Articles about Ancestry

Are you still searching for that fourth cousin, twice removed? The biggest problem with family trees is that they often amass as many brick walls as new branches. We all have them -- an ancestor who showed up in 1682 on a ship that originated from England or in 1871 from Norway. The problem is that, despite all of the checking that you do in those places, they simply seem to have appeared on that boat out of vapor. 

While our grandparents may have handed us down great information about the family, remember that the data is only as good as the era from which it comes. 

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Most of us have old photos of family members, with some people having pictures dating back to the 1800s. If you've ever wondered what those ancestors would look like moving, you can now find out. At least to an extent.

My Heritage has introduced an AI-powered tool capable of animating your old photos. The example at the bottom of this story is a picture from around 1880. 

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Where did you come from? It’s a question many people never consider, but some are curious and the best answer to that, aside from lots of time in archives, historical societies, libraries and cemeteries, is a DNA test.

You have multiple options, but the leader is Ancestry.com and it is always updating the science behind its tests so you receive the latest information.

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If you’re at all familiar with genealogy then you'll likely know both Ancestry and Family Tree Maker -- they an integral part of the pastime. Unfortunately, independent review site WizCase recently discovered an open and unencrypted ElasticSearch server that belonged to Software MacKiev, the owners of Family Tree Maker.

The leak exposed thousands of records including email addresses, user locations, and other sensitive personal information. FTM was owned by Ancestry.com until 2016 when Software MacKiev took it over, and the software is still used to upload databases to the Ancestry online trees.

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Obviously, unless you've just returned from hiking the Appalachian Trail, you know the current events in the world. If you haven’t been absent from society then the news has been hard to avoid.

Now two more tech companies have added their voices to the incident in Minneapolis that involved four law enforcement officers and one citizen, George Floyd, and resulted in his death. Protests, some peaceful others violent, have broken out in cities across the US, including in small towns not accustomed to such events. They have even somewhat spread to other parts of the world, including London and Paris.

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With the current pandemic continuing to grow in some areas, and unemployment rising even faster than food prices, we need problem solvers. Help at this time comes mostly from doctors and scientists, but can also come from other surprising areas.

If you've recently taken an AncestryDNA test, Ancestry.com is inviting you to supply some information that could assist in the fight against COVID-19.

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Despite everything going on currently, the world hasn’t stopped, just changed -- a lot. My daughter works from home, my son and girlfriend are doing their college classes from her family’s home.

While sports are at a dead stop Genealogy research can move on. Yes, the archives and historical societies may be closed but there’s nothing to keep you from cemeteries and online research in places like Ancestry and FamilySearch.

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Are you part Irish? Do you know? I bit the bullet recently and had the DNA test done. There were no shocks, I’m of Irish, Scottish, English and Welsh descent. I knew this, but a bit more data always helps.

The test I used came from Ancestry.com and was fairly simple. I recommend saving up your saliva though, you’ll be using a lot of it, and be sure to follow the instructions to a tee, you’ll need to.

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