Pro Tools: Ancestry's AI Tree Fixer
Is it worth that extra $10/month?
I've been a subscriber to Ancestry.com almost since the beginning, around 1999 or 2000. While it may still leave some things to be desired, it has become a fairly powerful tool with new features that have been added in the past few years.
One of these I played around with over the weekend was the "Check Facts" feature, one of the Pro tools that require an additional $10/month. (Personally, charging anything more for features seems kind of outrageous, seeing how much one pays for the various subscriptions. But, it is what it is.)
So with this feature, I can go into my personal family tree, which I started many moons ago before I learned NOT to trust information in other people's family trees on the site. A rookie mistake, to be sure, and no matter how long we've been doing this work now, we've all made them.
So, this feature will give you an overview of duplicate people in your tree, as well as how many people are in your tree with no documentation, how many where the only source is another tree, and other uncategorized possible errors. Below is a screenshot of my tree's rating.
So why is my tree so far from meticulous? Many of the people I have added in the past few years are DNA matches who I've used the "quick and dirty" tree-building method simply to determine our most recent common ancestor. And yes, I should go back and add better documentation. But, that's a lot of people! And it's also the reason my tree is marked private and unsearchable. I know there are mistakes, and I also want to maintain the privacy of the DNA matches I've researched.
MY OPINION: I think it's worthwhile, even if you only sign up for the tools for a few months. I went through and cleaned up a few of the duplicates and fixed a few of the other errors.
But what I probably should do is just start a new tree from scratch, one that is meticulously documented, so that I can allow others to see my information. (And probably steal it. lol)
If you are just starting on your research journey, or are a new member at Ancestry, and you have any questions, please feel free to contact me here or at TwistedRootsResearch.com!
Happy hunting!
