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1. Talk to your family

Memorial Day was originally a time to pause and remember those who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Many of us now use it as a time to memorialize any of our loved ones who have passed on. Still others use the three day weekend to get together with living family members. If you fall into that last category, take advantage of the time you spend with family this weekend to talk to them. Record their stories. Go through that box of pictures and see who they can identify. Ask if anyone knows about a family bible or copies of military service records held by someone in the family. Then take a picture of those people or those documents and attach them to your tree. Speaking of attaching things to your tree…

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2. Document your work That shaky leaf leads to a record hint. Record hints need to be analyzed and considered in context to determine if they really pertain to your person. Then they need to be attached. (Don’t forget that step.) Also, remember that those shaky leaves only provide hints to a small percentage of our most popular databases. There are more records to find. Be sure to search for your family members. Which brings me to…

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3. Try a new search technique

I often find myself in a groove. I find something that works and I stick with it. But, I’ve learned that when I try something new, I usually learn something new and, sometimes, I discover something new as well. If you always view your search results by record try viewing them by category. If you only check the Card Catalog to find what databases are available, try using the place pages. If you aren’t sure how to search or you aren’t getting the search results you expect…

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4. Watch a video

There’s a video for that. If you aren’t quite sure how to find your immigrant ancestors, there’s a video for that. Need some tips on creating memorial pages to honor the men and women in your family tree who have served in the armed forces? There’s a video for that, too. Ancestry.com has a library full of helpful videos and tutorials that just might give you the information you’ve been looking for or that spark of an idea to help you break down that brick wall. And, while we are discussing brick walls…

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by  Jude Doyland

5. Post your brick wall Have you posted yours to the appropriate surname or locality message board? The process of writing out what you know, how you know it, and what you are trying to find out is a super useful exercise that might help you see your genealogy challenge in a new light. Posting it to a message board gives you the opportunity to interact with thousands of others who are researching that same surname or that same small county in West Virginia. You never know who may have the information you need.

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6. Sign up for a genealogy conference

We are smack dab in the middle of the genealogy conference season. There are opportunities – large and small – all around to attend a conference or Ancestry Day, interact with others who are interested in genealogy and learn some new skills that will help you in your family history journey.

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Which of these are you going to try this weekend?

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.

Don’t give up. When you’re faced with the tough task of tracing an elusive female back through history, it pays to be persistent. You’ll find plenty of rewards by tracing female family lines. Instead, tackle the challenge of following a female with the following tips – you may find that your great-great-grandmother’s maiden name and hiding place aren’t so far out of reach after all.

Tip 1: Ask around. Does anyone else in the family know the maiden name or recall other family names that could be associated with Great-Grandma?

Tip 2: Check online family trees. You may discover that someone else has already jotted down a maiden name for Great-Grandma (although you’ll want to reconstruct the research to be certain it’s the right maiden name and the right Great-Grandma).

Tip 3: Look at home. Is there a family member with an attic full of memorabilia? Something hidden in there, including wedding announcements, funeral cards, details on the backs of photos, notes on postcards and letters, or even a high school yearbook, could point you to Great-Grandma’s name. Also check related collections at Ancestry.com, including public member photos.

Tip 4: Check the church. While a marriage license should point you to Great-Grandma’s maiden name, you may not luck into finding one (prior to the 20th century, many states were hit and miss with civil registration of births, marriages and deaths). Church records and registers, however, may hold clues, including who married whom.

Tip 5: Look nearby. Property records, marriage records, naturalization records and more, whether in Great-Grandma’s name or her husbands’, may have included witnesses from her side of the family. Also consider that Great-Grandpa may have done business with Great-Grandma’s family.

Tip 6: Check the children. While state-held birth records may also be hard to come by prior to the 20th century, children are great keepers of clues. Middle names may have come from Great-Grandma’s side of the family – one of them may even be her maiden name. Baptism records could include the name of a sponsor or godparent who was related to Great-Grandma.

Tip 7: Revisit the neighborhood. It may seem cliché, but Great-Grandma could have married the boy next door. Follow her husband back through the census. Is there a female nearby whose name and other details (birthplace, birth year, parents’ birthplaces) mirror the facts you know about Great-Grandma? Follow her forward to see if she married Great-Grandpa.

Tip 8: Dig around the family plot. Families often remained together even after death. Cemetery records may mention Great-Grandma’s side of the family, and cemetery plots may be very close to Great-Grandma’s family.

Tip 9: Move forward. Clues from Great-Grandma’s married census records may point you to her past. If another adult is living with the family, it could be an elderly parent who moved in or Great-Grandma’s younger sibling, who’s helping with the kids. Follow that person back through census records to see if he or she might be the clue you need to locate Great-Grandma’s maiden name.

Tip 10: Read the newspaper. Obituaries can hold valuable details, including the names of Great-Grandma’s male siblings or cousins whose surnames mirror her maiden name. Also look for wedding and engagement announcements for Great-Grandpa. Do the same (plus birth announcements) for Great-Grandma’s children – if their grandparents are listed, you’ll find Great-Grandma’s parents.

For more tips on finding Great-Grandma, check out the latest 5-Minute Find video-Wife Hunting.

So good that in high school, he even got written up in opponents’ yearbooks—after beating them:
 

South Pasedena High School, Copa De Oro, 1937

At Pasadena Junior College, he wowed folks in track,

Pasadena Junior College, Campus, 1938

baseball,

Pasadena Junior College, Campus, 1938

basketball,

Pasadena Junior College, Campus, 1939

and football,

Pasadena Junior College, Campus, 1939

the sport that led to his being dubbed the greatest individual athlete on the greatest team in PJC history in 1938.

Pasadena Junior College, Campus, 1939

He even excelled at “outstanding service to the school” by those “whose scholastic and citizenship record is worthy of recognition” and was tapped for membership in the Mast and Dagger society during his second year, “the highest honor attainable at PJC.”

Pasadena Junior College, Campus, 1939

He was so good, that during his first year at UCLA, he appeared in captions for photos he wasn’t even in, like this one of a group of sophomore class officers downing their drink “with all the speed of a Jackie Robinson 60-yard dash.”

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1940

Jackie started making his name on the gridiron for the Bruins in 1939.

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1940

The Bruins had a tough season the next year, but Robinson was one of the bright spots, whether they were losing to Stanford:

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1941

Or during their one win against Washington State:

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1941

It was news (good and bad) when Jackie chose baseball over track.

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1941

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1941

He even made it into rival USC’s yearbook for his prowess on the hardwood.

USC, El Rodeo, 1941

And he made news again when he left UCLA early.

UCLA, Bruin Life, 1941

How good was Jackie Robinson? He seemed to fill any stage he took. Long before he ever stepped onto the diamond to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier, he had already proved that one campus, one floor, or one field would not be large enough to contain Jackie Robinson.

You can look for your big men, and women, on campus in our U.S. School Yearbooks collection.

Recently, we added some functionality to the app including a Pedigree View and Photo Hints.

Pedigree View

There are two ways to view your tree on the iOS app.  The Pedigree view shows direct ancestors.  The Family view shows all relationships including siblings, spouses, and children. Toggle between these views with the buttons at the top of your screen.

Photo Hints

For the past year or so, the iOS app has provided you with hints to records about your ancestors.  With the new Photo Hints you can now find pictures of your ancestors, too. Plus you can easily share your discoveries with friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, or email.

Download or Update Your Ancestry App Today

Haven’t tried the Ancestry app out yet? iPhone or iPad users can download it here:  iTunes. Android users will find the app at Google Play or Amazon Appstore. (The Android app doesn’t have photo hints yet, but stay tuned.)  If you have already downloaded the Ancestry app, check your updates to be sure you have the latest version.  

At the RootsTech genealogy conference in Salt Lake City a few weeks ago, I spent my time in the Ancestry.com booth talking with many of our customers face to face.  I helped people with genealogy research challenges, answered questions about Family Tree Maker, and, most importantly, shared information about MyCanvas.

I was amazed at how many of our long time Ancestry.com customers have never heard of MyCanvas.  Many of them said this was exactly what they were looking for and were so excited to hear that this program was available to them.  The response was overwhelming!

Due to that great experience, I realized there might be more of you unaware of MyCanvas and the tools available for you to publish and share your family history.  Allow me to share.

MyCanvas provides a way for you to create beautiful family history books and family tree posters to share with your family.  Using the information from your online tree on Ancestry.com, a simple book or poster is created that you can then customize any way you choose.

To access MyCanvas, click the Publish button on Ancestry.com.

Creating books and posters is free, so you can use it even if you don’t have a current Ancestry.com subscription.  Start a project by importing information, documents and pictures from your online Ancestry.com tree.  You can then add more generations, stories, or pictures.  There are also thousands of backgrounds and embellishments available to enhance your family story and make it truly your own.

Can’t finish your project right away?  Want to do just a little more research before printing?  No problem.  Any projects you start remain in your account until you choose to delete them.

I hope you will take a little time this weekend to try out MyCanvas.  And, if you have any questions along the way, just leave a comment for me here.

Need some help getting started on your family history book?  Check out this article or watch this video.

Chris Burton was simply hoping to discover his ancestors’ homelands when he took his AncestryDNA test. But when his test results came in, Chris, who was adopted at birth, learned he had a close family connection, possibly a first cousin. Would that link him to his birth family?

Watch the whole story unfold as Chris sits down with Katie Couric on Katie!

This is just one example of the power of making new family connections. See what you can discover about yourself with AncestryDNA. Now $99. Get your AncestryDNA test today.

Chris and his Mom talk about the past and our own Ken Chahine describes the kinds of connections that have already been made through AncestryDNA.

Turns out, they still do. And libraries and librarians prove this every day as they help countless individual discover historical facts about their family and their history.

Ancestry.com has billions of online historical records with details about your family and others around the globe. These records are supported by additional fine details you can find at local libraries. From amazing historical and genealogical collections, our local libraries — and the amazing librarians who support them — are the perfect place to discover a new angle, source or clue that breaks your search wide open.

Ancestry.com is available in more than 2000 libraries worldwide. But we couldn’t do it without you. So to all the librarians out there, a big thank you for everything you do that helps us get closer to our ancestors.

Early this morning the World Archives Project community achieved a huge milestone- 100,000,000 records keyed! The record count started in June 2008 and we reached 100,000,000 records early this morning.

The 166 indexes created through the World Archives Project are free for anyone to search. If you would like to join our community of contributors and play a role in helping others find their ancestors you can learn more here.

Thank you to the thousands of contributors who have given of their time to key these records!

Communicating with matches is even easier. Now when you correspond with a DNA match, there’s a direct link in the email message that lets you quickly locate that match in the future. No more paging through your match list. Just click the link, and it will take you directly to the details for that match.

DNA results on-the-go. We’ve updated our web pages to work seamlessly on your smart phone and tablet. It’s called “responsive design,” and it’s all the rage in the tech world. It means your DNA results will look and fit better when you view them on the smaller screens of a tablet, iPhone, or other handheld device. No app download required; just access your DNA results through your web browser on your smart phone or tablet as usual.

Raw DNA data download. Some of our expert genetic genealogists have requested the ability to download their raw DNA data. It’s the genetic code that’s comprised of over 700,000 A’s, C’s, T’s and G’s that are the basis for your DNA results. And now you have the option to download your raw data by logging into your account, going to your DNA results page and clicking the “manage test settings” link. If you’re not familiar with raw DNA data, be sure to review the “Raw DNA Data” section in our Frequently Asked Questions. It’s highly sensitive and private data that you’ll want to be sure to protect once you’ve downloaded it.

That sums up the latest. But it doesn’t mean we’re done making the DNA experience even better. We continue to listen to feedback from our DNA users and have a growing to-do list: from more powerful tools to search and manage your rapidly growing list of DNA matches to more education on how to use your DNA results. So expect more exciting updates throughout the year.

If you haven’t taken the AncestryDNA test, there’s no better time than now to get started, especially at the new $99 price. Then all the new features and latest scientific findings will be yours. Find out more here: www.ancestrydna.com