Ancestry.com

There are several platforms for building your tree. I like Ancestry as I can enter siblings and see whole families at a glance. I use the image feature to note occupations or photos. This site also allows you to add text to the profile of each person to fill in details - this is their “facts” feature.

This photo shows part of my maternal grandmother’s tree. Her mother Janet Chapman Munro 1889 and grandmother Georgina McCabe 1860 worked at the Edinburgh Roperie, which made ship ropes for the Port of Leith. Georgina’s father came from Ireland in the early 1800s, probably on his own.

The horizontal tree view shows direct ancestors

You can upload your Ancestry tree to other platforms as a GEDcom file - but it’s a lot of work to then keep all of them current. Ancestry.com is the program I use the most and I add my own little symbols to remind me of things in the tree, e.g // means that person is the last one that I am sure of (see Sara Oswald in the chart above).

There are SO many errors on Ancestry.com. People can see “hints” that are not verified and they copy unverified lines. I love and hate Ancestry.com - there are so many great features but it is so unreliable. For a couple of weeks in early 2021 I thought I was related to Robert the Bruce!

Serious family researchers verify each generation step by step, finding parents and marriages and deaths. I trust Scotland’s People as they are part of the National Archives. If I can’t find a record on there I don’t consider it valid.

I’m waiting for a call from them to say that they are naming a new wing after me. I’ve paid for so many records over the years. And it was worth it! I can feel confident that my family lines have been verified.

Just the facts