Search Ancestry Family Trees by Name

Ancestry's My Trees list with the Search your family trees by name box and the Rebuild Index button above the list outlined in red.

What problem does Search Ancestry Family Trees by Name solve?

Search Ancestry Family Trees by Name adds a search box to Ancestry’s list of your family trees that finds a tree as you type part of its name. Without it, finding one tree among dozens means scrolling down the list and reading every name.

How does Search Ancestry Family Trees by Name work?

The search box sits at the top of the list on both the My Trees and Trees Shared with Me tabs. Ancestry opens this page from Trees and then Create & Manage Trees. Type part of a tree’s name and the matching trees appear under the box, from your own trees and those shared with you.

Click a tree in the list to open it. You can also use the keyboard: Up and Down move through the matches, and Enter opens the highlighted tree, or the first match when none is highlighted. The tree opens in Ancestry’s family tree view.

dna typed in the search box on Ancestry's My Trees page, with seven matching DNA trees listed under the box.

Your list of trees is refreshed on its own about every six hours, so a tree you create or are invited to appears without you doing anything. The Index Trees button beside the box refreshes it straight away, and a message says how many trees it found. Once a list exists, the button reads Rebuild Index.

The automatic refresh runs while Quick Search via Alt + Q is turned on and Update indexes automatically is ticked in Advanced Settings, under Quick Search. Both are on unless you have changed them.

The same list of trees works in Quick Search, so you do not have to come to this page, or even be on Ancestry, to open one. Type tree followed by part of a tree’s name to open that tree from any web page.

How do I use Search Ancestry Family Trees by Name?

In the Genealogy Assistant pop-up panel, make sure Search Family Trees by Name is turned on.
On Ancestry, open Trees and choose Create & Manage Trees. The search box sits at the top of your list of trees.
Type part of a tree’s name in the box. The matching trees appear under it.
Click the tree you want, or press Enter to open the first match. The tree opens.
If a tree is missing, click Index Trees (or Rebuild Index). A message says how many trees were found.
To check the automatic refresh, click the settings icon next to Quick Search via Alt + Q in the pop-up panel. Advanced Settings opens at Quick Search, where Update indexes automatically should be ticked.

Advanced Settings over an Ancestry family tree, at Quick Search, with Update indexes automatically ticked and outlined in red.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Up and Down move through the matching trees.
Enter opens the highlighted tree, or the first match when none is highlighted.

Related features

Index Ancestry Family Tree in Quick Search: Index the people in a family tree once and you can open any of their profiles by typing a name into Quick Search, with the index kept up to date for you.
Quick Search via Alt + Q: Press Alt + Q on any web page and type a census year, a place or a record type to go straight to the matching collection in the Ancestry Card Catalog.
Custom Tree Viewing Options: Applies your preferred Tree viewing options, such as showing all spouses, to each tree the first time you open it, instead of setting every tree by hand.

Search Ancestry Family Trees by Name is a feature of the software Genealogy Assistant.

Genealogy Assistant is an extension for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari which supercharges your family history research by adding over 100 custom features to popular genealogy websites like Ancestry, MyHeritage, FamilySearch, FamilyTreeDNA and more.

Install Genealogy Assistant for Google Chrome | Install for Mozilla Firefox | Install for Microsoft Edge | Install for Apple Safari