Growing yourFAMILYTREE
Just like a living tree, your Ancestry® family tree needs nourishment to grow. As you add people and records to the tree, we’ll send you Ancestry Hints® to help you find even more information. Each record you discover could be another branch of your family tree to explore.
There are three important ways to build your Ancestry family tree.
Add people to your tree.
The first step in bringing your backstory to life is planting seeds that you can grow into a healthy tree. This means adding as much information as you already know about people in your family—names and the dates people were born, got married, and died
Everything you add—even your best guess—will help us to discover more records for you to continue growing your tree. From there, you can connect with other people in the Ancestry community, link to AncestryDNA® results, and more.
Support your research with records.
Adding records to the people in your tree helps develop your family tree’s root system so it can grow healthy and strong. These records not only validate the information you’ve provided, but can also reveal the details and context behind how your ancestors lived.
You can find records through Ancestry Hints® or by searching our collection and linking records directly to individuals on your tree. Just remember that the hints we send you only come from a small set of records in our collection. By searching the collection yourself, you can find even more information.
Share your discoveries with others.
Once you’ve planted the seeds and grown your tree, share the fruits of your labor with your family and friends. Your loved ones can learn and enjoy the stories you’ve gathered and, just as importantly, can help you discover even more.
Together, you can learn more about your shared story and bring your family closer.