Yesterday we made a number of additions to make it easier to get to the information you are most interested in on the Recent Member Connect Activity list.  If there has been activity from other members on Ancestry.com that is directly related to your own research activity, you’ll find this activity list on your homepage when you are logged in, as well as on the main page under the Collaborate tab.  Here’s what we’ve added to that list:

1. Recent Activity filter options

We’ve made a number of changes around how you can filter out activity from your Recent Activity list. 

First, if you have multiple family trees on Ancestry.com you can choose to filter out the activity for any of your trees.  For example, you might be invited as an editor to a tree, but not be interested in all of the activity related to that tree.  If that’s the case, you can simply un-check the box for that tree and we won’t show you that activity anymore.

Second, based on member feedback we’ve updated the types of activity your can filter out of your list.  We hope that the new categories make it easier to get to the activity you are most interested in, especially if you have a lot of activity on your list.

Third, we will now remember your filter settings for you.  So if you filter one of your trees out of the list, or a specific activity type you’re not interested in, we’ll keep that activity off of your list until you choose to re-check the boxes to add it back in.

Finally, we’ve made these filter options available from the Member Connect sections on the homepage and under the Collaborate tab, as well as on the full Recent Activity page.

 2. Top daily activity items

 Some members who have done a lot of research on Ancestry.com, or who have large family trees on the site, may have a lot of activity included on their Recent Activity list each day.  If this is the case for you, we’ve made an update that we hope will help.  If there are more than 10 activity items related to your family history research on a given day, we will initially just list the top ten items from that day on your list.  Hopefully this gets the most interesting items at the top for you.  Then if you would like to see more activity from that day you can simply expand the list for the day to see the rest of the activity items.

 3. Expanded activity display

Sometimes if a few similar things happen on the site, we may only list one item on your Recent Activity list.  For example, if another member researching your great-grandfather added three photos of him to their public family tree, you might get one activity item mentioning that three photos were added, but without giving details on each of them.  For activity items like this there will now be a new “show” link that will let you expand the activity item to see all of the details related to that item.

We’ve also made a number of other enhancements to Member Connect in the last couple months.  I just wanted to highlight a few of them for you here:

1. Links to your family tree from trees you have connected with

You can connect with another member who has common ancestors of yours in their family tree, either by saving information from their tree through an Ancestry.com Hint or through the Member Connect section of the profile page for the matching person in your tree.  If you’ve done this and later go to the matching person in the other member’s tree, we will confirm that you’ve already connected with them and will include a link for you back to the matching person in your tree.  This helps you keep track of who you’ve connected with, and also makes it easier to get back to your tree when you are checking family trees of members you’ve connected with.

 2. Explanations about information in your Recent Activity list

Some information included on your Recent Activity list may be related to research you did a while back rather than more recent research that is fresh in your mind.  If that is the case, you may not be sure why a specific item is on your list.  To learn more just put your cursor over the activity item and you will see a “?” icon on the right.  Simply click this to learn why the item was included in your list.  We’ll also often be able to provide a link for you to the related person in your family tree.

3. Information you’ve ignored from members you have connected with

Within your family tree, Member Connect lets you compare what information other members have about one of your family members with what you have.  If you’ve connected to the other member, after checking into their information and validating it you can also update your tree with the new information.  If the information doesn’t seem accurate or interesting, though, you can also select to ignore it.  Previously we didn’t label which items you have ignored from another member’s tree.  Now these items will have a simple “ignored” button, which will still let you update your tree with this information if you change your mind later.

These are just a few highlights of improvements we’ve made based, in large part on feedback from our members.  We’d love to continue to get your feedback about Member Connect so that we know how we can continue to improve it for you.  Please just email us at MemberConnectFeedback@ancestry.com with your thoughts.

The goal of Member Connect in family trees is to help you discover who else is researching your relatives so that you can collaborate in your family history research.  You may make new discoveries, may help someone else make new discoveries or correct incorrect information in their tree, and may even connect with a cousin you didn’t know you had.

There are three main steps for Member Connect within your family tree:

1. Evaluating and connecting with suggested connections
2. Learning from and collaborating with connections you make
3. Staying up to date on new discoveries your connections make

 Evaluating and connecting with suggested connections

 On the profile page for an ancestor in your tree you’ll find a new tab called Member Connect.  This tab has three different areas: Recent Activity, Connections, and Suggested Connections.

“Suggested Connections” is the page where we list potential matches for your ancestor or relative in other public member trees.  Here you can evaluate the information they have about your relative, including a list of the records from Ancestry.com that they’ve listed as sources.  You can also link to the other member’s tree to learn more.  If it looks like a good match for your relative and you’d like to be informed when new information is added to this person, just click on “Connect”.  If you’re not interested, just click “Ignore”.

 Tip: On the Suggested Connections page we’ll mark which information from the other member is different than your information (labeled as Conflicting) and which information you don’t have at all in your tree (labeled as New).  You’ll want to look at this information closely as you evaluate a possible connection.

Learning from and collaborating with connections you make

After you have connected with another member researching a common ancestor, the connection will be listed under the “Connections” section of the Member Connect tab.  If you have already accepted Ancestry Hints or saved information from another member tree, you will already have connections from these trees listed in your Connections list.  If you find that you don’t want to be connected, you can just click “Remove” on the connection.

Tip: It is important to note the difference between connecting with another member and saving or merging information from their tree, as you might from Ancestry Hints.  Connecting with another member does not change any information in your tree.  It simply allows you to evaluate their research in case there is something you can learn from each other, as well as stay up to date on future discoveries they might make.

Why connect with another member?

There are several benefits of connecting with another member researching a common ancestor.

• You can quickly check what they have in their public member tree without leaving your tree by going to the Connections section of the Member Connect tab on your ancestor’s profile page.
• We’ll identify differences between your trees so that you can update your tree if you learn something new.  You can also contact the other member directly if you have information that would help them update something in their tree.
• You can also stay up to date on their new research discoveries through the Recent Activity page.

There are a few important links available for a connection for someone in your tree.

1. At the top of the connection listing there will be a direct link to view the individual in the other member’s tree
2. You will also see the username of the other member.  This is a link that lets you see a preview of their public member profile.  You can then choose to view their full profile or contact them directly through our online Messages feature. 
3. When comparing your trees any details, records, or photos that you don’t have in your tree will be marked as “New”.  Clicking this button will allow you to save this information to your tree, view it in the other member’s tree, or ignore it.
4. If the other member has information that is different that what you have in your tree it will be marked as “Conflicting”.  Clicking this button will give you the same options as for New information.

If you choose to save information, you can customize what you save to your tree as you do today when you accept an Ancestry Hint.  This includes editing the information as well as choosing whether or not you also want to include records from Ancestry that the other member has used as a source.

When you find conflicting information in another member’s this is an opportunity to dig in and do a little research to verify the information you have in your tree.  You may find that your information was correct and you can contact the member you’ve connected with to share what you know.  You may also find that the other member was correct and decide to update your family tree.

When saving conflicting information you have two different options.  First, you can simply update the information you already have in your tree.  Please note that we will not change the information in your tree without you choosing exactly what you want to update.

Second, you can add the information from the other member as alternate or new information in your tree without changing what you already have.  Just click the box to add it as an alternate or new fact or event.

Staying up to date on new discoveries your connections make

After you connect with another member you can stay up to date on the new discoveries they make about your common relative in the Recent Activity section of Member Connect in your family tree.  This page will list all of the public research being done on Ancestry.com that relates to your relative.  This might be a new historical record that is found, a new photo that is uploaded, or a corrected birth date based on a new source the other member discovered.

If you have publicly shared photos or other information, on the Recent Activity page we’ll also let you know if other members are finding it useful and saving it.  And if you have invited others to your tree as editors, we’ll list any changes they make in your tree as well.

If you aren’t interested in all of the Activity Types, just un-check the appropriate boxes in the upper right of the page.

In addition to the Recent Activity list for a specific relative in your family tree, there is a Recent Member Connect Activity list available from your homepage, the main Collaborate tab on the site, and the “Recent Member Connect Activity” link in the drop down when pointing your mouse at the Collaborate tab. 

This page will show all activity on the site related to any of your research on Ancestry.com.  This includes all of your connections in each of your trees, as well as all historical records you have saved, corrected, or commented on.  Just like the Recent Activity list in your tree, this page lets you filter out specific types of activities that you’re not interested in seeing.  Since there is a lot more activity on this page, we’re also working on additional filtering options.

For members with large trees and a lot of activity on the site this may be a pretty full list.  If this is the case for you, you’ll probably have the easiest time looking at the Recent Activity list for a specific relative in your tree that you’re interested in.  That lets you filter the list down to just what applies to that ancestor rather than seeing the whole full list of activity. 

I hope these extra details about Member Connect in your family tree are helpful.  If you are interested in learning even more we’ll be conducting a one-hour online presentation about Member Connect on August 17th. We’ll show you where to find the new features and how to use them to discover even more about your family story. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session.  Click here to learn more and register.

We also want to make sure that we continue to improve the Member Connect feature.  As you begin using Member Connect, please send us your feedback by emailing us at memberconnectfeedback@ancestry.com.  Your feedback will help us continue to improve this new feature and make it even more useful for you.

We are very excited about Member Connect and hope that it will help you make new valuable connections and discoveries in your family history research.

Millions of people research their family history on Ancestry.com and odds are that some of them are researching the same people as you. Member Connect is designed to help you learn about those members, share your discoveries together, and stay up to date on the research they are doing on your shared ancestors.

You’ll find elements of Member Connect throughout Ancestry.com, including within your family tree, while viewing census images and other historical records, and in a list of recent research activity about your ancestors on your homepage.

Where you’ll notice Member Connect

1. Viewing Historical Records

   

   When you find a historical record for one of your ancestors, you’ll also be able to see who else has saved the record or made comments or corrections to it. This is part of our new enhanced image page, which is launching today on a few of our census collections and expanding to other collections in the future.  See an example of a record on the new image page.

2. Your Family Tree

   

   If you have a family tree on Ancestry.com, we’ll show you who else potentially has your ancestor in their public member tree. You can choose who you connect with, and when you connect you can compare the information in their tree with yours, contact the other member, update your tree with new discoveries, and be notified about new information they find about your shared ancestor.

3. “Recent Activity” Lists

   

   On profile pages in your tree you’ll have a Recent Activity list showing all of the public research being done on Ancestry.com that relates to your specific ancestor. On your homepage, the Collaborate tab, and the Recent Member Connect Activity page you’ll find a full list of all of the site activity related to your ancestors, including activity around records you have saved, corrected, or commented on as well as activity from connections made in your family tree.   We’re working on additional options to filter this list, but in the meantime if you find that your list is too full we suggest just checking the Recent Activity list on the profile pages for specific ancestors in your tree that you’re interested in.

We respect your privacy

Your privacy is very important to us. You can review or modify your member activity privacy settings at any time. These settings determine what you share in the recent activity lists and the Member Connect section on the new enhanced image page.

Please note: In most cases Member Connect does not share more information about your research than what is already publicly available on Ancestry.com. The main exception is when historical records, photos, and stories are saved to your private member tree. Depending upon your privacy settings we may let other members know general information about this activity, but they will be unable to view the actual tree or information in that tree without being invited by the tree owner.

We want to continue to make Member Connect better

As you begin using Member Connect, please send us your feedback by emailing us at memberconnectfeedback@ancestry.com. Your feedback will help us continue to improve this new feature and make it even more useful for you.

Interested in learning more?

We’ve created a page describing Member Connect that includes three short video tutorials. Just click here to visit the page.

I also hope to make additional blog posts later in the week with a bit more details about the different elements of Member Connect.

Finally, we’ll be conducting a one-hour online presentation about Member Connect on August 17th. We’ll show you where to find the new features and how to use them to discover even more about your family story. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. Click here to learn more and register.

We are very excited about Member Connect and hope that it will help you make new valuable connections and discoveries in your family history research.

If you ran into errors on the site because of this, they should be fully resolved now.  If you continue to experience errors we recommend that you close your internet browser and try coming back to the site using a new browser window.  Thank you for your patience as we work to make sure the site is running smoothly for you.

• One member whose grandmother was adopted and had never known her mother was contacted by a descendant of his grandmother’s brother and his family received the first photo of his great-grandmother they’d ever seen.
• Another member was sent a box of civil war records about his wife’s great-great-great-grandfather from a member who picked them up at a yard sale and recognized that they related to his family.

I think we can all learn more about our own family history by connecting and collaborating with others who are also researching our ancestors. 

There are millions of people researching their family histories on Ancestry.com and some of them are likely researching the same people you are.  We are working on a new feature called Member Connect that we will be releasing later this summer to help make it easier to find, connect with, and collaborate with these other members.

Member Connect allows you to: 

1. Connect with other members through historical records about your ancestors.  When you find an historical record for one of your ancestors, you’ll also be able to see who else has saved the record or made comments or corrections.
2. Build a network in your Ancestry Member Tree of other members researching your ancestors.  We’ll suggest connections based on matches for your ancestor in other public member trees, but you decide which members you want to connect with.  If you connect you can compare their tree with yours, share research, and stay up to date on the new research they do in the future.
3. Get notified about any new research activity about your ancestors on the site.  You’ll get a list of the specific research activity on the site that applies to your ancestors.  This could be a notification that someone has added a comment or correction to a record about your great-grandfather that you’ve saved.  Or it could be a new photo that a member you’ve connected with added to your common ancestor in their public member tree.

We are excited about Member Connect and hope that it will help you make new valuable connections and discoveries in your family history research.  If you’d like to learn more, click here.

Here’s a snapshot of what your new homepage will look like when Member Connect launches:

The improvement I am most excited about is the addition of “Ancestor Links” in messages.  Some of the member trees on Ancestry.com are private and to learn more about one of your ancestors that may be in the tree you need to contact the owner of the tree.  If you choose to do this, we will add a link in your message that goes to the ancestor you were interested in viewing.  This is what it looks like in the contact form:

(If you decide you don’t want to include the link for whatever reason just click on the ‘X’ next to the link.)

When the owner of the tree receives your message they will have the link to the person in their tree so that they can easily look at the ancestor you are asking about.  We’ll also include a link in the message that lets them easily invite you to their tree, if they decide to do that.  This is what it looks like to the person receiving the message:

In addition to adding the Ancestor Links, we’ve also made the following improvements:

• We have increased the character limit for messages from 2,000 to 5,000 for those interested in sending longer messages
• We have corrected an error that sometimes prevented some users with a smaller monitor resolution from scrolling down on the contact form to click the Send button
• We have added some extra text in a few places within the Messages feature to better explain how some things work
• We’ve also made a few other minor fixes based on feedback

We hope you continue to enjoy the Messages feature and that you are able to connect with many other members who are doing similar research.

The two temporary exceptions are the Quick Links and To-do sections.  For now, these two sections will not display the links and to-do items that you have added in the past.  Your information is not lost, but is simply not able to be displayed temporarily.  We are working to fix this as quickly as possible.

It is possible that you may also see other occasional problems on the site as we are continuing to work on these issues.  Thank you again for your patience.

Again, we are actively working to get this resolved and will post an update when it is corrected.   Thank you for your patience.