Your family tree deserves a refresh! In this practical, insightful webinar, Crista Cowan, Corporate Genealogist at Ancestry®, shares how to “spring clean” your tree—clearing out errors, inconsistencies, and duplicates that may be blocking your progress. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve built a tree 90,000 names deep, this session will help you prune with purpose so your family history can grow strong.
In this webinar, you’ll learn how to:
Follow genealogical standards for names, dates, and places
Clean up common errors like duplicates, logic issues, and floating people
Use tree tags and Ancestry’s new ProTools to stay organized
Evaluate and manage your sources so your tree stays evidence-based
Personalize your tree with views, tags, and tools that make research more intuitive
Crista walks you through real examples—from fixing “Franken-people” created by copying bad data to merging duplicates that formed when cousins married or timelines got tangled. She even demonstrates how to track enslaved individuals and non-relatives with Networks, helping you preserve historical truth and social context with care.
Chapters:
0:00 – Introduction & Why Spring Cleaning Matters
5:00 – Genealogical Standards: Names, Dates & Places
25:00 – ProTools Tips: Sources, Duplicates, Errors & Floating People
44:00 – Using Tags & Networks to Organize Your Tree
53:00 – Bonus Tip: Why Adding All the Children Improves Accuracy
Clean, organize, and elevate your tree at ancestry.com/familytree