Managing My Family Tree on Ancestry.com

WARNING - Later Posts may have more updated information and discoveries but it is best to read them in order.

With over 600 people on my McLaughlin/Maxwell Family Line, I am starting to find the size of this tree almost unmanageable. I have thought of splitting it up into two separate tree lines but there are a few marriages within the two families and I think the clarity of this tie between the two families would be lost if I split the tree up. I am presently going through each individual to check for accuracy as best as I can.

Reviewing each person on my family tree is no easy task. I am doing a couple of things that are time consuming but should help me increase the accuracy of my tree. Here's my checklist if you will:

1. Set each person out on the Family Tree Option. I find that this populates more "hints" along the way. This option is on the green bar above the tree itself in the Family Tree View next to the Pedigree button. I work my way up the tree and across the tree starting with the home person. If I review the tree bit by bit, person by person, I can find more hints and make corrections along the way.

2. The second thing that I do is go to the Family Tree Overview Page, under Tree Summary; I click on the first word "People". This lists everyone who is on my tree. I scan the list for things that don't make sense or for duplicates. Trust me, I've found duplicates.

3. Also, using the list of People, I go into each person and make sure that there are no new unreviewed member connects.

4. I go to the Home page to review all of the recent member connect activity. I've found lots of pictures and stories here in the recent past that I've then been able to link to my own tree.

5. During the above steps, I try to have my own paper reference material handy to check too.

So at present, I'm still on step one. Of course as I go through my new hints I find more people. My tree keeps having babies, quite literally!

This will take a while plus I need to finish reviewing and updating "the 34 page document". I'm currently on page 24. I'll be pacing myself!