APP
OF THE
DAY
Ancestry: Family History & DNA
Genealogy, Ethnicity & Stories
Family research used to be a stuffy enterprise that meant digging up old newspapers, scrolling through microfiche, and maybe visiting Ellis Island. Today Ancestry makes family research easier than ever—bringing to life people and experiences to uncover the stories of your past.
Ancestry is a robust service for searching literally billions of documents (it’s faster than it sounds), organizing your findings in a single place, and sharing them with family members.
To start, add a few folks you know—kids, spouse, siblings, parents, grandparents. After a while, you’ll begin to build a pleasingly visual version of your family tree. Most helpfully, it suggests “hints” in the form of possible matches between your family history and information it has found from other records. If the hint is right, click yes; if not, dismiss it.
When you want to know more about a possible relative, tap into their profile. If enough records have been collected about a person, you'll get to see information broken down into Life Story, Sources, Family, Gallery, and Notes to keep you organized.
Life Story creates a simple timeline based on detailed scans of birth records, census data, and death certificates. Tap to pull up decades-old (or centuries-old!) documents.
For international records, you may want to consider one of Ancestry’s subscription services. Get access to Canada, UK, or worldwide data to see a more complete view of your family tree.