Welcome to our weekly update on the new Ancestry website. This week we are rolling out a few new enhancements based on feedback we have received from you over the past couple of months.
Feature update:
We explored a wide range of use cases on the size and shape of profile photos, and we are changing the profile photos to a square shape that is similar to the profile photos in the old Ancestry website. We are also introducing a new photo-cropping tool later this week that allows you to zoom in and crop a profile photo to get just the right image.
As always, we have included links to articles and videos at the end of this post that help answer questions and provide more tips on the new site.
New Features this week
- Square Profile Images ? You will see square profile photos in the following places:
- Tree Viewer ? Person Card
- Person Page ? Profile Image
- LifeStory ? Relationship Card
- Photo-Cropping Tool ? This new tool allows you to drag the corners of a photo to zoom in on a specific area or select one specific person in a group shot. We hope this makes it easier for you, as you now only have to upload a group shot once, and then you can make individual profile photos for everyone in the photo.

Select Resize Profile Image' by clicking on the Profile Image

Select Resize Profile Image' by clicking on the Profile Image

The profile photo is automatically updated based on your preference as shown below on the Person Page and the Tree Viewer
- Improved Readability ? On the Person Page, the name of the person has been bolded along with some other spacing adjustments to increase readability.
Features we are still working on
- Member Connect - Find other members researching a similar ancestor and save info from their family trees
- Family Group Sheet - A family view of the of the person and their family
Top Issues Reported
Below are some of the issues that surfaced from your feedback this week:
- Want type-ahead dates when adding media to someone else
- Dark background with white font is hard to see
- Continue searching' is missing
- Want to see the thumbnail of photos attached to events
We appreciate your feedback and encourage you to keep submitting it. What do you love about the new website' Did you find a bug' Something doesn't quite work like you think it should' Please submit it via
this form. Thank you. We will be providing more updates over the next couple of weeks.
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