Trace Your Family Tree

Building profiles of your ancestors

Long gone are the days of simply building a 2 dimensional family tree, linking names and dates by simple lines on a piece of paper, as our ancestors would have done! Ancestry.co.uk enables you to build up a very rich picture of each of your ancestors, by enabling you to effectively create profiles of your ancestors to which you can attach records, photographs, stories and audio files to make them and your family's past really come to life.

Creating a profile

Irrespective of how much detail you enter, each time you enter a new ancestor into your family tree, you'll be creating a basic profile for that ancestor to which you can return and add information at any time. For example, if you find a matching record through a "shaky green leaf" match it will automatically show in this person's profile view. You can also add additional ancestors in this view too without having to flick between a profile and a family tree view, to make it as easy as possible to capture and discover more information regarding your ancestor's lives.

Bringing your ancestors to life

In addition to attaching records, you can also attach photos, stories and audio files too, ensuring that all the information you hold on your ancestors can be stored safely and secure online for you, your family and future generations to enjoy and refer too. Let's take a look at the types of things you might want to add to your ancestors' profiles now.

Adding Photographs

Adding photos and images to your ancestors will also ensure your tree has immediate impact upon those you chose to invite to view it.

Having as many strategically placed photos and images in your tree as possible will also make your life considerably easier in obtaining photo and other great rich content to add to your trees from other relatives. It's also a great way of connecting with other Ancestry Members with similar ancestral interest since photos are searchable content. And, what's more it's all free for you to use, over and over again. Here are just a few of the types of photos you could look to add to your tree at any time.

• Memorable places: churches where ancestors were married or baptised for example, places of work synonymous with your ancestors, favourite holiday destinations of strong personal significance are just a few.
• Teams, School & Work Members: sports teams, school years and workplace photos make great content additions, in particular given their relevance and wide appeal to other Ancestry Members researching their family's history. Often these can form a link with other Members in turn enabling you to find out more about your direct ancestors
• Family Pets & Animals: whilst faithful companions in life, can often easily be forgotten. However how many of our ancestors' lives were shaped by those at their side-this is your chance to capture their memories too and give them their rightful place beside their owner.
• Birthday and Christmas Cards: not only reveal details of other family members but also provide firsthand views of your ancestor's handwriting and writing styles. So, don't forget to scan both the outside and insides as separate images.
• Significant events your ancestors may have attended or lived through: were you or your ancestors at Wembley in 1966 to witness Englands 4-2 World Cup Victory over Germany?
• Family heirlooms: ornaments, clothes, books or anything with a close association with your ancestor's past-for example, military uniforms, company livery, rugby or football shirts bearing their number make for great content.

Adding Stories

You can also add stories to your ancestors too. Do you have an old family recipe, or a favourite tale one of your relatives used to enjoy recounting at family gatherings. Perhaps even an amusing anecdote or story of a favourite party trick or family event? Adding stories is a great opportunity to preserve these fragments of family history which otherwise would be forgotten in future generations. Adding a story can really add some depth and colour to your family's history and help bring your ancestors back to life.

Adding audio files

As well as adding photos and stories to your family tree, you can now even attach audio files. This is a fantastic chance to get current family members, parents, grandparents, great-grand parents, brothers and sisters, not forgetting yourself to recall some memorable aspects of the family's past and preserve them for future generations to enjoy and refer to. All that's required is a microphone or webcam attached to your PC. The on-screen instructions will guide you through the simple process of recording and attaching your audio files to your Ancestry family tree.