Introducing Notes On Photos


We’re also excited today to introduce a cool little tool that lets you add notes or annotations on photos. The tool is super handy for identifying people within a photo, since you can highlight an area of the photo and type in a name or description of the highlighted area.

The notes only appear when your mouse hovers over the image. When your mouse hovers over the note, you’ll see the note text appear.

The notes are stored alongside the other information you enter about the photo. If the photo is public the notes you add will also be public.notes on photos

About Kenny Freestone

Kenny Freestone is a product manager at Ancestry.com, but don't hold that against him. He would love to hear your thoughts on Ancestry.com and family trees (at kfreestone at tgn.com) Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual personal problems, as he is generally neck deep in his own.

Information and Links

Join the conversation by commenting, tracking what others have to say, or linking to it from your blog.

Information
December 20th, 2007
23 Responses
Feeds and Links
Comment Feed
From This Author
Del.icio.us
Digg
Technorati
Categories
Family Trees

Other Posts
Online Family Tree FAQs
Introducing the new Family View (BETA)

Comment on this article

We really do appreciate your feedback, and ask that you please be respectful to other commenters and authors. Any abusive comments may be moderated.

Need help using Ancestry? Check out our new Learning Center.

For account issues (including subscription and technical issues), visit our Help section.

Reader Comments

Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Patrick Aitken
Posted on:
December 20, 2007 at 1:37 pm

I love this feature. It really helps to identify who is who in those large group shots.

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
TK42ONE
Posted on:
December 20, 2007 at 1:48 pm

Will this be a feature you can include in the new Family Tree Maker 2008? Of all the programs I’ve used for photo editing, this is the first I’ve seen that makes it easy and simple to use.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
Rebekha
Posted on:
December 21, 2007 at 6:11 am

Excellent! This would be a great feature for myfamily.com, too.

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Hugh Watkins
Posted on:
December 22, 2007 at 8:39 am

also standard on Flickr.com which some ancestry staffers post pictures too
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=tgn%20provo&w=all

good idea to have a “place this photo on map” feature too

Hugh W

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Jim Weiss
Posted on:
December 30, 2007 at 6:42 pm

So where do I find this “tool”?

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
Gary S. Collins
Posted on:
January 6, 2008 at 4:13 am

It’s a great feature, but only visible to those to have paid a hefty annual subscription fee to ancestry.com.

Gary Collins

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
Rich Schurr
Posted on:
January 6, 2008 at 10:57 pm

Please add this to FTM 2008.

Comment Number:
8
Written by:
Leonard Noland
Posted on:
January 7, 2008 at 5:29 am

Gary. Ancestry.com does NOT charge someone to build and maintain their tree in the Ancestry Member Tree system.

Comment Number:
9
Written by:
jemhay
Posted on:
January 7, 2008 at 7:14 pm

With respect, Leonard - Gary stated that it’s only available to VIEW by those that have paid a subscription, not that one has to pay to create it. :)

Comment Number:
10
Written by:
Diane Tortorella
Posted on:
January 8, 2008 at 3:50 pm

Can’t wait to try it out. It sounds like a good idea.

Comment Number:
11
Written by:
Ronald Cuthbert
Posted on:
January 8, 2008 at 5:32 pm

I have a dificult time scaning photos in to the new 2008 Tree. The 2006 tree it was easy. I am still useing it on pictures. Please help me.

Comment Number:
12
Written by:
Steve Hall
Posted on:
January 17, 2008 at 8:34 am

I enjoy adding photo’s of the individuals that are in my tree. However, we can go back only so far. How about adding a genealogy clipart source to add black and white clipart (or other clipart) depicting such things as occupations for Farmers, Blacksmiths, Deacons, Military personel etc.

Comment Number:
13
Written by:
Melanie Atkins
Posted on:
January 17, 2008 at 2:39 pm

I have tons of photos to add to my family tree, and would like to be able to rearrange them as I add new photos so that they will appear in chronological order. At present, it appears to me that the photos appear in the order submitted and cannot be rearranged when additions are made. Please let me know if I have missed something here.

Comment Number:
14
Written by:
Janet McCully
Posted on:
January 22, 2008 at 8:03 am

I imported a large quantity of pictures, and I can find them in photos, but I can’t figure out how to get them into the other areas of Ancestry that I want them.

Comment Number:
15
Written by:
Laurie A. Barthlow
Posted on:
February 5, 2008 at 7:13 am

Well this is super cool. So do you really have to be a paying member to see the notes on the photo? I pay the max, but my family/guests do not, and I certainly want them to be able to see this cool feature, because those are the people it will mean the most to!

Comment Number:
16
Written by:
Laurie A. Barthlow
Posted on:
February 5, 2008 at 7:16 am

Also, I fully agree with what Melanie Atkins wrote about wanting the ability to rearrange the photos on the Tree. That would be a big help! And I’ve always wanted to know why the photos “jump up” when you first open an individual profile page. (It’s not a problem really, I’m just curious.)

Comment Number:
17
Written by:
Laurie A. Barthlow
Posted on:
February 5, 2008 at 7:19 am

One more comment - I really like Steve Hall’s comment/suggestion about the black and white clip art. It would be fun to be able to add/import clip art or historic photos to the profile pages of the ancestors who do not have photos. Thanks!

Comment Number:
18
Written by:
Diana
Posted on:
February 22, 2008 at 3:15 pm

How can I import my photos from ancestry.com to FTM 2008?

Comment Number:
19
Written by:
Joseph Tan Seang Kuan
Posted on:
February 25, 2008 at 9:46 pm

Dear Friends,

I find Ancestry.com good to use, but have the following suggestions:

1. Viewing photos/comments/stories in later pages of multiple pages - when returning to main page, it always goes back to page 1 even if the item viewed is in later pages. Shouldn’t it go back to the sourced page.

2. Grouping photos - I have many photos posted in and searching for photos is difficult. Perhaps being able to sort photos into albums or type will be helpful. Eg. potraits, groups, events, etc. A free-style creating of albums would be the best.

Thanks again. And best wishes.

Joe Tan

Comment Number:
20
Written by:
keith davey
Posted on:
February 28, 2008 at 8:44 am

well we are certainly spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing how we want to compile and design our family tree, ancestry have thought of everything, i am drawn to the beta layout, is it possible that we will be able to print this at some point or even tranfer any of the trees to disc, bearing in mind all the hidden info within the tree, could this be displayed with the main layout ie children & grandchildren

Comment Number:
21
Written by:
Ernest Christian Donner
Posted on:
May 18, 2008 at 7:58 pm

Every time I request a birth or death certificate for whomever in my family tree e.g. Great Great grandfather Friedrich Julius Donner my address in Australia is rejected and is causing me some difficulty in completeing my Family Tree. What can you do to overcome this feature?

Comment Number:
22
Written by:
Xavier Le Dantec
Posted on:
May 21, 2008 at 8:02 am

Notes On Photos
I think this is a really COOL feature !

But I can’t save the note… It has disapeared every time I reload the photo ! Did I miss something ?

Comment Number:
23
Written by:
Stuart Gourd
Posted on:
May 29, 2008 at 1:55 pm

I am weighing in against clip art. Pics should be relevant. I have seen things like country flags that don’t excite me a whole lot. Of course, everybody can add what they wish.