There are many places to build a family tree online, but Ancestry is the best. In this post, I’ll explain why it’s a good idea to build your tree on Ancestry.
I know that genealogy can seem confusing for beginners, especially if you don’t know much about your ancestors. One of the first concerns that I hear from beginners relates to finding the best (and easiest!) place to build a family tree online.
But first…
Should you build a family tree?
Are you unsure of whether you should build a tree, or whether you need to? Family tree research (i.e. genealogy) is one of the most exciting and rewarding hobbies.
So, yes, you should definitely build a tree!
Sometimes, I feel like a private detective researching every detail of my ancestors lives. I always get better understanding of my family history in the process.
Five reasons why Ancestry is the best place to build a family tree
Below, find the top five reasons that Ancestry is the best place to build a family tree.
It’s very easy to get started building your Ancestry family tree
Getting started with your family tree on Ancestry is so easy. If you managed to get on Google and find this blog post, then you can definitely build your tree on Ancestry.
The interface of the Ancestry site makes it very easy for people who are just getting started in family tree research to start working on their trees. It’s as easy as entering information about your parents and grandparents.
Once you put in as much as you know about your recent ancestors, you’ll start getting “tree hints” about records matching your family members and helping you build you tree back generation after generation.
Read: How to build a family tree on Ancestry
Trees are free to build on Ancestry
I’ve already established that it’s easy, but did I mention that it’s also free? You can build as many family trees as you want and make them as big as you want, completely for free.
You can share your tree (more on that below), download your tree, add 10,000 people to it, upload photographs and documents to it, and make it public or private, all completely for free.
Seriously, you don’t need a subscription to do any of those things I just mentioned. How sweet is that?
You can easily share your Ancestry family tree with family
One of the best things about building a family tree is being able to share what you are learning and the progress you’ve made with your family members.
In my immediate family, I’m the only person who is interested enough to build a family tree, but the rest of my family is always interested to hear about my new discoveries. It’s easy for me to invite my family to view my tree, and I can even assign my sisters special privileges (like being an editor or contributor to my tree).
If I decide I want to download my family tree for safe-keeping, or to upload it to another site, I can download my entire tree in just a few clicks. So, if you build your tree here and decide you want to transfer it somewhere else, it’s easy to do so without having to start over.
Read: Two ways to share your tree on Ancestry
Ancestry has the best collection of records and public family trees on the entire internet
If you get really serious about building your family tree, and you feel like the free resources on the site aren’t enough for your needs, it’s easy to get a subscription to the site and have access to billions of records and tens of millions public family trees.
Are you looking for information on your great-great-great grandfather? Chances are that someone else on Ancestry is also descended from him and you’ll be able to find helpful information in their family tree.
If it turns out that no one else seems to have your great-great-great grandfather in their tree, I bet you’ll be able to find records and documents, and even photographs, related to his birth, marriages, death, or immigration.
Even though the records and documents, as well as public family trees, require a subscription to access, you don’t have to have a subscribe forever. You can just activate your subscription when you need it, and if you need to take break, you can easily cancel it.
Connecting your DNA results and your Ancestry tree is a powerful tool
My absolute favorite aspect of having my family trees on Ancestry is being able to connect my tree with my DNA results. If you are interested in DNA testing, Ancestry DNA is the first place that you should test. Combining the power of the family trees on the site with the largest database of DNA testers in the world is a great way to:
- Verify your family tree
- Find new ancestors
- Connect with living relatives
- Build your family tree further back
How does this work? Ancestry DNA provides something called “ThruLines” to people who have DNA tested on the site and also have a family tree connected to their results.
Scrolling through my DNA matches, I can easily see how I am related to my matches who also have trees connected to their results. It saves so much time, and I’ve learned a lot through this process.
In fact, Shared Ancestor Hints, the feature that came right before ThruLines, were a key tool in helping a family member find their biological father through DNA testing.
How to start building your tree on Ancestry
If you are ready to start building your tree on Ancestry, a free trial to their subscription is a great way to get started off. It will help you save time by giving you tree hints and access to documents, census records, and sometimes even photographs of your ancestors.
To get your free trial, just click the following sponsored link: Ancestry Free Trial
Conclusion
I hope that this post has helped you understand why Ancestry is definitely the best place to build your family tree online. I also hope that you get started on your tree today!
If you have any questions about something that you read in this post, or if you would like to share your own experience with building your tree on the site, I would love to hear from you in the comments .
Thanks for being here today 🙂
