It has been just over a month since we introduced the new Ancestry website, designed to transform how you can discover and tell your family story. Over the last month, we have been listening to your suggestions for how to make the new site even better. We’ve been working hard to incorporate your feedback to improve the ease and effectiveness of the new site.

Last month we posted an article that called out some of the upcoming enhancements that we had planned. We wanted to update you where we are on those features and also on some of the issues we have seen and resolved. Finally, at the end of this post we have included links to articles and videos that will help answer your questions and provide more tips on the new site.

Feature update:

We have updated a number of features, and we continue to add and refine features based on your feedback.

Features updated since the launch of the new Ancestry site:

• View and add notes – Notes are now available as a slide-out on the right side of the screen, so you can quickly review and add notes. It is turned on in the tools menu on the top right.
• View and add comments – Comments are now available as a slide-out on the right side of the screen, so you can quickly review and add comments. It is turned on in the tools menu on the top right.
• Media Gallery / Viewer – We have added a number of features to the new media Gallery/viewer:
  • Save photos to your family trees from the new media viewer
  • Edit the description and details on a photo or story
  • Create and upload a new story in the media Gallery
  • View and listen to audio and video files
• Story formatting in the Gallery – We have fixed the layout and formatting to make it more readable.
• Web links – We have implemented web link functionality on the new Ancestry site. Web links are found on the Facts View at the bottom of the Sources column.
• Age on Facts View events – The age at a specific event has been available on the LifeStory page in the new Ancestry. We have now also added it to the Facts View to make it easier to review facts.
• Adjusted profile page photo to better fit – Some pictures were not fit correctly. This has been adjusted to show the whole picture on the profile page.
• Quick edit – The quick edit option is now available on the person card in the tree viewer under the Tools menu. It is also available under the Edit menu in the person profile.
• Guidance on LifeStory and Facts view – We have added some in-line help screens that appear when you first come to either page.
• Source and media counts on Facts view – Sources and media associated with events on the Facts view are now represented with a number count in addition to the fact/source link lines. Counts are also links and will direct to the appropriate section in the edit modal when clicked.
• Media Comments – Comments from the classic site will be available in the media viewer with the ability to also comment on them in the new Ancestry site.

Features that we are still working on:

• Media Gallery sorting/filtering – Sort and filter by media type, chronological order.
• FamilySearch integration – LDS Account holders will be able to share information between their Ancestry tree on the new Ancestry site and their Family Tree on FamilySearch.
• Print option on profile pages – The ability to print a new printer-friendly version of the Facts view or LifeStory view of the individuals in your tree.
• Profile picture cropping – Edit/crop a profile photo to fit in the circular photo space
• Member Connect – Find other members researching a similar ancestor and save info from their family trees
• Family Group Sheet – A family view of the person and their family

Top Reported Issues

We continue to listen to and track your comments and issues on social blogs, comments, and in the survey that appears when you leave the new Ancestry site. Below is a status on the top 10 issues surfacing from your feedback.

• Family Group Sheet – Some of you have asked for this to be available to view and to print. We are planning to make this available.
• Inaccurate narrations in LifeStory and Facts view – We are looking at the language in the narrations and how to better generate narratives.
• Photos added to events to appear as thumbnails in Facts view – Thank you for your feedback on this. We are evaluating whether to include this functionality in the new Ancestry site.
• LifeStory map pins appearing in wrong locations – This has been an issue due to how the locations are evaluated. We implemented a fix last week that will prevent mapping pins for any location that doesn’t have a standardized place. We are also looking at improving the standardized place engine to ensure correct pin placement.
• Printer-friendly options on LifeStory and Facts view – These features should be available within the next month.
• Circle profile picture issues – We have updated the profile image to show more of the picture. We will soon release a cropping tool to better fit individual portraits and individuals from group photos.
• Member Connect – We are evaluating what to do with this feature moving forward. Currently, Member Connect has been underutilized by most members.
• Color scheme feedback – We have heard your feedback about the readability of the new colors. We are continuing to adjust parts of the site to make sure it is easy to see and use. The new styles are designed to increase the contrast and usability. We will continue to adjust where issues are identified. For example, a bug with Windows 7 and TrueType font support was causing readability issues for some members. We have documented how you can fix this issue here.
• “Try the new Ancestry” advertisement showing when printing records – This was happening in error and has been resolved.
• Can’t uncheck profile photo – This issue has been addressed and is now available and we are working to make it more intuitive to change the profile photo.

 

Help Links

Links

• Video Overview of the new Ancestry
• Frequently Asked Questions about New Ancestry
• Quick Start Card – Person Facts View
• New Ancestry Customer Forum

Help Articles

• New Ancestry Overview
• Working with the LifeStory Feature
• Facts View Quick Guide
• Ancestry Hints

Blogs

• Announcing the New Ancestry Website
• The New Facts View: Make Sure You Are Climbing YOUR Family Tree and Not Someone Else’s
• Ancestry LifeStory: The Life Lived in the Dash

Webinars

• What’s New at Ancestry: June 2015 Edition
• Enhance Your Research with Ancestry’s New LifeStory