogyTV You're welcome. :)
I’ve learnt so much from your videos, thank you.
Thank Julie. So nice of you to say. I appreciate it.
Very interesting way to have a tree for someone you are researching before actually adding to your tree
This is so handy! Thank you so much!
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent video! Thank you!
Glad it helped!
Thank you, this was very helpful.
Glad it was helpful!
Love the tree tag tip!
So glad!
Today I Am going to create my first floating tree. . thank you.
Yay... just make sure you use Tree Tags so you can find it again.
Thank you for this topic!
Thanks
Nicely done. Thanks.
You bet
Very useful. You might also edit Wilhelm profile by guessing death date ( say 1940, +/-, age 68?) and death place( probably Wyoming like mom). With these guesses Ancestry can offer possible hints
Good point Richard.
Thanks for this video. When I set up a floating person I attach a tree tag called Floater. If I add more people to this floating tree I don’t add this tag. I only add it to the first person. Since I usually have several floating trees, I can find them all using the tree tag “Floater” in the tree view.
Awesome. Thanks for your support of the channel Rae. Enjoy the journey!
It depends on the jurisdiction (Federal vs. State vs. County). I'd start with the county courthouse.
Hi Connie. Excellent video. I have read on various Facebook groups of people who add their DNA matches as floating trees. Could you possibly do a video of how this would work, and the benefits? Thank you. Teresa
See if this one fits the bill. I have done several episodes on Floating Trees. Floating Trees on Ancestry: How and Why czcams.com/video/Jut4yld-UnY/video.html
VERY helpful! 😊
I'm so glad!
I'm using the tip of creating the Floating Tree tag along with my potential DNA matches Tag. This helps me build a tree for a potential family member without adding them to my tree until they are verified by source documentation.
Now that's smart research!
@@GenealogyTV Thank you. Your tips are very helpful.
That is an excellent idea to do a hypothetical parent thanks
My pleasure.
Very useful for adopted people when trying to figure out their DNA matches.
Yes!
Thanks! I love both the weblink and the custom tag idea. I'm going to use both. Unfortunately, Family Tree Maker doesn't sync weblinks. Since that's the software I have chosen to use, I now enter the floating person or members of the FAN club as a source. It shows up as an "unsourced citation" or something like that in FTM, but it allows me to add a bit more info in the description of the source. I have connected the guardians of my great great grandfather's children this way, and because they are a source, I can link them to events or people just like sources. I title the source as "So and So's Ancestry Profile", and that lets me know it's a homebrew source that is connecting otherwise unrelated people. I'll be glad when we can add associates to our tree in Ancestry and FTM. Other platforms and programs have added it, so I'm sure it's probably in development. I'm crossing my fingers it's soon. But in the meantime, these workarounds are awesome!
This is another reason why I keep research notes. I have control of everything.
@@GenealogyTV yes! I started using your research notes template and it has helped tremendously. I have found so many missing pieces that I didn’t realize were missing until I was forced to type it all out and extract and transcribe information. 👏🏻
Awesome!
Hi, this is all so helpful, thank you! I have a question, is it possible to "merge with duplicate" someone in your Ancestry tree with someone in your floating branch? Do they both have to be on the main tree to do that?
Yes they need to be in the same Ancestry tree but could be disconnected. That’s a good idea to create a duplicate connected to the main tree and then merge with duplicate.
Hi Connie, Thank you for your videos. They are so help. I have several 4-6th cousins on Ancestry who are shared matches. I know their connection to each other and I believe I know the my branch they connect to but have not been able to connect the dots. I am looking for someone who can teach me the steps of how to connect the dots. Do you offer a service like this or can you suggest someone?
I have the Genealogy TV Academy which is all about teaching research strategies. It is not individual coaching (does have live group classes & virtual). It is smart research techniques designed to help you "connect the dots" as you would say. Learn more here. genealogytv.org/about-genealogy-tv-academy/
ALSO, you might want to watch this webinar replay about Maximizing Ancestry if you haven't seen it. Watch it BEFORE signing up for the Academy, if that is of interest to you. There is a discount to the Academy. Register here (it's free). my.demio.com/ref/YpiyrZxWHY0GiZ5I
I learned so much from these videos! Question/Problem: Over the years I've added floating trees to my tree but I didn't think how I'd find them in the future. Fast forward to now and I want to add tags and weblink as you suggest. How to I find these floating trees now?
If you know their name, you can search for them from the tree.
@@GenealogyTVYes, I knew that. But, what if I can’t remember who they are?
Her reply is inadequate. You need to do a one-time full-audit of every individual in your tree. Once done, you should never have to do it again IF you are henceforth careful adding new individuals or editing relationships. This algorithm is the same one used to locate Duplicate Individuals. One of the tree choices in the upper-right menu is: List of Tree Individuals (or similar verbiage -- I'm in bed). It only lists them in chunks of like 100 max, but you WALK thru that list looking for either of two anomalies :: Individuals who are not-connected to anyone when you click on them, or: Individuals who are listed twice -- normally sequentially though with tiny name variations they *might* be close but not literally sequential. Searching for Duplicate Individuals is incredibly tedious -- believe me -- and if anyone's tree has more than 500 individuals -- there's a HUGE chance they have at least one Duplicate Individual and DO NOT KNOW IT. Dang Ancestry provides great ways to merge Duplicate Names once you find them but terrible or crappy ways to LOCATE them. Maybe someday Ancestry will provide a "Locate Probable Duplicate Individuals" operator that uses A.I. heuristics to do the heavy lifting. When your Tree contains 2000+ Individuals and you can only get the dang tool to output them in chunks of 100 ... it .is tedious even to capture a complete list -- for example to use other external tools to search for Duplicates (like a spreadsheet). (My extra rant for free. :-)
@@ramrod0209 Thank you so much for your reply. I was afraid that was what I was going to have to do, but was hoping there was an easier way. Off to get to work on this now!🤗
Hi Connie, great video. One quick question. Would you now remove the tag of floating tree from Karl Wilhelm Heinrich Schroder's profile page? Thank you, Steve
Once I connect someone to the main tree, yes... I would.
Great video. Always learn from you. Wish I could retain things like I use to. Anyway, my question, I have myself as the home person. Whenever I bring up ancestors, it doesn't say how they are related to me. For instance, my Dad is the 4th great grandson of an ancestor instead of saying my Father. How do I change it? Thank you for all you do.
Two ways to see this (if I understand you correctly).
1) Tree View - switch to Family View (left side), then click the icon that looks like a stack of papers (left menu). When you do it will open a side panel on the right. Turn on "Relationship line labels". This will draw lines in the tree with labels.
2) In the Profile View of any ancestor, near the top under the birth and death dates, it should say the relationship to you (since you are the home person). If you click on that relationship it will open up a path of people from you to that person. If it does not, I would contact Ancestry. I'm not sure why it would not show here.
Thank you for your continued support of the channel.
Thank you so much. I did that. Looks like I'll be contacting Ancestry. I appreciate the quick response. I know you are a busy person.
I have some brick wall ancestors and suspect that a certain large set of DNA matches are like 4 or 5th, 6th cousins beyond the brick wall. Have you found a way to connect them to your main tree to see if I can prompt Ancestry can do a possible ancestor Thruline suggestion? I have these DNA matches in a floating tree but I am not sure which brick wall ancestor they are connected to since I have a couple of brick wall ancestors that are up a certain branch of my tree. In one case, I put _____ (Surname) as father and First name _____ as mother. I have a record for the mother's first name. Ancestry gave me a hint that I had considered as a possibility, however the mother they suggested shows as having already died 30 years earlier. I guess the father could have remarried a 2nd wife with the same first name.(?) And that is why they call them brick walls. I do like the floating tree hints. I have been using the option that is available when you want to connect your DNA match to the tree( in this case a floating tree) and the color codes as possible brick wall ancestor connections. I do love the tree tags too they help find those people. The one thing I wish Ancestry would do would allow us to put the "relationship" cousin in beyond 5th cousins. They do give Thrulines suggestions for 6th cousins, but won't let you label your DNA matches past 5TH cousin. I have plenty of5th 1 x rem, 2x rem, 6th C , etc . If they did a custom feature which a person could fill in the various variations that would be great. I suppose they they didn't want their drop down menu of relationships to be super long, but a custom feature where a member could tweak the options be an improvement.
I would add the DNA cousins you suspect belong to the lines you are interested in as floaters and then work the traditional genealogy from both sides. Research the floaters in detail... spreading outward... Then continue to research your side spreading out and hopefully you'll start to see where they meet.
Oh thank you! I’ve been just creating a new tree for each person I’m unsure of. I do have a question about the birth name. My grandfather was born with the surname Vaughn. His father was no longer part of the family by the time he was 3. (I am unsure why at this point) when he was 5, his mother remarried to Shriber and her two children took his last name. They were never adopted legally, however, my dad and myself were born with the surname of Shriber. Would you still list my grandfather as Vaughn or would you just make a note that his birth name was Vaughn? All records except his birth certificate list his name as Shriber.
I TYPICALLY (not always) use the birth name plus use a second name field for other names. My grandfather, for example, changed his name completely. So I have both names and use his birth name as the primary. Then my mother, a different example, was adopted at an early age, so there are no records of her by her birth name, so I use her adopted name as the primary for search reasons and her birth name as a second field. I hope that helps.
Thanks for this, now that I have connected one of my floating trees, following your EXCELLENT instructions, I now am trying to figure out how I "correct" the children. Do you have a video about how to unhook and reconnect children dangling from the wrong parent or step-parent? I cannot delete the parent, there are far too many generations extending out from them. Thank you.
Thanks for the EXCELLENT comments. :) Yes, there is a video for that... Fix Mistakes on Ancestry czcams.com/video/GVvmoOoLR4w/video.html and Fixing Facts on Ancestry czcams.com/video/j-ckZdMVboE/video.html
@@GenealogyTV Thank you so much, now that my tree is so large I notice people looking at it, so I want it to be right!
I didn’t quite catch how you designate yourself as the home person. Thx
Jenni, Go to the Tree tab, choose the tree (if you have more than one), click on the tree name drop-down arrow, tree settings, upper right side you'll see Your Home Person... click change, and choose who you want. For me, it is myself.
I have an opposite problem. I would like to split out my wife's branch of the tree into another tree by itself. Is there a way to do that?
Yes... you could disconnect the relationship as one option. Alternatively you could export a gedcom file of the current tree and then upload it to a separate tree and remove your side. I highly recommend you keep one tree though.
Can I please buy the print out for this. I am having trouble
3 WAYS to get the HANDOUTS!
1) Become a Channel Member (Info Access level $9.99/month). Gets you early release of videos + all handouts. CZcams.com/genealogytv/join. Handouts are in the blog posts on the Community tab at CZcams.com/GenealogyTV/Community.
2) All handouts can be purchased individually at Genealogytv.org/handouts.
3) Become a monthly Patron (Happy Dance $15/Month) or more, get early release of the videos + handouts emailed to you. Patreon.com/GenealogyTV
Hi, I have an unrelated question for you, I apologize. I am the family genealogist, keeper of DNA info, etc.. My father also had an Ancestry account, but had passed away. I would like to be able to have access to the updates to his DNA results and don't know how to do this. I have both chatted and emailed to try to get assistance with this but have had no response at all. Can you suggest any other avenues for me? Thank you in advance 🙂
Ancestry told me that if you have the username and password for the account is the best way to take over that account. Otherwise you would need to apply with Ancestry and supply them with a death certificate and some sort of proof that you have ownership by way of it will or something.
Can you use the floaters idea to add DNA Matches to my tree please? I would like to add all of those DNA Matches that have a connection to my home of Leicestershire in their tree's
Yes you can add them manually. Be respectful and mark them as living though.
@@GenealogyTV I will, thank you!
If you've done a floating tree to figure out let's say an Adoptee's bio family and you've got this tree all built out with documentation to prove everything and you've decided these are the right people, how do you connect that entire tree to their main tree if they've already got one together or even a decent sized tree already built? That's a lot of work to just delete once you've figured out who's who.
If you're asking about transferring your tree to theirs... you would need to export your tree as a Gedcom file. They would need a third party software, like Roots Magic or Family Tree Maker to merge their tree with yours. So they would import that Gedcom and merge it in the software... then sync with Ancestry or whatever platform they are using. Know that the Gedcom will not transfer documents or images... just the data.
@@GenealogyTV I have access to her tree. If I built out a floating tree (currently I don't use them, I just add what I find to her tree but playing with the idea of using them), for her, once it's all done, how would I then connect that floating tree to her tree so I don't have to redo all that info all over again.
If you know the connection point, say a father and daughter that need to be connected. Also let’s say the father is the floating branch. Just add a father to the daughter’s profile but instead adding someone new, click “someone already in my tree” and search for the floater.
If you use tree tags in the profile of the floaters they are easier to find from the search box in the tree view using the filters ( in search).
how can i FIND and DELETE floating trees from Myheritage?
Technically you are deleting people, not trees... even though we call them floating trees and branches. If done correctly, they are likely disconnected people from your main tree. I've never tried it on MyHeritage. This is really a strategy best on Ancestry.
If you have a potential father for an illegitimate ancestor, is it better to have that "father" as a hypothesis or to put him in a floating tree?
I would float him until you know. Alternatively you could use tree tags to mark him as a hypothetical father but if your tree is public others may copy from you without looking at the tree tags. Personally I would float him with a web link added.
@@GenealogyTV Thank you for the suggestion. I assume the web link should be attached to either the mother's profile page or the son's.
I have two floating trees, so I made two custom tags that say “Floating Tree Surname”, so I can search for just one of them.
Awesome.
Oop
I love your channel but getting the handouts are so hard to find.
Yes... it can be challenging. Some have opted to go with the Patreon (Happy Dance Level) method instead because the handouts are emailed to you each time they are produced. www.patreon.com/GenealogyTV Or you can join the Genealogy TV Academy and find everything on one website commercial free with handouts (when produced). Here is a comparison of all memberships and services in an easy-to-read grid. genealogytv.org/memberships/ ... and thanks for supporting the channel.
You're using way too many steps to add a floater with Wilhelm C. Simply click save and add as a new person. Done.
Yes... agreed.
Your workarounds -- and other Custom Tag ones -- are ... disappointing at-best. That is because Ancestry toolset is too arrogant to provide the ability to create a:: Custom Relationship (in my opinion). When I grew up there were adults in our lives we called Uncle & Aunt. It was not until I was a teenager that I found out that "Uncle Sam" was my father's Best Friend (and LifeLong friend) growing-up. Those "Uncles & Aunts" mean MORE to me than most Blood-Relations! I added them to my tree and their descendants, but when I tried to make them "related" to my father as "Best Friend" ... Ancestry ToolSuite laughed-at me & called me:: Stupid. That's their limited opinion. WHY shouldn't users be allowed to create a Custom Relationship and Link such Branches into their tree in a way that properly fits reality? Adopted children are not Blood Relations -- they have a category. Who says that "informally adopted" children were "legally adopted"?
@Ram Rod0, I'm sorry to disappoint you. I don't work for Ancestry and have no control over what they do. Suggestion: Use "other" in relationships. You can also add the best friend as a floater and then use a hyperlink to your father. Also you can create custom tree tags that says "See Comments" and the explain the relationship in the comments.
@@GenealogyTV Oh I knew you didn't work at Ancestry -- I was commiserating with you as I felt you would appreciate my disappointments. I would never speak (write) in that tone directly TO a staff member AT Ancestry!
I am looking at my tree and floaters. I do not understand what you are suggesting with "use other". I see no such option. All one can add or edit are relationships: father, mother, spouse, children. Would you elaborate on what you mean?