This is my first post on the Ancestry.com Blog. I work in the Content group and I’m responsible for many of the relationships with State Archives and Vital Records groups. This past week, I along with Quinton Atkinson and Brian Peterson, some of the Content group colleagues, attended a conference of the National Association of… Read more
In my previous post, I discussed some improvements and adjustments we were planning to make to the new home page based on your feedback. Here is an update on those promised improvements: Quicker access to the Search box Based on the feedback we received since my last post, we changed how we were planning to… Read more
Below are some updates on maintenance of U.S. content collections on Ancestry.com: 1) As part of our partnership with FamilySearch to improve the U.S. Federal Census collection on both sites, we’ll be performing maintenance to fix many known issues with the current collection, like misspelled place names, missing counties, and missing or blurry images, among… Read more
I wanted to post a quick thank you to the Family Tree Maker community. I have decided to pursue a new career opportunity that will allow me to expand into some new career areas, so I will be leaving The Generations Network. Thank you for the opportunity to communicate with so many of you. As… Read more
This month I interviewed Marie McFadden, a very talented graphic designer in our Creative Services group, in the hope that she would give up a few trade secrets. When Marie designs a page in AncestryPress, she seems to achieve a magical balance between elegance and simplicity. Her pages are always visually compelling but never kitschy… Read more
Marie McFadden is an associate art director at Ancestry.com. She designed most of the country backgrounds in AncestryPress, as well as the “Photo Book for Mom” theme. In an interview with Stefanie Condie, Marie offers guidelines for creating a book that will make a lasting impression on your family and friends. SC: If I’m creating… Read more
We have recently released a beta version of our new public indexing initiative that we are VERY excited about! So far we have several people indexing in the new tool and giving us great feedback. We believe the project is a win-win to contributors as well as to Ancestry, and will give genealogists around the… Read more
Ancestry today launched the 1891 Census of Canada, online for the first time. The 1891 Canadian census contains 4.5 million searchable names and 90,000 images of original census pages. Included is information from all 10 present-day Canadian provinces and its three territories. The 1891 census is fully indexed and searchable and can be accessed on… Read more
On Wednesday, July 30, at 8:30 pm ET, I will be hosting a public webinar for anyone who is interested in learning more about how to use the new search on Ancestry.com. Geared toward intermediate and advanced researchers, the webinar will focus on how to use the tools in Ancestry.com’s new search: Record Previews Image… Read more
We’ve added and or updated the following Ancestry.com databases between July 6 and July 11: United States Michigan Passenger and Crew Lists, 1903-1965 Alabama Census Returns, 1820 Pioneers and Their Homes on Upper Kanawha (West Virginia) Roane County, West Virginia Families The Soldiery of West Virginia West Virginia Estate Settlements American Wills and Administrations West… Read more
Here you will find informational, and sometimes fun, posts from the folks behind the scenes here at Ancestry.com. We hope you’ll notice just how passionate we are about family history and about the products we’re building to help connect families over distance and time.
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