Join Crista Cowan, Corporate Genealogist at Ancestry, as she introduces the advanced features of Ancestry Pro Tools. With over two decades of experience in genealogy, Crista emphasizes the importance of managing large family trees to make new discoveries. The session is particularly beneficial for those who have been working on their family trees for a while and are looking to delve deeper into their data. Crista outlines the various features available within Pro Tools, such as different tree views, error checkers, and enhanced shared matches, using her own family tree as an example.
Crista explains the rationale behind Ancestry Pro Tools, which are designed to enhance the user experience beyond the free family tree building service. Pro Tools, available for an additional fee, offers advanced functionalities to help users manage and explore their family trees more effectively. Crista highlights the rapid growth of Ancestry's record collections, which now include over 60 billion records from 88 countries, underscoring the potential for new discoveries.
The video delves into specific features of Pro Tools, such as different tree views, including pedigree, vertical, and fan views. Crista demonstrates how these views can help users visualize their family trees in unique ways, identify gaps, and prioritize research. The fan view, for instance, allows Pro Tools subscribers to expand their view up to seven generations and use heat maps to identify branches with hints, photos, or sources. Additionally, Crista discusses charts and reports, which provide various formats for viewing and sharing family history data, catering to both digital and printed formats.
One of the standout features Crista discusses is the map view, which allows users to visualize their family tree data geographically. This feature helps identify patterns and migration paths, offering insights into where further research might be needed. Crista also covers the list of all people in a tree, which can be filtered by various criteria, including family line, place, and date range. The error checker is another powerful tool, helping users identify and resolve potential duplicates and other errors in their trees. Finally, Crista introduces the enhanced shared matches feature, which integrates DNA data with family tree information, providing a deeper understanding of genetic connections.