New Ancestry Updates

If you haven’t had a chance to login into Ancestry in the past couple of days, then you may not know that there have been some changes. One that has happened already and another coming in a few days.

The first one I’m going to tell you about is the new Member Profile. I like the cleaner look that it has. Below is the view that I see.
Did you know that by putting a profile photo and a location that you are three times more likely to be contacted? That should be enough reason to sell anyone on the idea.

So I see my name, location, age DNA summary and some of my new matches. The trees that I have and there is a photo gallery and my research interests.

Now when you switch it to see what the public see we see because I didn’t share my DNA summary the view for others doesn’t show that. (You have a choice whether you share your DNA admixture or not.) You only see my name, location, age, the Family Trees, Photo Gallery, and the Research Interests. (See below)

I like the new look, and I may leave out the DNA summary. Not because I don’t want it known but because I think it’s less cluttered this way. Besides if you are my DNA match, you’ll see my ethnicity breakdown because I’ve shared that in the DNA area.

Now for the exciting news. In the next few days Ancestry will be rolling out a new message system.

Here are some of the features you’ll see

  • a green dot signifying that a person is online (note to my cousins; I leave Ancestry on most of the time. I’m not ignoring you.)
  • Has the look of a conversation on social media rather than an email
  • shows that your message has been read (hooray, even knowing that your cousin is ignoring you is information).
  • its real time. So if you message and the person you messaged is online, you’ll see their reply right away.
  • you’ll be able to see when the person you’re messaging is typing
  • you’ll be able to search your messages for names. So you’ll see every instance of a surname for instance.
  • emoji support is coming. For now, you can cut and paste

Here’s the downside. If you’re like me, then you have folders for each of the surnames that you correspond on. The new messaging system will not be rolling out to people who have folders. It will eventually, but Ancestry need to figure out how they handle the folders. So it may be 5-6 weeks before us “folder people” get the new messaging system.

You can opt into the new messaging even if you have folders, when it is launched, but keep in mind that once you do that…. there is no turning back. This is not a beta.

I asked Ancestry how they think they will be handling the folders, to see if I really should wait. But they couldn’t say at this point so I’m going to wait and that’s hard for me. LOLOL because I really want to know when my cousin is ignoring me.

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8 Comments

  • Sara Jane says:

    Hello. It seems ancestry is migrating me without notice and any offer of help and I have fifty Folders other than Inbox, Sent and Deleted

    • Have you reached out to Ancestry either by phone or email to find out more? It has been my experience that Ancestry is very receptive to feedback. Do you want me to make contact on your behalf?

      • Sara Jane says:

        Hello. Thank you for your offer to help. That would be great. What we all need from ancestry. com is 1) a white paper/directions/information about what will happen to Folders, as in will the Sent and Received Messages that we have moved into them go back after their New Messaging System completes? And we need help on ideas to keep track of why we put the messages in the folder in the first place. The folder was my identifier, I hadn’t put specifics in my messages to other users so now they are being taken out of folders I have no idea who some of them are now. I feel this is different than losing family circles since this was a lot of work and time on our part. Yes, I have called and spoken to ancestry .com and supervisor. She had no idea folders were being discontinued. I am trying spend time screenshooting and filing on my Mac my folders. Slow going and taking up memory for sure. Thank you.

  • Gary Gratton says:

    Technically your inbox is a folder as s sent mail. Under the new system are they saying we lose all history or just if we’ve broken mail down into sub Folders?

    • I believe they are speaking about people who have subfolders which is what I have. They aren’t saying that you will lose that they are just saying that they need more time to deal with that situation. Hopefully, they come up with a good resolution.

  • Kim H says:

    Yep I have folders too and I suspect that is why people that I have messaged for DNA when I see the number and click on it it takes me to a empty page. Sigh… I hope it will work with the update.