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  5. It's easier than ever before to check your entries from the 1881 Census - more details here

New Ancestry feature - Story Scout

Discussion in 'Online family trees' started by At home in NZ, Mar 17, 2021.

  1. I have a number of trees in Ancestry so I use the 'Trees' link to the right of the Home link, at the top of the page when I want to work on a different tree..
    To my surprise I now have 'StoryScout™' and the word 'New' at the bottom of the list of my trees.
    I decided to take a look, it asks you to complete a grandfather's or grandmother's name and address. I used my maternal grandfather and followed the process, I got to the point where it intimates the building of a new tree. I didn't see the point when I already have a tree so I didn't go any further.

    The details the StoryScout found are already in my existing tree. It doesn't provide anything new, not at this point anyway..

    As per usual I have not received an email advice of this new feature. I doubt if I'll ever use it anyway.
     
  2. Bob Spiers

    Bob Spiers LostCousins Superstar

    Spotted that myself yesterday when switching Trees, but decided to leave exploration for another day. After your posting and explanation I doubt that day will materialise so thanks for the tip off.
     
  3. Katie Bee

    Katie Bee LostCousins Member

    I received an email about StoryScout last month. It was trying to get me to re-subscribe.

    "Get back into family history with our free StoryScout™ tool. Discover fascinating stories about your ancestors' lives in an easy‑to‑read story format. All you need to start is a grandparent's name and a place they lived."

    "StoryScout™ searches personal records to reveal interesting details about your relatives. You could learn about your ancestors' day‑to‑day lives, uncover more about their occupations or discover stories of military service.
    What might you uncover?"

    Ancestry had already selected a Great- grandparent from my tree to work on.
    So I had a look and Ancestry had taken the 1911 census entry and told me what life was like at the time.
    I just assumed that it would give the same information to every person from the 1911 census who ran a shop like my g-grandfather.
    I assume it has a different story for the females.
    I didn't find it very inspiring, but I did find out that Ancestry has transcribed my g-grandfather's age incorrectly!
    I had not realised that before - they think he is 27, but the image shows 57 which is correct.
    The Findmypast transcription is correct.
     
  4. In spite of my initial findings I did go back for a second go and when I got to the 1911 census Ancestry told me what it was like to work in an industry that wasn't my ancestor's declared occupation.
    I felt that Ancestry was pulling records out of my tree and presenting them to me as if they were new discoveries, I am not that naive!

    No inspiration from me either. The age error crops up now and again in my ancestor's records and I acknowledge it is quite easy to misread some numbers, I always make a correction.
     

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