{"id":3461,"date":"2025-09-12T14:00:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=3461"},"modified":"2025-09-12T14:00:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T14:00:53","slug":"when-ancestry-coms-pro-tools-fail-a-professional-genealogists-experience-with-ancestrys-tree-checker-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=3461","title":{"rendered":"When Ancestry.com\u2019s Pro Tools Fail: A Professional Genealogist\u2019s Experience with Ancestry\u2019s Tree Checker Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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AI Generated<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Last week, I shared my experience with most of Ancestry.com’s Pro Tools\u2014an add-on offered for $10\/month (I got in for $7 with a promotional email). You can read about those features here<\/a>. Today, I\u2019ll dive into the tool that motivated me to subscribe in the first place: Tree Checker<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve noticed the new Tree Checker score on your Ancestry tree, you might be curious. Mine showed a 9.1\u2014\u201cExcellent.\u201d That aligns with my belief that my tree is about 90\u201395% accurate. But let\u2019s be honest: no one has a 100% accurate tree.<\/strong> Without DNA confirmation for every line, there will always be an element of uncertainty. Still, I\u2019m committed to removing the detritus that\u2019s accumulated over years of brick wall chipping, FAN Club research, and lineage society applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 1990, I started my tree with 50 people, using a TI-89 cartridge program. By 1995, I was entering data into FamilySearch\u2019s .paf format. When Ancestry came along, I uploaded my work to what\u2019s now the ubiquitous .gedcom. My skills, and my tree, have grown significantly since then. I\u2019ve cleaned up my Swedish, Croatian, French, German, Swiss, and Dutch branches. What remains is my largest line: Great Britain. Before writing my next book, I knew it was time to clean that section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I regularly back up my Ancestry tree to other programs (Family Tree Maker, Legacy, RootsMagic), all of which offer tree-checking tools. But because Ancestry is my primary research platform, I\u2019ve been hesitant to clean externally and re-sync. So I was hopeful that Tree Checker would finally give me an effective cleanup solution within<\/em> Ancestry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tree Checker: Expectations vs. Reality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When I launched Tree Checker from the dashboard, I was greeted with a gut-punch: 14,000+ possible errors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The majority were labeled \u201cPeople with no sources.\u201d I immediately knew what was going on. In Ancestry\u2019s early days, there wasn\u2019t a \u201cweb link\u201d option. I got around that by uploading source PDFs to the Gallery or by placing citations in the timeline. Unfortunately, Tree Checker ignores those, unless it\u2019s housed as an official Ancestry \u201csource,\u201d it\u2019s invisible to the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that still left other problem categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n