Ancestry.com provides: a good search capability, free viewing of pedigrees, and downloading of GEDCOM files. It also has a feature that you can use to limit your searches to any new family trees added since the last time you searched. This way you can keep getting new information without wading through people you have already seen.
Ancestry.com provides several ways to search for family trees, but the best search capability is under "Ancestry World Tree." The default search capability may return too many unrelated responses. You can find a link to the Ancestry World Tree on the first page, below the input area for searching.
Your best bet is to search first on the ancestor's and the spouse's name. If the spouse is female, just use her first name. Quite a few researchers omit the maiden name. So it is best to not try to find it. If you get too many responses this way, add the father's name of the ancestor. If you get too few responses, omit the spouse's name and use only the father's name with the ancestor's name.
How to Search Ancestry.com® for Family Trees
- Best Way to Search: Go to Active Searches for easier searching. At the Active Searches page, you need only to enter your ancestor data once to search all the websites listed at the left. Active Searches is a free service that creates the optimal searches for your ancestor data.
- Manually search yourself. This will open a new window so you can refer back to the search hints above.
Ancestry.com® Website Capabilities
See the definition of terms for any questions on the meaning of the entries.
| x | free searches |
| x | free viewing of pedigrees |
| paid viewing | |
| x | free downloads of pedigrees |
| paid downloads | |
| x | contact information for submitter |
| ability to see all the names submitted by a particular researcher | |
| x | ability to restrict searches to updates since a specific time |
| x | searches with spouse's name |
| x | searches with parent's names |
| x | searches by place of birth |
| searches by place of marriage | |
| x | searches by place of death |
| x | searches by country |
| x | searches by state, province, or political subdivision |
| x | searches by date |
| x | ability to specify date ranges for searching |
| x | searches by exact spelling of name |
| x | searches by metaphone |
| x | searches by soundex |
| ability to automatically find possible matches in your ancestry |