Here’s what’s new in Genealogy Assistant over the last month. Is there a feature you want to see next? Suggest a feature here (no matter how small).
Easily see which tools are available on a page
With over 100 togglable features, working out which tools applied to the page in front of you was getting complicated. Now the Genealogy Assistant popup opens showing only the features that run on the page you’re looking at.
Click the extension icon on a MyHeritage matches page and you get the handful of toggles that matter there. You might even find one you hadn’t noticed before. Click “View all features” to bring the whole list back, or search for a feature by name using the magnifying glass icon next to the filter toggle.
New tools for Ancestry family trees
This month we added four new features to the family tree viewer on Ancestry and expanded several of our existing tools.
Identify how any two people are related in the vertical view
Past a few generations, working out how two people on screen are related means counting up to a shared ancestor and then back down. A removal or a half relationship is easy to lose along the way, and this takes time.
The new “Relationship” button in the vertical tree view automatically calculates the relationship. Click it (or press L), then click any two people and a pop-up lists the ways they’re related, e.g. “3rd cousin 2x removed”.
View spouse, children and siblings in the horizontal view
Ancestry’s horizontal view lists the spouse, children and siblings of the focus person only. Now hovering over anyone else shows a small relatives badge in the bottom right corner of that person’s node in the tree.
Click the badge (or hover and press R) for a panel containing that person’s spouse, children and siblings, including birth and death years. Middle-click a name to open their profile in a new tab and keep your place in the tree.
Advanced Search for anyone in any tree view
Advanced Search lets you search for someone across multiple genealogy platforms with a single click. This month we added it directly to family trees on Ancestry, and gave search functionality to public trees that had none.
To use it, press A while hovering over any person, or click a person and hover over the search button. From there you can search Ancestry, FamilySearch, FindMyPast, MyHeritage, WikiTree, FindAGrave and Newspapers.com.
X-DNA, Y-DNA and mtDNA inheritance paths in all tree views
“X-DNA”, “Y-DNA” and “mtDNA” buttons in the bottom right corner of the tree highlight which ancestors could have passed on each DNA type. These tools are now available for the vertical tree view and the fan chart as well.
Also for vertical trees, the “Expand tree” button is improved. It grows every branch evenly, one generation at a time, and there’s now a matching button to collapse the tree back down a generation in a single click.
ThruLines tools rebuilt for the new design
Ancestry rolled out its updated ThruLines, and all of our features have been updated to match. These features are Automatically Expand All ThruLines, Preload Number of ThruLines Matches and Download ThruLines as CSV.
The feature “Preload Number of ThruLines Matches” stamps each ancestor card with a badge like “14 matches · 12–86 cM”, which remains on the page across reloads. This helps big clusters or a lack of matches stand out.
New tools for LivingDNA, Canadiana and more
LivingDNA matches and shared matches: New “Download CSV” buttons save your full match list and any match’s shared matches.
Canadiana Héritage image viewer: Skip buttons, arrow-key paging, and a “Download pages” button that saves any range of a microfilm reel to a ZIP.
Ancestry Member Search results: Save every researcher working on your surname to a CSV, with last-signed-in dates, so you can tell who is still active.
Ancestry matches and shared matches: Added a new “Match Date” column, populated with the date each match first appeared in your list.
MyHeritage shared matches: Added a “Triangulated Segments” column, plus a “Download triangulated” option to save only triangulated matches.
Thanks for your time and with best wishes,
Dan Maloney
You're amazing!
I've just sent you a possible suggestion of a feature which I'm not sure you can implement. I'm wondering if it's possible to be able to see current age of someone in a profile with a birth date / year who is living.
I'm also wondering if you'd consider a suggest a feature link on your contact page?
Thank you so much for an absolutely amazing add-on!