Change of instructions for inputting parents of grandchildren

These changes are effective immediately.

Inputting Parents of Grandchildren

We will be REMOVING the Parent Information fields (parent’s names and birth places) from the Death screen.

This is associated with 6. b. on your instructions.

Instead of inputting information in the parent information fields, please make sure BOTH the grandchild’s parents have death screens. Most of the time, the child of the veteran should already have a completed death screen. For the spouse (2nd parent of the grandchild) enter a new death screen. Always input the individual’s most complete name. This should include maiden names for women.

We still don’t want you to do separate, additional searches, but if you find the following information during the normal course of your work, please input it on the correct person’s death screen. You may also check the hints to see if this information is available.

• Birth date
• Birth place
• Death date
• Death place
• Death cause


Summary: If the child of the veteran and her/his spouse had children (grandchildren of the veteran), then they should each have a death screen. Each screen should have the most complete name you’ve found. If you find them in the hints or the normal course of your work, input additional birth and death information.

Searching using family members

Here is some information from Sandy about searching for an individual on Ancestry and including information about family members - siblings, children, parents - in that search. These are just some things to keep in mind when searching and reviewing your results.

1) It looks like Ancestry searches for the siblings exactly even though you can't mark them exact. (I tested 1880, 1900 and 1920).

2) However, If you enter a person and list names of children in your search, Ancestry does not consider the children exact.  It orders the results with those at the top having matching children (all matches, followed by some matches, followed by no matching children)

3) Ancestry does allow you to input a parent's name and NOT mark it exact. After entering a parent's name, the results pop up with those at the top having a parent with that name, followed by other names that match the target person but without having a matching parent.

In summary:   It appears that the parents field is working fine (you can choose exact or not exact); the siblings are considered exact, and the children are not exact.