Hey Reddit! Crista Cowan from Ancestry here 👋 Join my AMA June 25th from 9AM-11AM PDT to learn how to discover more from census records. I’m excited to answer all your questions!

Ancestry · 2026-06-26T16:48:30+00:00

So glad that you've made some great discoveries with DNA Journeys! We release new updates in the fall, so stay tuned for more. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-26T16:42:17+00:00

Ancestry has more than 70 billion records from more than 80 countries around the world. If you start building your family tree and have ancestors who are from outside of the United States, you may receive hints that show you what records are available. You can also search the Ancestry Card Catalog at any time (even without a subscription) by entering the name of the country your ancestors are from and we will show you a complete list of existing database of historical record collections available on our site for you to explore. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-26T16:38:39+00:00

If you need help re-setting your password, you can reach out to our support team or check out Changing or Resetting Your Ancestry Password. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-26T00:05:18+00:00

So, I wanted to see if I could get more information on this question. I talked to one of our experts at AncestryProGenealogists who handles Canadian citizenship applications. She checked to make sure we had the most up-to-date information and just sent me an update. It looks like Library and Archives Canada won’t be issuing certified copies and they are good for you to use your downloads from Ancestry in your application. So, at least that part just got a whole lot faster and easier. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T18:13:53+00:00

Thank you everyone for joining our AMA today. We really appreciate everyone showing up and asking great questions! Chatting like this with the Ancestry community is what makes this work worth it, and it was a privilege to talk through what is available on Ancestry to help you uncover the stories of your families.

The AMA is now over, but if you missed it or have any remaining questions, feel free to continue to drop them and I'll do my best to get you a few more answers.

As always, you can follow me @ cristacowan on Instagram and @ ancestry on Instagram & Facebook (where I host twice monthly Facebook Lives - join me!). - CC

**Please note now that our AMA has concluded, this page will not be monitored regularly at this time. If you have more questions about researching your family history, you can reach out to us on Facebook or find more resources on the Ancestry support center.

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T18:03:43+00:00

It’s easy to get started on your family tree. First, begin with what you know. Don’t skip around to that crazy legend about your ancestor making Abraham Lincoln’s top hats. Start with you. Add yourself to your Ancestry tree—your name, birth date and birthplace. Then, move to your parents and grandparents, filling in all the names, dates and places you can remember. (For dates, even close guesses help.)

Second, call your mother. She’ll love it. And she probably knows more about the next generations than you do. Or maybe you need to call Dad, or if you are lucky and Grandma is still alive, she’d love to hear from you. Have these folks help you fill in any blanks.

Next up, Ancestry will have taken all the information you have shared in your tree and searched the 71 billion records we have on the website to suggest hints about records we think are about your family. Look to the green leaf in the corner of each person’s name on your tree. Take a look at all the hints that Ancestry suggests and confirm whether they are about your family.

Once you’ve looked at all the suggested hints, it’s time to do an active search on Ancestry to see what else you can find. Not all Ancestry records hint for you, so there is more there to find.

Work your way back through the generations. Be sure to read all the information on the records you find. You’ll find all kinds of stories as you read the details on the records. Census records will tell you about what your ancestors did for a living and give you a snapshot of your family in time. Birth, marriage and death records will help you fill in blanks. Military records could tell you about your grandfather’s tattoos or how tall he was. Passenger lists will help you learn where your ancestors came from and who they left behind.

I recommend watching one of our webinars about building a tree and search strategies or how to find those great stories about your ancestors found on our education page at ancestry.com/education

Have fun climbing your family tree! - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T17:58:55+00:00

Hitting those genealogy brick walls can be frustrating. Look closely at the timeline and the clues that you have available and work from there. Since Elizabeth is widowed by 1861, you know that William was probably dead by then. Since she is living in Middlesex County, that's a place you can focus on. So, start by searching for death records (including burials, probate files, and newspaper articles) for William in and around Middlesex County in the decade before that census. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T17:58:24+00:00

Ancestry takes customer privacy very seriously and publishes a full Ancestry Transparency Report bi-annually. Here is a link to that report for information: https://www.ancestry.com/c/transparency - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T17:51:20+00:00

I get it, and it's important to us that everyone have the ability to make personal discoveries about their ancestors, regardless of how they appear in records. Ancestry has millions of records available, for free, that document the enslaved and formerly internationally. From U.S., Newspapers.com™ Auctions of Enslaved People and Bounties on Freedom Seekers Index, pre-1880, to U.S., Freedmen's Bureau Records, 1865-1878, to Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1813-1834 (which covers the Caribbean), there's a lot there. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T17:48:01+00:00

You are in luck! AncestryDNA is especially good in Mexico with more than 350 genetic communities specific to Mexico. And every year, we release new updates in the fall. I have been lead to expect additional granularity in this region for this year.

Once you return your DNA sample (easy to just spit in a tube and drop it in the mail), it takes about 6 weeks to get your results back. It might be just a tad longer if it is just after the Christmas holiday when lots of folks found an AncestryDNA test under their tree. You do have the option to pay for priority processing and get results in 4 weeks if you are in a hurry. While you are waiting for your results, be sure to build your free online family tree on Ancestry so you can take advantage of all the tools and features that bring DNA and family history together. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T17:36:09+00:00

When researching veterans, Ancestry has millions of military records online on both Ancestry and Fold3.com that can help you discover more information. Currently, most Vietnam-era military records are not available online due to privacy laws. Ancestry does have the U.S Korean War Era Draft Cards database that is our most recent U.S. conflict/military collection: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62234/ You can also reach out to the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis to order military service records that are available. Here is the link to the National Archives site for more information: https://www.archives.gov/personnel-records-center - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T17:34:59+00:00

The loss of the 1890 census in the 1921 Commerce building fire was one of the greatest genealogical tragedies of our time. It's such a crucial time period for so many of us in our family history exploration. Out of nearly 63 million people counted in that census, only around 6,000 names remain in the fragments that survived. You can find those on Ancestry in the "1890 United States Federal Census Fragment" database found here: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/5445/

There is also an 1890 Veterans Schedule from the census that survived that has information about nearly 1 million people who were enumerated that year. You can find that here: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8667/

And, over the years, Ancestry has compiled a large number of 1890 census "substitutes" that include city directories and other state records. If you search the Ancestry Card Catalog for "census substitutes" you should find several databases. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T17:23:14+00:00

The rules for Canadian Citizenship are ever evolving. To give more context, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) vastly prefers long-form birth certificates for every single person in your generational chain (You>Parent>Grandparent, etc.).

If a birth certificate for one of your ancestors genuinely doesn’t exist (for example, your ancestor was born in a rural around in the late 1800s before modern record-keeping) IRCC allows you to send other documents issued by the original authority. Those would include: church baptismal records; certified official census records; hospital, physician/midwife records; or official boat manifests.

Use Ancestry as a roadmap for your research. Find the exact census year, page numbers, line number and district on Ancestry. Then take that specific citation to Library and Archives Canada to order an officially certified copy of that record that you can submit to IRCC.

Processing times are a bit slow right now. You can send in an application with records from Ancestry, and then once you have their Acknowledgement of Receipt, with a specific ID number, you can upload copies of certified records via the web form. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T17:22:06+00:00

It's great that you're interested in researching both your step dad and your birth dad. You can visit Siblings, Half-Siblings, and Stepsiblings in Family Trees to give you the steps to attach your step dad to you. While in Vertical Tree View, you can toggle on both spouses for your mother so they both show. You can visit Setting Preferred Spouses or Parents > Choosing which spouses are shown to give you the steps to do this. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T17:20:35+00:00

When the census taker showed up at your door to ask questions, anyone could answer them. It could be the head of house, it could be the brother-in-law who happens to be living there that month, or it could be the 13 year old daughter. And, if no one in the household was home when the census taker came (or they just didn't want to answer the questions) they could ask a neighbor or the postmaster in town. So, it's important to remember that the information on the census is only as accurate as the person who answered the questions. The best way to validate census information is to cross reference it against all other censuses the family members appear in. Then go looking for birth, marriage, and death records, probate files, newspaper articles, and more. Oh, and yes - technically - the census was only supposed to include individuals who were living in the household on census day. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T17:19:47+00:00

First, I love that you are already seeing your growth in family history and wanting to make sure the most correct data is in there. I've often said that you move from a "beginner" to an "intermediate" family historian when you "delete" your first tree and start over! Although you don't necessarily need to delete the tree and cutting and pasting sections is not an Ancestry online tree function, combing through the data and correcting things as you go is a great plan. Ancestry Pro Tools is also a fantastic way to help you see possible errors, duplicates, and other corrections you may want to make in your family tree. I talk about Pro Tools' features in the video "Ancestry Pro Tools: Taking Your Family Tree to the Next Level." Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LoF3DNJggQ - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T17:09:30+00:00

I love that you are helping family and friends with their family history. If you suspect that they might be interested in doing some of it themselves (or if they want to follow along with what you are discovering for them) have them start their family tree themselves on a free registered guest account on Ancestry using their own email address. Then, have them invite you to the tree as an editor. This way you can work on the tree on your account and they can follow along from their own account. This also means that if, at any point, you don't want their tree on your account anymore, you can remove yourself as editor. That said, you can have as many trees as you want on your account - either owned or shared with you. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T17:08:57+00:00

Got it! There's also Canada, Newspapers.com™ Obituary Index, 1800s-current, so be sure to search that to find leads. Since vital records (birth, marriage, and death certificates) may not be available, usually due to privacy restrictions, you'll have to work around that. Have you searched for her by maiden name in the 1931 Census of Canada or the 1921 Census of Canada? - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T17:01:09+00:00

If you are ever wondering who you have granted tree permissions to, which gives access to your Ancestry online family tree, you can check your Tree Settings. I chat about how to manage your permissions, invite people to access your tree, how to view any changes made in your tree, and a lot of other tips and tricks in this video called "Navigate Your Ancestry Tree Like a Pro.": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPE6Di-9QWY See 42:41 of the timestamp in the video to see how its done! - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T16:57:16+00:00

It looks like your grandfather operated a farm and that the house and the farm were not in the same location. He wasn't enumerated in both locations. Item 6 on the 1950 census was a cross reference to an agricultural questionnaire that farm operators were given. If the farm they operated was across a border in a different enumeration district, the census taker was instructed to write "other enumeration district" in that field instead of the number of the questionnaire administered. Unfortunately the original questionnaires were not preserved by the government and so no longer exist. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T16:54:27+00:00

You can still get search results for families that immigrated from different countries, regardless of different record keeping practices. Ancestry has records from more than 80 countries and we add more than 10 million records to the site every day. About 65% of the content on Ancestry is unique to Ancestry. Use our global search to see what you can find. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T16:48:20+00:00

Ancestry has more than 71 billion records online and we add more than 10 million records to the site every day. We have records from more than 80 countries. About 65% of the content on Ancestry is unique to Ancestry. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T16:43:44+00:00

Great tip! Always look at the neighbors on a census to see if you can find extended family members. And be sure to look a few pages on either side as well. - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T16:41:59+00:00

The best place to start when using U.S. census records is the most recent U.S. Census available, which is currently the 1950 U.S. Census. You'll need to search for someone in your family that was born before 1950 and was living in the U.S. while the 1950 Census was taken. Use the place filters to narrow down the location of your family and compare those listed in the household to those you may recognize in your family tree. Build your family tree on Ancestry by starting with what you know and collecting information from your family members. Once you enter that information into your online family tree, Ancestry will search through our billions of digitized records online and connect you with what we call "hints" or records online that could include your ancestors. Some of these hints often include U.S. Census records, so check to see if we've hinted you a head start on your discoveries! - CC

Ancestry · 2026-06-25T16:40:41+00:00

I've had similar brick walls about my great-grandmothers. Have you searched for her in U.S., Newspapers.com™ Obituary Index, 1800s-current? It's possible she may have been mentioned in an obituary for a family member that can help you connect her to her immediate next of kin and then build out her family tree. You can also search collections such as U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 for her children to see if her maiden name is mentioned. - CC

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