If you are looking for some unique way to label your ancestors to find people in your tree who have things in common, or you want to jump straight to your current research tasks on Ancestry. Then, ‘MyTreeTags’ is the best choice as it offers subscribers a perfect way to do it quickly. Therefore, this blog will discuss all you must know about Ancestry MyTreeTags.
What are Ancestry MyTreeTags about?
To begin with, ‘MyTreeTags’ are identifying labels that you attach to people in your family tree so that they can indicate your genealogy, DNA research status, and experiences and relationships.
You need to know that everyone with an Ancestry member tree can apply up to 20 TreeTags per individual. You can see that the website starts your labelling efforts off according to the following categories mentioned below;
- DNA Tags: Common DNA Ancestor, DNA Connection, and DNA Matches
- Life Experience Tags: Immigrant, Military Service, Royalty/Nobility
- Relationship Tags: the ones that are adopted into this Family are Adopted out of this Family, Died Young, Direct Ancestor, Multiple Spouses, Never Married, No Children, Orphan.
- Research Status Tags: Actively Researching, Brick Wall, Complete, Hypothesis, Unverified, Verified.
- Custom Tags: these are the ones that you create. You can also include things like Jewish, Civil War Veterans, etc.
If you are unsure which ones to use or would like to read a list of potential custom tags, then you also read the one that says, ‘Which Ancestry MyTreeTags should you use?’
Also, you can look up 5 Easy tips for getting the most out of your Ancestry subscription’ here; you will learn about adding your MyTreeTags by customizing your ancestor’s profile.
Furthermore, after you apply a tree to your relative, you can filter people in your tree to that shared tag, which will help you rapidly share traits with your ancestors. What is the process for adding MyTreeTags?
Follow these steps below to add Ancestry tags to your tree:
- You need to first navigate to a relative in your family tree.
- Then, you should click on the blue +tag icon beside your auto-generate relationship.
- Next, right in the sidebar, you must select a relevant tag by clicking on any term. Then, expand the tag categories by clicking on the dropdown arrows.
To create a custom tag, you must click on the word ‘Create a custom tag’ and follow the given onscreen prompts. After you are done, you will see these tags appearing in your Custom Tags dropdown menu.
If you want to remove a tree tag, you should open the ‘MyTreeTag’ side menu and click on the labels that no longer apply again. You will then have the tag removed from your Ancestors Profile’.
Check out:
Did you know? By subscribing to the Family History Fanatics YouTube Channel, you can discover the latest genealogy training and reviews.
Who is allowed to view your TreeTags?
If you worry about who can see your ‘MyTreeTags’, you do not need to worry anymore as you can follow the given restrictions currently in place for those who can view your TreeTags.
- Public Trees: This is for other Ancestry members who can see the tags.
- Private Trees: This option only lets you and the people you invite to your tree as editors, contributors, or guests see your tags.
- Living Persons in a Tree: People are treated as private regardless of public Access to a member tree.
Why does Ancestry need these labels?
Do you know that ancestry MyTreeTags is the solution to a problem many people have developed, creating hacks to solve? It is discussed in a previous post, ‘Stop adding these images to Ancestry,’ how people use flags, flowers, ships and other icons to tag their ancestors visually.
Moreover, graphic markers on ‘Member’ trees are exploding. This is a big hot-button issue for those who use these graphics to decorate their trees; it is ‘Their Tree’ after all, right?
Therefore, as a suggestion, please do not clutter up this paid genealogy platform with such images.
Furthermore, some users also add markers to their family name fields. So instead of using the given name and surname fields as the actual names of the ancestors, they choose to use names such as ‘Sarah Shelton WofHo1stC1xrofWof11thGGNoWof3rdC19xr, Fred Twin Fronhauer, etc.
Hence, they do not realize that using these creative workarounds negatively impacts the website’s experience and others.
NOTE:
- Using such terms in the name fields makes a record and family tree search nearly impossible.
- Moreover, the decorative graphics waste the website resources and negatively impact the platform experience for other users bombarded with ‘Photo Hints’ like these.
You must remember that whatever you do on ‘Your Tree’ impacts the greater genealogy community on the website.
Nevertheless, Ancestry MyTreeTags can quickly resolve such a problem.
Note how the following tags can do what the images can do;
- Died Young
- Twin
- Immigrant
- Direct Ancestor
- Royal Ancestor
- German
- Welsh
- DNA Verified
You can check the post ‘How to Record Stillbirths on your Family Tree’, which mentions how MyTreeTags can help you label the death of these infants.
In addition, the ‘Custom Fact files’ are a better place for the occupation. The ‘Automatic relationship identifier will help resolve the question: ‘How am I related to this ancestor?’
How does ‘MyTreeTags’ improve your Access to your Ancestors?
Do you know that using ‘MyTreeTags’ will add the magic of ‘Filtering’ your ancestors to those labels?
Follow the mentioned steps to filter your Tree by Tag:
- You would need to first navigate to your family tree pedigree view.
- Then, you should click on the ‘Tree Search’ option in the top right corner.
- You must click on the ‘Filters’ option within the pop-up menu.
- After that, you must expand the MyTreeTag categories to click on the filters you want to apply.
- Next, you must click the ‘Done’ button at the bottom of the pop-up menu.
Now, you can create lists of ancestors that fit into that creation. The list will be as complete as you can implement the MyTreeTag feature as a part of your family history research. After which you should be able to see the following;
- Ancestors that you are actively researching
- The names of DNA matches
- Also, the names of Ancestors who were immigrants
- You can even view Catholics who served in the Civil War after they participated in the Gold Rush.
To be noted, unfortunately, at present, you cannot print out a list of names that appear on the filtered list. However, this would be a cool feature only if enough subscribers comment and request it.
What are the limitations of Ancestry MyTreeTags?
You should know that several things help to make embracing MyTreeTags with full enthusiasm but rather challenging.
- You cannot sync tags with genealogy software – this means that if you use RootsMagic or Family Tree Maker, you cannot synch your MyTreeTags with these platforms.
- You cannot tag in batches – well, if you have a family with two parents and four children who are immigrants, then you cannot tag them in bulk. So, currently, you will have to tag each person individually.
- The MyTreeTags could disappear – this means that if users do not adopt the tags, you cannot back up your tagging effort to a genealogy program. Hence, Ancestry might remove the tagging system, and our efforts can be wasted.
Moreover, I am unsure if Ancestry and genealogy software developers can resolve these limitations this year to avoid such limitations.
Remember, the usefulness of Ancestry MyTreeTags depends on you!
So, the usefulness of the MyTreeTags feature depends on users who add tags to their trees.
If you need more tips and tricks on using the Ancestry Platform, you can always check out these blog posts;
- How To Use Ancestry.com’s MyTreeTags Tool
- How to transfer information from Ancestry to FamilySearch
- Find More Genealogy Discoveries Using the Ancestry Card Catalog
The above information is relevant; we hope you find it helpful and have all your queries answered. If you need further guidance, you can contact Family Tree Maker Support at +1-888-257-3335, or you can Live Chat with our well-trained professionals at any time.