I just launched a new video on my YouTube channel called…. you’re right… The Hidden Tool on Ancestry You Should Be Using: Recognize Ancestors. I created the video because I was on the Ontario Facebook group page, and someone had found some photos and thought it was a shame that they weren’t with family, and asked how he could do that. There were many suggestions, but I wondered if he had tried Ancestry’s new facial recognition tool. Which he hadn’t.
I went on to tell him where to find it and how it worked, and I was surprised by the number of people who didn’t know about the tool. Silly me, just because I eat, breathe, and sleep genealogy doesn’t mean that everyone does. ☺️
So, I decided to create a video for YouTube. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you’ll leave a comment below if you find anything of interest.
#genealogy #familyhistory #AI #facial recognition
If you’re not interesting in watching YouTube here’s how you can do it.
Login to your Ancestry account and then go to the gallery for your tree. You’ll find it to the left of the screen.
Once you’re in your gallery, simply select a photo.
When you look at the photo, you’ll see the icons on the right. Choose recognize.
Drag the tiny box over the persons face and click the button recognize ancestors
The system will search through the photos found on Ancestry and determine if it can find one that appears to be a match. It will also give them a rank of “great or good” and it tells you how many trees the photo was in.
In this case, it wasn’t the child I was looking for. But when I searched a photo I had of one of the ancestors of my DNA match, I got a great match, and I got 21 trees
Now I can examine each of those trees to see if the person who created it was a DNA match to me or any of the kits I manage. If they aren’t a match, and by seeing if they could be DNA connected, I could contact them and ask if they have tested, or encourage them to test.
You’re not always going to be lucky enough to get a good facial recognition match, but it’s another tool, and as more and more photos are added, you’ll find more matches.
Happy hunting.
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I wish you had written the information about using the tool in addition to creating a video. I do much better with the written word. I’m sure that people who do great with videos will appreciate the one you created. But I have learned that the tool exists, so I will go look for it!
Janice, Your wish is my command. 🙂 If you go back to the blog post I’ve updated it with the step by steps with photos. Happy hunting.