If you’re looking to remove family trees from Ancestry, there are several steps you need to follow to ensure your information is deleted or hidden as per your preference. Ancestry offers features that allow users to create and manage family trees, but it’s understandable if you wish to remove them for privacy or other reasons.
To begin with, it’s important to note that there are different options for how you can remove family trees from Ancestry. If you’re the owner of the tree, you have full control over whether you want to delete it completely or just make it private, ensuring that it’s not visible to other users.
Deleting a Tree:
When you delete a family tree from Ancestry, it’s permanent. The action removes all the data, photos, and documents associated with that tree. To delete the tree, navigate to the Tree Settings on the family tree page. Under the “Manage your tree” section, you’ll find the option to “Delete your tree.” Once selected, you’ll need to confirm the deletion to ensure it’s not done accidentally. Keep in mind that this action is irreversible, so be sure to back up any important data before proceeding if necessary.
Making a Tree Private:
If you want to remove family trees from Ancestry public searches but not lose the data entirely, you can make the tree private. This option keeps your tree visible only to you and people you invite. To make your tree private, again, go to the Tree Settings. In the Privacy Settings section, you can select the option to make the tree private. Private trees are not searchable by other Ancestry members, and they won’t appear in any hints for other users.
Unlinking from Public Records:
Another way to partially remove family trees from Ancestry without deleting them is by unlinking individuals from public records. This way, sensitive information tied to your ancestors won’t show up in public searches. To do this, go into the individual profile in your family tree, click on the “Edit” button for each attached source, and remove or unlink it from the person’s profile.
Deleting Specific Individuals:
If you don’t want to remove the entire family tree but would like to delete specific people, you can do that too. You can navigate to an individual’s profile within your tree, click on Edit, and then select the option to delete the person from your family tree. This is a more selective way to control which parts of your tree remain visible or stored on Ancestry.
Understanding these steps can help you manage your data effectively. Whether you’re seeking to permanently remove family trees from Ancestry or just hide them from public view, the platform provides flexible options tailored to your preferences.