Shortening Ancestry links

Question

Is there any way to shorten links from Ancestry? I'm on their .co.uk site but accessing US records and sometimes the links go halfway down the page. I'm using in-line referencing with paragraph breaks so people can find things but it brings a whole new meaning to wall of text!

Check out the profile below for an example of a REALLY long one...

Answer 1

Hi, Susanna --

My favorite thing to do is see if I can find the same citation on FamilySearch.org. That way it's freely available to everyone, and they don't need to worry about having a subscription to Ancestry to view the record.

Of course, it's not always possible to find the record there, but it's worth a shot.

FamilySearch also provides a ready-made citation that you can copy & paste to the profile, and it includes a link to the specific record in the collection.

Great question! :-)

Comments

Hi Julie,

Yes, me too! Although I've had an Ancestry account for a while now I much prefer Familysearch for their layout and formatting. Because I don't have an account with them I find it hard to refine searches on there though.

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You shouldn't need an account to use the search refinements. I often use it when I'm not logged in.

It does require a certain amount of finesse to get the results sometimes, though. Those darn census takers and transcriptionists don't always make it easy. ;-)

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I succeeded in narrowing down to census search once but then when I returned to do another search couldn't find it again. I'll persist and it'll eventually become second nature (hopefully).

Answer 2

It can be difficult to make assumptions about which parameters can be safely removed and which ones can't.

I looked at the first link: http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=7602&h=59210856&ssrc=pt&tid=43095289&pid=27578909296&usePUB=true

and it took me to the 1900 US Census record for Gurney Hays.

The cool thing about these linked records, is that even though you may have other tracking id and parameters in the original url that got you there, you can click on one of the other linked names in the list, then back on your original person's name, and it will shorten the URL for you.

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1900usfedcen&indiv=try&h=59210856

Comments

Thanks Dennis. That's a really helpful tip.

Answer 3

Dennis has already given you a great answer, but I thought I'd mention that you can also add the record to your shoebox, and then when you go to your shoebox and click the link it will give you the shortened version.

Its handy for when there are records with no other people in them!

Comments

Thanks Lucy. Good tip.

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Shoebox?! Where?

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Lucy, what is this 'shoebox' you mentioned? I assume it's like FamilySearch's sourcebox? I've never come across it and never heard of it until I read your post last night.

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Your Ancestry Shoebox can be found at this link, or by scrolling to the bottom of the Home page of Ancestry.

I haven't used FamilySearch's Sourcebox, but its probably similar. Its a place to store sources that you aren't quite ready to add to a particular person yet.

You can add records to your Shoebox like this (sorry for my terrible image editing!)

I hope that helps!

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Oh, my mistake-- I thought it was a Wikitree thing I'd overlooked. I'm not a member of Ancestry. Yet. Thanks!

Answer 4

The easiest and best thing to do is not create specific links. The thing about URLs is that a website, including Ancestry, could change the way to access content at any time. So a link to a record today, may not work tomorrow.

When sourcing a website, we should be providing the link to the website at it's domain level, like ancestry.com.

With Ancestry citations, you want to provide the name of the collection and the details needed to find the record in the collection. A good way to tell if you've provided the needed information for someone else to find the same record, is to do the search yourself.

For example, here is my citation, following Evidence Explained (EE) standards, for a marriage record for one of my ancestors on Ancestry.

''Virginia, Compiled Marriages, 1660-1800'', database and images, ''Ancestry'', 1997 (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 April 2017), Stacy Glasscock, Frederick County, Virginia; citing Dodd, Jordan, ''Virginia Marriages to 1800'',  digital transcriptions, Frederick County, Virginia.

Now, you don't know this record, but give it a try. Go to Ancestry.com (US site), go to their "Birth, Marriage & Death" collections, and locate the "Virginia, Compiled Marriages, 1660-1880." Then search for "Stacy Glasscock" in Frederick County, Virginia. She will be the first result.

EE has a lot of great examples (quick start guides) online, but also has a fantastic book available. There is also a great forum for searching on "how to..."

For example: https://www.evidenceexplained.com/content/how-use-source-information-given-ancestry

Also see the WikiTree sourcing guide:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sources_Style_Guide

 

 

 

Comments

Personally, I appreciate the full record links. My searching skills are quite lacking. For example, I have no idea how to get to the "Birth, Marriage & Death" collections (even though I've seen it before, I just don't know how to get back to it). And I suspect, for more common names, it won't be the first result, which makes it much harder to find.

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Well, not knowing how to find collections in Ancestry can be fixed with some assistance and mentoring. :)

Searching Ancestry is a bit like going to the library and searching through the card catalog, you start by knowing a little about what you are searching for and then drill down from there. Rather than go into the how myself, here is an Ancestry blog that might help:

https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2016/07/06/how-to-find-the-collections-for-your-area/

Properly citing your sources is very important in any Wiki, including WikiTree. Could you trust the information on the link I provided above to domain names if the editors did not provide sources to the data in the entry?

It is even more important in genealogy. We have a burden of proof as genealogist. It's a bit more like science than a guessing game. If a profile on WikiTree is not properly sourced in a manner that any other genealogist can repeat, then the sources are meaningless.

In addition, like I said, providing a direct link to a record or even the image of the record is fraught with error. You can search the G2G forums and see all the posts by folks that now have broken links in their profiles because Ancestry changed the way the records in their collections are accessed. So sure, that doesn't cause an issue for you, because you have that person in your tree, and you can go to their profile in Ancestry, and click on the source there. But, no one else on WikiTree can do that.

As for whether multiple results come up in a search result, it's the same as searching in Google, you make your search parameters more specific.

In my example, if there were multiple "Stacy Glasscock" entries, I most certainly could add the date of marriage and the spouse name to make it easier for the next researcher.

For example:

''Virginia, Compiled Marriages, 1660-1800'', database and images, ''Ancestry'', 1997 (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 April 2017), Marriage, 1799, Stacy Glasscock, Frederick County, Virginia, Spouse: John Payne Clark; citing Dodd, Jordan, ''Virginia Marriages to 1800'',  digital transcriptions, Frederick County, Virginia.

Ultimately though, the leaders of WikiTree have provided us with a guide as to HOW to source our profiles. So that is what we should do to ensure that WikiTree provides a consistent experience for all users, provides the most accurate information as possible and our profiles meet the burden of proof for genealogy research.

All that said, if you really want to have a link to the record (knowing it may not work in the future) for your own purposes, you could do something like this example, where I am wrapping the source with the proper ref tags and creating a linkable title to the record:

<ref>''[http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=3002&h=115109 Virginia, Compiled Marriages, 1660-1800]'', database and images, ''Ancestry'', 1997 (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 April 2017), Stacy Glasscock, Frederick County, Virginia; citing Dodd, Jordan, ''Virginia Marriages to 1800'',  digital transcriptions, Frederick County, Virginia.</ref>

This would create a link that works today on the title of the collection, but still provide the proper citation meeting EE and Wikitree standards. Then, if the link no longer works sometime in the future, the information is still there for you or any other researcher to find the record again.

 

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and I'd probably welcome some mentoring and assistance in learning how to use all these various tools: ancestry, familysearch, gedmatch, etc... I think its the main reason I like WikiTree so much -- the active community that's so easy to ask questions.

in spite of working most of my life in the high tech industry, some things are obvious, and others not -- because we all learn differently and approach things from different starting points.

learning proper citations is another skill I'm sorely lacking -- and anything involving writing was my least favorite subject in school >.<

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Dennis,

I'm not a WikiTree mentor, but I am willing to help you with what I know. :)

Feel free to go to my profile page and sent me a private message by clicking on the "send private message" link next to the profile manager name (me!).

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mackler-10

I couldn't write my way out of a barn if asked to write a novel, but I am pretty good at tech writing and research, though I'd never claim to be an expert at it. :)