Find-A-Grave Citations - from a Shaky Leaf

One genealogy resource that I use is the Find-A-Grave website. Many times it helps fill in some of the holes in my research and provide additional information on where to look further.

This blog post will be by following a Shaky Leaf that leads to an index that Ancestry.com had done, linking to the Find-A-Grave website.

Like other "indexes" it's up to the end user to Cite this hint or index. I choose to do that, mostly to help me clear these helpful shaky leaves and to end up with a link from the Citation Page to view that Online Resources from within Family Tree Maker. Some will think these are extra steps, which may be true, but there is no requirement to do this.

Here is the process that I used to Cite a Shaky Leaf on a Find-A-Grave Index hint.

We'll start with the Shaky leaf which says that there are 2 Ancestry Hints.

Following that link, the 2nd Hint is for Find-A-Grave. The lower left window is data from the FTM2012 database while the lower right window is information from the Hint. In this case it is for John Carroll and it does have the Death Date. My data was not exact, so this will be new information.

This is what is in the Web Search workspace after selecting the Find-A-Grave hint.

 

The information so far is my person. The next step is to merge this Ancestry Record into FTM2012.

 

When the Merge button is selected a Merge Window, or Windows will open. In this case, there will only be one Window. Other records may have additional steps.

 

This gives an overview of what FTM2012 "thinks" you want to merge, but WE have the options. For example, the "new" data from Ancestry had the complete Date, while my file was less complete. So, the Bullet is put in the Right column for the Death Fact, and the right information will be Preferred and the left date will be an Alt. (alternate) Date. It will also include the citation. I don't want to loose information I already had, but I can make the more complete date in my file. Each of the choices should be reviewed based on the Users way have handling this type of data.

The final Web Merge screen will be a Summary of what is going to be merged into the FTM2012 file. In this case, there are no media files.

One thing that I will do, is to high light and Copy the Source information on the Web Search screen, with this record selected. When you complete the Web Merge, you will be returned to that screen. I copy that information to put it into the Citation Notes for future reference, if needed.

  

By default, the Citation will be in a "free form" format and it does not use a Template. The key, for me is, the ability to View the Source Online, lower right corner, just below the Reference Note.

 

To create a Template, clicking on Add, right hand panel, then selecting New, will bring up the Template Keyword search screen. Will enter CEM for Cemetery. This is a Derived Compiled data source. The last entry is that choice.

 

For these Ancestry entries, I enter "Web" for the Creator surname. The reason will be clearer shortly. The Creator Forename is "Ancestry.com". The Description Title is the Top Line of the Web Search screen show above. In this case, Maine 1778-2011. The Website Title is Ancestry.com, the URL is "www.ancestry.com" and the Year is taken from the Source information on that Web Search screen from Ancestry.com.

 

I add two more lines in the Comments, and they are what I put into the Citation Details and Citation Text. Citation Details is "online; accessed: " It's clear that this index is Online and the date it was accessed is imported.

These two items will be copied and pasted into those two fields on the New Citation window for this Template.

All that was added to the Citation Detail was today's date.

The Citation Text reads: Index for [ full name ]. That is replace by the persons full name from the database.

 

The problem now is, there is Citation in the Free Form Citation. To Move that citation into the Template. Return to the Source, and Citation, what was in the Web Merge in the Left panel and selecting that source, then clicking on the Down Arrow in the Right Column, the Template is then selected. In this case, Web; Ancestry.com Maine 1777-2011.

The Free Form citation will now be in the Template Format. BUT, there is data in that Free Form screen that needs to be moved into the Template.

Note: the order of filling out the Citation Details and the Citation Text is not important. I did it in this order for someone who may not have created a Template before.

To move the Free Form to the Template form

Right clicking on the Old Citation, will being up a window on the right, and select Replace Citation.

 

This will bring up the list of Sources, where we want to select Web: Ancestry.com; Maine 1777-2011 again.

Where we select the Template Citation.

You will be asked "Are you sure" and give you the old and new, so the answer would be Yes if this information is correct.

The new Template Citation is now as it should be. The free form information is now present AND the link to View the Online Source is still here. The Reference Note is now as it should be.

 Some may stop here, but I will go a couple of extra steps. I Paste the Source information from the Ancestry.com website and Paste it into the Notes tab for the Citation.

 This comes in really handy on other Sources, where a film number might be included.

One more additional step that I take is to do a Screen Capture of what I saw on the Web Search screen. I shows all of what was on that screen and I save it as a JPG file..

 Now to add this 'media' file to the Citation. Selecting the Citation and the Media Tab, I select Add New Media file.

 I locate that media (JPG) file on my hard drive and it will be added.

Before it is added, you will be asked to put this image into a Category. I use a Cemetery Category for this information.

Almost done. I want to put a description on that Media file. I use the Reference Note from the Citation and will paste that into the Description field. (hi-lite, CTRL+C)

Selecting the Pencil ICON, on the Media Tab is the Media Detail screen.

Where the Reference Note is pasted as seen below.

As mentioned before, this are just the steps that I use when following a Shaky Leaf for a Find-A-Grave Index entry. It is NOT required or needed. The actual time to do this is not long, but the end result, for this End User, has paid off in the past.

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

What is a Double Date?

Recent blog posts talked about the Double Date "feature" withing Family Tree Maker. It's been in all of the versions of the program that I can remember, but rarely is it talked about, except the end user asks, "Why won't the date I entered remain the way I entered it?"

To help understand this issue, I did a search on the Ancestry.com Help menu:

http://ancestry.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2311/kw/%22double%20date%22#D

and selected the Glossary, scrolled down to D for Double Date:

double date

More than one date given for an event. The practice of writing double dates resulted from switching from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. This also relates to the fact that not all countries and people accepted the new calendar at the same time.

In my earlier example, I used 30 Mar 1629. The issue appears in January, February, and March, through 1752. There are other resources for the details of this calendar change, but this blog post is only to address how Family Tree Maker handles it.

I entered the Birth Year of 30 Mar 1629 for my earlier example, and entered 30 Mar 1659 for this example. See below and notice a Warning to the Right of the Date, just above the "pencil" ICON for the Place Name. This Warning is telling us something OR that we have a choice to make.

 Clicking on that ICON we see a box open up. These are our Choices:

Double date format:

• Leave the date as it is. Example: 20 Mar 1659
• Use double date formatting: Example 20 Mar 1658/59

and a choice

• Always use this setting for double dates without showing this dialog

I normally want to see the double date as a warning to me, to take a close look at that date and to note it could be either of the two years, depending on how the data that I am looking at recorded that date.

For my first example, I chose the second option, so that I could see 1658/59.

The choice is ours to make.

Also, I want this Warning to appear when I do enter a date that falls into this category. It's that Exclamation point in the Date field.

We can control this warning, and other warnings, in the Tools Menu, Options Choice, and Warnings Tab.

These are the SAME options we have from the Date field. If you always want to see the Double Date format, then make the 2nd choice, rather then the Warn Me, as I have selected.

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Task 1 - Upload FTM2012 to AMT - Double Dates

The second part of Randy Searver's blog post:

 Task 1 - Upload RootsMagic 5 GEDCOM file to Ancestry Member Tree

talked about handling of a Double Date. I used his example of 20 Mar 1629/30.

Here is the FTM2012 view of this person:

As you can see, the date appears correctly in FTM2012. Once entered, the file was Sync'ed to the Ancestry Member Tree (AMT) with the following results:

 

At first glance this looks correct, but Randy mentioned the Timeline View. Looking further down to the Birth Fact, only "Mar" shows up, although the Birth Date under the Name (Double Date) is correct.

 

So, I switched to the Facts and Sources tab,vs the Overview tab, I see:

 So, it appears that the Birth Fact properly reflects the Double Date from FTM2012 to the AMT.

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Task 1 - FTM2012 and AMT - Citation Issue

As a follower of Randy Seaver's Blog, http://www.geneamusings.com/  I read with interest his testing of his Roots Magic 5 GEDCOM file to an Ancestry Member Tree (AMT).

Task 1 - Upload RootsMagic 5 GEDCOM file to Ancestry Member Tree

I wanted to see what my AMT file looks like, that is maintained by FTM2012. I do most of my research within FTM2012, but maintain the AMT for those times when I am "on the road" with my laptop or my iPad and the Ancestry APP.

This first test is to look at the Citation Issue that Randy raised. That is, Is my Citation Detail truncated in the AMT.

 This is a screen capture from a Citation on a Birth Fact:

The red box, shows that this Citation was created in FTM2012 in the Template Format in FTM2012. It can not be changed nor edited online, but follows the Evidence Explained! Template form.

So that it can be read:

Detail

accessed: 17 May 2012; citing Kansas Historical Society; Topeka, KS; Kansas Volunteer Regiments and Batteries (1862-1868); Record Group: 034, Records of the Adjutant General's Office of the State of Kansas, 1856-1993; Record Group Unit Identifier: 190429;

I created a report, in FTM2012, that included the EndNote for that same Citation:

What is in yellow, is the Citation detail from within FTM2012. The amount of text in the Citation Detail took up too much space to show here, so the EndNote is above.

Here is what is says in the Citation Detail, again so that it can be read here:

Citation Detail

accessed: 17 May 2012; citing Kansas Historical Society; Topeka, KS; Kansas Volunteer Regiments and Batteries (1862-1868); Record Group: 034, Records of the Adjutant General's Office of the State of Kansas, 1856-1993; Record Group Unit Identifier: 190429; Subgroup: Wartime Records (1861-1947); Series: Enlistment Papers (1862-1869, 1917-1918); Series Unit Identifier: 190429; Set Control Number: 00429

Clearly, the last two lines, from "Subgroup: Wartime Records" to "Set Control Number: 00429" was NOT included in the AMT file.

or

Citation Detail

accessed: 17 May 2012; citing Kansas Historical Society; Topeka, KS; Kansas Volunteer Regiments and Batteries (1862-1868); Record Group: 034, Records of the Adjutant General's Office of the State of Kansas, 1856-1993; Record Group Unit Identifier: 190429; Subgroup: Wartime Records (1861-1947); Series: Enlistment Papers (1862-1869, 1917-1918); Series Unit Identifier: 190429; Set Control Number: 00429

I counted the number of characters in the AMT and the cut off was, as Randy suggested, 255 Characters.

On the Record, from Ancestry, the Source Information, from the website read:

Source Citation: Kansas Historical Society; Topeka, KS; Kansas Volunteer Regiments and Batteries (1862-1868); Record Group: 034, Records of the Adjutant General's Office of the State of Kansas, 1856-1993; Record Group Unit Identifier: 190429; Subgroup: Wartime Records (1861-1947); Series: Enlistment Papers (1862-1869, 1917-1918); Series Unit Identifier: 190429; Set Control Number: 00429.

Source Information:

Ancestry.com. Kansas, Civil War Enlistment Papers, 1862, 1863, 1868 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: Kansas Volunteer Regiments and Batteries (1862-1868). Record Group: 034, Records of the Adjutant General's Office of the State of Kansas, 1856-1993; Record Group Unit Identifier: 190429; Subgroup: Wartime Records (1861-1947); Series: Enlistment Papers (1862-1869, 1917-1918); Series Unit Identifier: 190429; Set Control Number: 00429. Topeka, KS: Kansas Historical Society.

Just to be clear, the Reference Note in FTM2012 reads:

"Kansas, Civil War Enlistment Papers, 1862-1863", digital image, The National Archives (www.ancestry.com), accessed: 17 May 2012; citing Kansas Historical Society; Topeka, KS; Kansas Volunteer Regiments and Batteries (1862-1868); Record Group: 034, Records of the Adjutant General's Office of the State of Kansas, 1856-1993; Record Group Unit Identifier: 190429; Subgroup: Wartime Records (1861-1947); Series: Enlistment Papers (1862-1869, 1917-1918); Series Unit Identifier: 190429; Set Control Number: 00429.

Bottom line: I think that I had duplicated Randy's observation on this Citation Issue and it has been reported, through feedback, to the developers at Ancestry.com.

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

What is Family History Information Standards Organisation, Inc. (FHISO)?

Below is an Email about FHISO. The group does a far better job of what the Organisation is all about. 

As a long time user of the Family Tree Maker program and on a number of occasions attempted to share my research. Each time there were issues. Results of some of those exchanges were documented on 

http://bettergedcom.blogspot.com

The outcome of that frustration and BetterGEDCOM Wiki was created with lots of discussion on how to move forward. One of the most important issues was the need for an INTERNATIONAL Standard. Out of that FHISO was created. The spelling of this organization was intentional (s vs z) to reflect the international need for this standard.

Below is an email from FHISO. The new ICON on the Right will include a link to their website.

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Thank you for your support of Family History Information Standards Organisation, Inc. (FHISO) and the Founding Member program.

FHISO's work platform isn't open yet. Don't be disappointed though, we are close to announcing plans for that opening. Know that when the platform opens, there will be leadership and workspaces to serve the needs of a truly global community.

In the hope you might help us with the community outreach effort, we're sending along a colourful, "I'm In!" graphic for you to post on your website or blog.

Just as your support has brought us closer to the big day, FHISO's organisers* are communicating with others to ask for their support too. Part of the outreach effort is focused on vendors, service providers, and genealogy-centric groups, societies and organizations? We ask that they allow FHISO to post their support publicly in a press release or blog article.

Here's how you can learn more information or get involved in the organising effort.

(1) Join the organising effort. We are a nine member international group; usually on five different continents. Most of our work is done asynchronously (e-mail or common workspace). We hold a GoToMeeting session weekly (Wednesday at 1:30 pm EDT/US); attendance is encouraged, but optional. Those interested should e-mail fhiso@fhiso.org.

(2) Not ready to join the organising effort but interested in meeting with the organisers? Drop a note to the address above.

(3) FHISO is the sponsor of the BetterGEDCOM wiki (http://bettergedcom.wikispaces.com). Meetings are held most Mondays (1:00 pm EDT/US). A part of each meeting is set aside for questions, answers and discussion about FHISO.

(4) Comments are always welcome on the FHISO blog or on the FHISO Open Discussion page at the BetterGEDCOM wiki.

(5) Speak out and let us know about it. If you blog or post about FHISO, send a notice to the e-mail above.

If you are interested in learning more about standards and conformity assessment, check out http://www.standardslearn.org/

Thanks

--Andrew Hatchett III and the team

*The independent group of volunteers organising FHISO are: Robert Burkhead (USA); Geir Thorud (Norway); Andrew Hatchett (USA); Greg Lamberson (Egypt); Tony Proctor (Ireland and UK); Neil Parker (Canada); Roger Moffat (USA); Brett McPhee (Australia); GeneJ (USA). All the organisers are genealogists. Robert and Geir have standards backgrounds (Robert, HL7; Geir, ISO); Tony is a developer; Greg and Neil are information technology professionals.

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Free Form Citation to a Template - Select Template

A reader emailed requesting how to select the appropriate Template.

The Free Form, non-Template Reference Note looks like this:

Johnson, Daniel F., compilier, New Brunswick, Canada Newspaper Vital Statistics, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, P.O. Box 6000, 23 Dineen Drive, Fredericton, NB, Canada E3B 5H1; http://www.archives.gnb.ca, Vol 19, #45, The Gleener and Northumberland Schediasma, Chatham, Northumberland County, 27 Jul 1861, death of Isaac Leighton. Digital image of transcription downloaded 31 Jul 2012.

So, I went to the website to see what I was looking at. We know where this document is, that is,Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, where I did a search for Isaac Leighton.

So, I downloaded the Image.

Now, which Template to use.

I am looking at a Death Certificate found on a website.

I looked at the "fine print" at the bottom of that page.

Appears that this an official Death Certificate that is in the New Brunswick (Canada) Archives and it's online.

I go into Family Tree Maker, Sources Workspace, and select Add, then New

This will bring up the screen where you select the Template. I entered "dea", keyword for death certificate. That will bring up a list of Templates that might be appropriate for a Death Certificate. I select File Moved to State Archives (Local Record). Reason, that this document was in Northumberland before it was sent to the Archives. At this point, I do NOT KNOW that, as I am not familiar with the details of these Canadian Records, but that is what appears to be the case.

Looking at the input screen, and the data requested, this did not appear to be appropriate. So, I changed the Keyword search to "ONL" for Online. The was a long list to select from, when I saw Canada.

The following screen came up and filled it in with information from the website.

That is the Template for that website. Database Online - National Archives (Canada). Clicking on OK, will bring up the Citation Screen.

Filling is the screen, based on what is shown in the above screen (slightly gray). That captures that information from that image for a Citation.

For this example, there was no additional information to put into the Citation Text.

The Reference Note now looks like this:

Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, "Vital Statistics from Government Records (RS141)", database, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (www.archives.gnb/ca), Provincial Returns of Deaths, Northumberland County; Code 1961E, Reference C4/1916, Microfilm F18738; Isaac Robert Leighton, age 79, date 1916-01-12; accessed 29 August 2012.

From there, the Image is attached and each Fact, with information from that Image, is linked to this Citation.
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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Do You Source Your Person's Name? Spouses? Parents?

Genea-Blogger, Randy Seaver posted this today:

Do You Source Your Person's Name? Spouses? Parents?

I would hope that you read his blog, and specifically this post. I had watched the same Webinar by Geoff, came away with a different question, but that's for another blog post.

Since I started my family research, I have cited every piece of data in my file. I should say try to. Much earlier versions of Family Tree Maker, we couldn't cite everything. (and I mean much earlier versions). As I have been cleaning up my database, I am cleaning this up as well. My Undocumented Fact Report is still long.

Anyway, Randy asked about Names, and Relationships. I'll add two additional Facts, to Cite or Not to Cite AND not to cite, Sex, and Person ID's.

Citing of Names:

As I research, names appear in the documents or records in many ways. I found it important for me, to record what i see and Cite my sources. It has paid off over time. For example:

You will see that I have found 6, actually 5, different ways for this name to appear in records. the 2nd item has 12 Citations associated with that name. You will see that the "preferred" name has NO citations. I have yet, to find a document that spells out his name completely. However, looking at the other 5 "name" facts, I can determine that the Preferred Name is correct. That zero (0) reminds me that it is an undocumented Fact, but I want that name to appear in Charts and Report as his default name.

Looking at that 2nd entry, selecting it and looking in the Citation list:

In the right hand panel, is that list of 12 Citations. Selecting any of those citations, you will find that the name is shown as is reflected in the Name Fact that is selected.

For example, the 1930 Census record has an Image linked to the Citation:

In this specific case. the name is listed there twice. Looking to the right, the age of the person would be the key. The 3rd line is the name as reported in the database. His father, the 1st line is listed the same way on his record.

This has helped me identify a number of people, based on how they were recorded in the various records. If I question the spelling of the name, I can check the Source, using the Citation and will see exactly what I recorded.

I did a study for a person with the name Ridgely Howard. That is how it was initially reported. After looking at a number of records, I found D. R. Howard, David Howard, David R Howard, and finally David Ridgely Howard. We they the same person, yes, but I did look at the citations a number of times to see what other information and relationships were in that record to help determine I had the right person.

How to reflect Relationships:

One of those tools was how to record relationships. Clearly the 1930 Census record (above) shows the Head of Household and the Son. So, how do I record that in FTM2012. First, here is what Ancestry showed me, before I looked at the Census Image itself.

How, that doesn't reflect relationships, but it does reflect the make up of the Household. I will highlight, from the Name: at the top part of that page, down to the age of the last person on the list. AND I will Print that page to right on it. I then hit CTRL+C, the Control Key and the letter C, to Copy that information. I return to FTM2012 and Paste (CTRL+V) that into the Residence Fact for 1930, NOTEs Tab.

I format or line up the information to make is clearer, then I return to the Census Image. From the Image, I pick up and write on the printed page, the Relationships, and other information that I capture from that Census Record by writing that on the printed page. I return to FTM2012 and type in the relationships next to the names. I will also record all other facts that I have determined or need for each record type.

His helps be set up or the way that I understand the relationships found in these documents. I am only using a Census Record for this example.

Note: If the household has a name that I don't have in my file, and the census record indicates that the person is "not family" I don't record that person. In one case, I did record a non-relative, as that person stayed with the family for several decades.

Having this data in the Notes for the fact, makes it very easy to help identify the relationships, and, in the case, the Source backs that relations up.


Citing Sex:

Is this important? To me it is, especially if the "name" could be Male or Female or the name, to me, does not lead me to the sex of the person. Of course, many records do not reflect sex, so I only cite the sex of the person when it is in the record.


Citing Person ID's:

I my file, I had assigned Reference ID for my Direct Line of Ancestors. That started many versions ago. The Citing was not important, nor did was have the ability to cite them. In FTM2012, those manually assigned Reference IDs are now PersonID's. Since I assigned them, I created a Citation to indicate that I assigned that Person ID #.

I have a "lock" or Marked as Private, the Person ID, as I don't want it displayed in the Ancestry Member Tree that is linked to this file. It is for my purposes.

The program generated Person ID's are NOT cited, as it is a program generated number.

This is what as worked for me.

 Thank you Randy !!!

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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

No Family Tree Maker 2013 - Free Bonus Features for Family Tree Maker 2012 Instead

I received this announcement from Ancestry.com

 

Ancestry.com normally announces the newest version of Family tree Maker around this time of the year. Instead we have decided to make several key updates to the existing software, and give those updates away for free. We will be working hard this year to improve the current product and you will see these bonus features throughout the year.

 

Remember, you will need to upgrade to Family Tree Maker 2012 before you can download the bonus features.

Since Family Tree Maker 2012 was released last fall, a number of updates have been sent out that include improvements and new features. Here’s a list of just some of these great changes:

• Numerous enhancements to TreeSync so syncing your tree to Ancestry.com is faster and more reliable
• A new Family View Report that displays a person’s ancestors, spouse, and children together (similar to the Family View in the People workspace)
• A new Undocumented Facts Report that lists people’s facts that have no source documentation
• The ability to merge info from multiple versions of the same fact
• New source templates for the 1940 U.S. census and improved support for city directories
• Dozens of report enhancements including performance improvements and new options in the relationship chart, family group sheet, Individual Report, Notes Report, Data Errors Report, Outline Descendant Report, Media Item Report, photo albums, Media Usage Report, Documented Facts Report, and calendar

And there are more enhancements to come in the next bonus update—so stayed tuned.

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I am providing a link to this Ancestry.com Blog post when finding problems with the 1940 Census Images on their website.

How Can I Improve the 1940 U.S. Census?

I have used this process and it does work. I have received a number of e-mail messages confirming that the index and the transcription information was updated.


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Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington

Ancestry.com Releases Completely Searchable 1940 U.S. Federal Census

Ancestry.com Releases Completely Searchable 1940 U.S. Federal Census

A searchable index to 134 million records makes researching family history in the latest available U.S. Census dramatically easier 

PROVO, UTAH – (August 3, 2012) – Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family history resource, is proud to announce that it has completed the records indexing process for the 1940 U.S. Federal Census, which is available at www.ancestry.com/1940census. All 134 million records are now easily searchable by name, date, place of birth and other key information recorded in the census. These records, which are free to search, offer valuable insight for the nearly 90 percent of Americans who either have family members recorded in the 1940 U.S. Census or are in it themselves. 

Since the initial release of the 1940 U.S. Census by the National Archives in April, Ancestry.com has progressively published information from this important family history resource state by state. Ancestry.com has made this vital family history information while providing an engaging user experience including the ability to search for maiden names or other family names, often a roadblock when searching records. Additionally, users can make corrections or update information that is incomplete, leading to a better overall database of information.

Assisting in navigation of the 1940 U.S. Census is Ancestry.com’s Interactive Image Viewer, which enables users to easily peruse document pages with simple graphical overlays. The viewer adds highlights, transcriptions and other functionality directly on the Census page. This enables searchers access to small census fields by simply scrolling over them for a pop up that magnifies the information recorded by census takers.  With the ability to zoom in on individual records, these new features dramatically improve the usability of the 1940 U.S. Census, which previously only included images of the paper records. These paper records, handwritten in small entry fields, have traditionally been very hard to read, making the visual enhancements in the Interactive Viewer a huge improvement.

“We are so excited to be publishing our index to the 1940 U.S. Federal Census for free on Ancestry.com,” said Tim Sullivan, CEO of Ancestry.com. “As one of the most anticipated family history resources ever, the 1940 Census is a fantastic way for almost every American to get started making discoveries about their family history as well as a key new resource for so many of our two million existing subscribers.  Experienced through our new Interactive Image Viewer, the stories and discoveries inside the 1940 Census really come to life.”

Users can now find basic information such as their ancestors’ names and where they lived, but also gain more insight about their ancestors’ daily lives. This information includes whether they owned or rented their home, the value of the residence and how many people resided there. For the first time, census takers in 1940 also asked questions specific to income and education. Interestingly, details like prior military service, the ability to read or write, and whether citizens spoke English – all asked in prior censuses – were not asked in 1940.

The entire census can be viewed online at www.ancestry.com/1940census

About Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM) is the world's largest online family history resource, with approximately 2 million paying subscribers. More than 10 billion records have been added to the site in the past 15 years. Ancestry users have created more than 38 million family trees containing more than 4 billion profiles. In addition to its flagship site www.ancestry.com, Ancestry.com offers several localized Web sites designed to empower people to discover, preserve and share their family history.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include our ability to digitize content, to provide desired content to our subscribers, to make our services convenient to use and to otherwise satisfy customer expectations. Information concerning additional factors that could cause events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements is contained under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, and in discussions in other of our Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date and we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements.

  

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