Genealogy For Dummies. Helm April Leigh

don’t see one. If you follow a hint that leads to part of the paid subscription database, the site prompts you to subscribe to the Ancestry.com site.

       FIGURE 1-5: A three-generation ancestor view to fill in with your ancestors.

       Giving Your Ancestors Some Privacy

      

Now that you have started your family tree, you might consider privatizing it – at least until you are comfortable with opening it up to the public. Keep in mind that by default the online family tree on Ancestry.com is set to be viewed by the public. This means that unless you make it private, the content you place there can be searched and read by anyone. To make your online family tree private (meaning that no one can view your tree without your permission), walk through these steps:

      1. Click on the Trees menu item on the Ancestry.com page.

      A drop-down box appears with the name of your online family tree and the option to Create & Manage Trees. You can find the Trees link in the black navigation bar at the top of the page.

      2. Select the Create & Manage Trees option from the drop-down box.

      A page appears with a list of online family trees associated with your account.

      3. Click the Manage Tree link under the name of your online family tree.

      The Tree Settings page opens.

      4. Choose Privacy Settings from the menu.

      The menu options are located just under the Tree Settings heading. You will find Privacy Settings between the Tree Info and Sharing menu options.

      5. Click on the Private Tree radio button and then the Save Changes button.

      You also have the option to prevent your tree from being found in searches. That means that no one will know to contact you to request access to see your online family tree.

Beefing Up Your Profile

      Just like your ancestors’ lives, your life is a lot more than just names and dates. To get a better picture of you, or your ancestor’s life, you need to include details about important events such as marriages, buying a house, starting a new job, moving to a new town, and so on. To add some facts, try the following:

      1. If your family tree isn’t onscreen, place the mouse cursor over the Trees menu item at the top of the Ancestry.com home page. A secondary menu drops down showing the family tree you created. Click the family tree name to display your family tree.

      Your family tree is displayed with the Pedigree page.

      2. Place the mouse cursor over the name of a person on your family tree and click on the box.

      A pop-over box appears with more information about the person on your family tree.

      3. Select Profile.

You may encounter a pop-over box with more information about the Facts view. You can click on the Next and Explore Your Family Story buttons if you are interested in reading the hints, otherwise click on the “x” button in the top right corner of the pop-over box. Several tabs are available on the Facts screen: Lifestory, Facts, Gallery, and Hints. The Facts tab, shown in Figure 1-6, shows a summary of facts, sources, and family members associated with the person. The Facts page contains some basic facts that you already entered, such as birth and death.

      4. Click the Add a Fact link in the dotted box in the left column of the screen (under the Facts column).

      The Add a New Fact or Event pop-over box appears.

5. Select the event type from the drop-down box, as shown in Figure 1-7.

      One or more fields appear on the page depending on the event that you selected.

      6. Fill out the fields and click Add.

      The information that you entered now appears in the Facts column.

       FIGURE 1-6: The Facts tab.

       FIGURE 1-7: The Add Fact or Event drop-down box.

       Citing Your Sources

      A source is any material (book, document, record, or periodical, for example) that provides information for your research – for more information on sources see Learning about Sources earlier in this chapter. We strongly encourage you to cite the sources of all facts and information that you enter into profiles on your family tree.

      

Keeping track of sources helps you remember where you discovered the information and helps other researchers retrace your steps. If you find conflicting information later, returning to the source can help you sort out the reliability of your information.

      Follow these steps to cite a source for a fact you’ve added to your tree:

      1. Display the profile page for the person you want to cite a source for.

      Follow Steps 1 through 3 in the earlier section “Beefing Up Your Profile.”

      2. Click the Add Source link.

The link is located in the dotted box in the middle column under Sources. The Create Source Citation Information page appears, as shown in Figure 1-8.

      3. Click the Create a New Source link under Step 1 onscreen.

      The link appears just below the Select a Source drop-down box. The Create a New Source page appears.

      4. Fill out fields for the source of the information.

      You don’t have to fill out all fields. The only required field is Title.

      5. Near the bottom of the page, click the Create a New Repository link.

      A repository is a place that holds the source you’re citing, such as a library or a person’s house, in the case of the location of family photos. The Create a New Repository page appears.

      6. Fill out the fields to describe the repository. When you’re finished, click the Save Repository button to save the repository and return to the Create a New Source page.

      Note that after you’ve created a repository once, it’s then available for you to use in future citations.

      7. Click the Save Source button.

      The source title is now reflected in the drop-down box under Step 1 on the Create Source Citation Information page.

      8. Complete the fields under the Citation portion of the source (Step 2 on the Create Source Citation Information page).

      The Detail field is the only required field in this section.

      9. Under Step 3 on the Create Source Citation Information page, select the box next to the fact or event that you want the source to document.

      10. Click the Submit button.

       FIGURE 1-8: Create Source Citation Information page.

       Getting