Here is a side by side comparison of the changes we made:

The new design allows you to view and filter to categories with a single click.

The new design makes the toggle between the record view and the category view of your search results more prominent – and it functions with only a single click.

Database titles are now in bold, making it easier to skim through your search results looking for specific records.

If you have specific feedback about the new design – what do you like, what don’t you like – please let us know by taking the survey available at the top of your search results page.

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2013 Southern California Genealogy Jamboree

Produced by the Southern California Genealogical Society

June 7-9, 2013

Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport, Burbank, California

Sponsored in part by Ancestry.com

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Take part in three days of family history classes, exhibitors, and other events designed to help you improve your family history skills.

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Conference Classes:

Register today to attend all three days of Jamboree, which include an array of nearly 100 classes to help every family historian – from those just beginning their search to those who’ve been working on genealogy for years.

Jamboree classes include the following taught by Ancestry.com experts:

• Getting the Most from Family Tree Maker
• Searching and Writing Your Family History as You Go on Ancestry.com
• Searching and Understanding California Content Collections on Ancestry.com
• Family Tree Maker for Mac

Learn more about all of the great Jamboree classes today.

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Exhibit Hall – Free all weekend!

Stop by the Ancestry.com booth to get hands-on answers to your Ancestry.com questions. Sit in on demonstrations covering Ancestry.com, AncestryDNA, Family Tree Maker and more.

The exhibit hall also features family history vendors from across the country. The exhibit hall is free and open to the public :

• Friday, June 7 – 12:00 pm to 6 pm
• Saturday, June 8 – 9 am to 6 pm
• Sunday, June 9 – 9 am to 3 pm

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Digitize Your Family Records

Ancestry.com is excited to provide registered Jamboree attendees the opportunity to have their family photos and documents scanned at the conference, for free, on our professional scanning equipment. It’s a unique opportunity to have your family history records digitized!

Will you be bringing items to scan? Please help us plan accordingly – let us know how much and you’ll be bringing (and what types of photos and documents) by clicking here.

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Register today to attend the

2013 Southern California Genealogy Jamboree.

We hope to see you in Southern California!

Pre-registration ends May 24, 2013. Walk-ins are welcome.

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When was the last time you read and responded to your Ancestry.com messages?

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Of course, my first reaction was an internal roll of the eyes and the arrogant thought that I would educate her about how to do real genealogy research.  I immediately navigated to the man in question in my family tree.  As I began to review my research notes so I could craft a response to her (and I make extensive notes in Family Tree Maker on every person I research), I had the fleeting thought that maybe I shouldn’t have made my family tree public because clearly this woman didn’t know what she was doing and she was probably going to attach someone from my tree to someone in her tree when it was obvious that they were not the same person.

As I read my notes my ego quickly deflated to an appropriate level.

Several years ago I was searching for the husband and children of Thelda M Jones.  I knew she was enumerated in the 1910 census with her parents as a ten year old child.  She was not enumerated with them, her older brother or any other known family members in the 1920 census.  My assumption was that she married sometime between 1916 and 1920.

I knew from her father’s obituary that my Thelda married a man named Cecil Christian sometime before 1936.  I wasn’t able to locate a marriage record for Cecil and Thelda but I was able to locate Cecil in the 1920 census with his first wife.  So, where was Thelda in 1920?  Did she have a first husband?

I searched in vain for a marriage record.  I searched the 1920 census for all women named Thelda, born about 1900 in Utah.  Only two came up.  I was able to exclude one of them by tracing her to her death and finding an obituary that listed her parents’ names.  That left one possibility.

So, I added this man and these children to my family tree with a note that I needed to find a marriage record, an obituary, or further documentation to support that this Thelda and my Thelda were one and the same.

Then, as often happens, my research on that branch of the family got side-tracked.  For four years.

I made my family tree public (warts and all) a few months ago so that I could more readily connect with DNA matches.  But, in that time I have received messages from many more people than just those biological cousins.  Including this one.  As I re-read the message from this woman there were a few things that stood out to me.

She explained what she believed to be the truth about this man and his family.  She referenced the exact records she used to come to this conclusion.  She very specifically pointed out the discrepancies between our two trees.  She then said this, “I can’t see the actual documentation that you have in your tree… I am just wondering if I could find out a little more about the records that support your tree…  Thanks for any direction you can give here, I would appreciate it.”  She concluded with directions for how to find her public tree so I could view it for myself.

Between the records that she had attached to her tree and the previous research I had done on this family, I was able to conclude for myself that the Thelda in her tree and the Thelda in my tree were two different women.  I corrected my tree and sent this woman a thank you note for bringing this to my attention.

There are several things I re-learned today because of this experience.  Here are just a few lessons I hope you’ll consider:

1. Reach out to others who may or may not have accurate information in their online trees.  Be nice!
2. Not everyone approaches genealogy research the same way you do but we can all do it better if we work together.
3. Keep good notes. It will help you keep your sanity and keep you from having to redo research.

Anything else you learned?

With that in mind, I asked several of my colleagues what they were thankful for and what they felt their ancestors were probably grateful for during their lifetimes. Here are a few of their responses:

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“Nothing beats a big, bear hug from my kids. I think my ancestors were grateful for full bellies, warm beds, and a good crop. (Yes. I come from a big line of Midwestern farmers.)”

Laurel, Product Management

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“I am thankful that I get to wake up every morning surrounded by my wonderful family. My ancestors were probably most thankful for the ability to celebrate Thanksgiving in freedom. They were Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine and suffered horrible anti-Semitism and lived in constant fear while in Eastern Europe; that all ended when they immigrated here.”

Rob, Marketing

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“I am grateful for some things that I think people take for granted, things that our ancestors didn’t have, basic technology that makes our lives so much easier like electricity and ease of transportation.”

Krysten, ProGenealogists

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“I was not able to be with my family last year and it will be nice to spend Thanksgiving with them again after a long time apart. Sadly my younger brother is deployed to Afghanistan so we will be missing one family member, but I am thankful that he is safe and should be home for next Thanksgiving. I recently found a family connection on Ancestry and I was able to read a history written by my great grandmother that I had never seen before. She mentioned being grateful for good friends and neighbors several times in her history. She lived on a ranch in Alberta and I am sure she was very grateful to have people she could count on in such a remote area.”

Elizabeth, Public Relations

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“I am thankful for time to rest and relax with family and friends. I believe my ancestors were thankful to come and live in a free country.”

Mark, Engineering

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“I’m thankful for toilet paper because the Sears catalog sounds really uncomfortable (but it is searchable on Ancestry.com). I’m thankful for washers and dryers because beating a nice sweater with a rock seems really wrong. I’m thankful for the highways, electricity and everything else that makes it possible for me to live in a high mountain desert and eat vegetables that I didn’t have to grow myself. I’m thankful my kids have minds of their own, even if I don’t always like what goes on in there. My ancestors were likely thankful for boats that returned to the homeland (mostly my great-grandfather who returned to Italy because America wasn’t all he thought it would be) and inadequate identification verification (mostly my grandmother who changed her birth certificate to say she was older so she could get a job).”

Jeanie, Marketing

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“My early Quaker ancestors were seeking relief from oppression in England for not conforming to the Church of England. I am certain they were thankful to God for their newly-found freedoms in the Pennsylvania Colony. As am I.”

Lisa, Content Acquistion

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“Maybe I have a simplistic view, but I believe that my ancestors were thankful for the same things we are – healthy, happy family and food on our table with a roof over our heads.  Not overly complicated, just time to spend with one another and a successful year.  Usually we are caught-up in our everyday lives, and throughout the year we struggle, we have our joys and disappointments; this is the time of year to look back and just be thankful that we made it through it all.  I imagine that our ancestors were just like us.  Different problems and joys, but still thankful they just made it through.”

Sabrina, Document Preservation

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“My wife winning her fight with breast cancer.”

Brandon, Product Management

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“When I was a little girl we lived on the streets in Los Angeles.  Shortly after that my mom left and we were placed in foster care.  Being homeless is not fun, so this Thanksgiving I am grateful to be on the inside of the window with people who love me.  I am grateful for simple things; toothpaste, toilet paper, hot and cold running water, deodorant, a nice warm bed and lots of blankets.  I have many blessings!”

Crystal, Document Preservation

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“I am grateful for my health and my family! It’s great to feel good again and I’m grateful everyday! I think my immigrant ancestors were extremely grateful for our great country and the opportunities they were given!”

Diana, Marketing

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“What am I most thankful for?

• Family
• Faith
• Freedom
• Modern advances in the areas of communication (TV, computer, internet), travel (airplanes, cars), and day to day living (microwaves, washer/dryer, air conditioning).

“What do I think my ancestors were most thankful for?

• Family
• Faith
• Freedom
• Modern advances in the areas of communication (telegraph, typewriter, photography), travel (ships, trains), and day to day living (matches, sewing machine, clocks).

“Hmm.  No matter how much we think things change, some things never change.”

Shawn, Development

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What am I grateful for?  I’m grateful that I get to work, every day, with such wonderful, thoughtful people who are so very interested in helping us all discover, preserve and share the stories of those who came before us.

From our families to yours, have a wonderful, safe, gratitude-filled Thanksgiving!

Many, however, are known, remembered, and honored for their service. French-born Henry Falcott enlisted in San Francisco shortly after immigrating to the United States. He served in the 8th U.S. Cavalry during the Apache Wars and received the Medal of Honor. Henry is buried in the San Antonio National Cemetery.  The first burial in the Los Angeles National Cemetery took place in 1889.  Abner Pratt, veteran of the Mexican-American war, also served in the Indiana Infantry during the Civil War. Like Nicholas Porter Earp (father of Wyatt Earp), Abner was living at the National Soldiers Home for Disabled Soldiers and Sailors when he died.

Memphis. San Antonio.  Los Angeles. These three cemeteries, and dozens of others are the final resting place for thousands of soldiers.  And the records of these burials, along with details about their military service are contained in burial registers.

From the 1860s until the mid-20th century, in some places, U.S. Army personnel tracked burials at national cemeteries and military posts in registers that included name, rank, company/regiment, date and cause of death, age, grave number, and original place of burial in the case of reinterments. The U.S. Army was responsible for all national cemeteries from the 1860s until the early 1930s, and they were responsible for depositing most burial registers at NARA.  In 1973, the Army transferred 82 national cemeteries to what is now VA, where the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) oversees them.

With more than 500,000 individuals listed in the records, these ledgers are one of two new Ancestry.com collections, U.S. Burial Registers, Military Posts and National Cemeteries, 1862–1960 and U.S. Headstone Applications, 1925–1963. Both are now available for searching in time for Veterans Day 2012.

As we head into this Veterans Day weekend, may we all take a little time to remember, honor and thank our family members and others who have served in the armed forces, defending the freedoms we enjoy every day.

Let’s take a look at a few of the key messages from Ken’s presentation:

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Genetic ethnicity discovered

Most of what people know about their ethnicity is based on their family trees. “Where was Grandma from? Spain? Okay, I’m Spanish.” But your AncestryDNA genetic ethnicity results can paint a deeper picture, one that connects you with the migrations and histories of the regions of the world over the past 500 to 2,000 years.  For example, many customers from Southern Europe are surprised to see results indicating a small amount of North African heritage. But against the historical backdrop of Moorish influence on the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages, it makes perfect sense. People did a lot of migrating, invading, and colonizing throughout history, which makes the job of predicting ethnicity challenging, but always interesting.   The same is true for people of the British Isles who find they have a surprisingly high percentage of Scandinavian ethnicity compared to the birth locations of people in their family tree ‑ it is probably reflecting a deeper ancestry.

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DNA member matching

Researching family history is not just always about finding ancestors, but sometimes living relatives as well. AncestryDNA matching has delivered over a half million 1^st-4^th cousin relationships to our members. A simple, yet powerful interface allows users to easily review potential DNA matches and quickly access public member trees to verify the connection. In addition, over 100,000 shared ancestors have been found between AncestryDNA users. Hints to shared ancestors do the work for you to find the link in your family tree on Ancestry.com and our simple interface shows exactly where this new ancestor fits.

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Confident connections made through DNA

Matching confidence at AncestryDNA is built on a groundbreaking analysis performed by the AncestryDNA geneticists, partnered with the experts from the Sorenson Molecular Genomics Foundation team. This analysis, performed in the lab, is seen on your very own web browser, translated as “confidence” levels provided in your AncestryDNA results. So, when you get a 4^th cousin DNA match that shows as 96% confident, know that information is based on a highly scientific analysis to help you take action with your DNA results.

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What’s new for 2013

AncestryDNA believes that our customers have the right to their own genetic data. It is your DNA, after all. So we’re working to provide access to your raw DNA data in early 2013, which includes related security enhancements to ensure its safety during every step of the process. Moving forward, we plan to add even more tools and improvements for our customers, and any new features will be available to all AncestryDNA members.

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We’d like to thank the organizers and attendees of the Consumer Genetics Conference 2012. We plan to continue to be a part of the genetics landscape moving forward and will be at more events, including the American Society of Human Genetics in San Francisco, where we will present some amazing new discoveries that our scientists have been working on.

Setting goals provides focus.  And, if anything needs focus, it’s genealogy.  It is so easy – and sometimes fun – to get distracted as we chase down various branches of the family tree.  Reporting on goals you have set provides accountability and keeps you moving forward.  So here is my report:

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1. Backup, Backup, Backup

I now use Family Tree Maker 2012 for all my genealogy files.  My main family tree is now synced with my online tree at Ancestry.com.  This provides one backup.  At the beginning of the year I set a reminder on my calendar to back up my tree to “the cloud” twice a month.  I have done this faithfully.

What haven’t I done yet?  I haven’t given my parents a copy of my files at all this year.  I think I will send them a link right now so they have access to my cloud backup.

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2. Get More Family Members Involved

In June I did a Barefoot Genealogist episode and wrote a blog post about sharing your family history.  I have two specific projects (with deadlines) in the works.  I am creating a slideshow of digitized family pictures for my grandmother’s 90th birthday later this month.  And, I have created a maternal only family tree for my cousin who is having a little girl in a few weeks.

I have also created a few more ancestor pages on Facebook, connected with some (previously unknown to me) cousins, and tried to share family stories more often.  I have a lot more ideas brewing but maybe they will make good 2013 goals.

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3. Digitize, Digitize, Digitize

After much sorting, my mom took over 1500 slides (from both sets of grandparents) to be digitized.  She has the original DVDs that were created.  We copied them to my computer and also backed them up to the cloud.  I’ve spent the last few months meeting with family members – dad, grandma, great-aunt – to make sure I know who everyone is in each of these old pictures.  Now, we just have to share them with the rest of the family.

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4. Make Sure Everything Has A Source

This is probably the goal I have spent the most time working on this year.  I knew it was a huge task.  Sometimes I feel like it will never be done.  However, because I have been working on this, I have pruned over 1200 people out of the family tree over the last few months. I discovered two different branches were there was no documentation to prove a connection and a third where documenting what I had, proved that the connection was wrong.  I think this goal may stay on the list for many years to come.

For those who will ask, I use the notes feature in Family Tree Maker pretty heavily as I work on proving connections in my family tree.  Ancestry Anne has created a couple of videos on sourcing that have helped as well.  You can find them here and here.

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5. Respond to Messages

I set a goal at the beginning of the year to spend a little time every Friday going through message I receive from other Ancestry.com members. I haven’t done that as consistently as I expected.  I have managed to get through most of the backlog of messages.  The problem? I find that when I start to reply to one message I dig into the family they’ve asked about and I’m off doing more research for hours on end.  I need to learn to reply with what I know and not worry about what I don’t know yet.  Any advice on how to do that?

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So, there you have it – my update on my 2012 genealogy goals.  I have a few more things to work on and a few more months left in the year.  That works out well.

For those of you who set goals with me at the beginning of the year, how are you doing?

For those of you who didn’t, it’s not too late.  What would you like to accomplish – genealogically speaking – in the next four months?

Here’s the way I see it.

You have two parents and each of them have two parents. That means that each generation you go back your number of ancestors doubles.  Add that to all previous generations and you end up with 1,022 people responsible for your existence in just ten generations.

Are you with me so far?  Maybe this will help.

If you figure that an average generation is twenty-five years, ancestors in your tenth generation were born about 300 years ago.  Over one thousand people to discover in just 300 years of history.  So, how are you doing?

Here’s how I’m doing.

I can only prove out 36% of the people responsible for my existence in the last 300 years.  That means that 64% of my ancestry for that same time period is completely unknown to me.  So, even if you can carry one tiny strand of your ancestry back further than that – and I can on a couple of lines – there is always more to discover about who you are and who you come from!

What’s your number?

Which state are you searching first?

Do you have relatives in any of these six states? If not, stay tuned, our next indexed states are coming soon!

Search the 1940 census now!

Until next time – Have fun climbing your family tree!

Don’t wait until you are finished!

If you wait until you are “finished” with your genealogy, you will never have anything to share. Your genealogy will never be “done.” I inherited a lot of my family history and have been actively working on it for at least a couple of decades. After all that time, I’ve only identified 328 of the 1022 people responsible for my existence in the last 9 generations. (Here’s how that math works.)

My advice to you?  Pick one grandparent or great-grandparent and focus on learning everything you can about them and two or three generations of their ancestors. Then share what you’ve learned with the rest of your family. The sooner, the better!

Less is best!

When you do share, do so in “bite-sized pieces.” Don’t overwhelm non-genealogists with too many charts and forms. Take the time to write a story or two about each ancestor based on what you’ve learned about their lives. Add pictures. Keep it to just four or five generations.

In the live chat afterwards and in my email box this afternoon there were lots of really great ideas shared about WHY you might want to create a family history chart or book. (And we all know that if we have a reason and a deadline we are more likely to get it done.) Here are just a few of those great reasons:

• Create a giant wall chart for a family reunion so everyone knows where they fit into the family.
• One book about a grandparents ancestors makes an easy Christmas gift for all the siblings and cousins.
• When there is a new baby born into the family create a chart to show their lineage.
• A chart showing three or four generations of the new couple makes a great wedding present.
• A military focused book honoring all those in the family who have served would make a great memorial.
• Having a goal to create a book is going to force me to focus on making one section of my family tree as complete and as well documented as possible.
• We should share more and more often. You never know when you are going to create another genealogist in the family.

What’s your reason?

Until next time – Have fun climbing your family tree!