Monday, May 13, 2013

Filter your ancestry.com hints by database ID

**4/18/16 Update - The URL to filter hints has changed - see updated link below in blue!

Do you have an excessively big ancestry.com tree? Do you have enough hints to keep you busy for the rest of your life, and possibly your descendant's lives? Curious to see if you've missed any of those key older census records, or maybe you are just looking to search for birth/marriage/death records among the thousands you have? Here's the answer:

Each record database in the ancestry card catalogue has an identification number. Once you know that number, you can plug it into the following link: 


You can find your tree number by clicking on "All Hints":


Your family tree number is the number that shows up in your browser (circled in black):

To find the record database ID number, go to the card catalogue:


Roll your mouse over the record database your are looking for - in this example, the 1860 census record - then, without moving your mouse, look at the bottom of your browser window:


7667 would be your record database identification number.

You can do this with every single record database in the catalogue:



Since it's not easy to remember the links - I recommend using bookmarks - one for just the standard record database link (without the record number) -

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/yourtreenumber/hints?hf=record&hdbid=

Then another bookmark folder for all the census (or type of record database search you are interested in):



This can also be a good way to clear out the hints that fill up your "All Hints" list that you aren't as interested in.

Happy genealogy hunting!




35 comments:

  1. This is GREAT! Thanks for posting this!

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  2. This is not sorting 'hints' by record type, but searching from a tree through a particular database. It is not possible to sort existing 'hints' by record type.

    This search method certainly is useful.

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  3. Hi Geolover - This is true - however, it is possible to use this method if you are only interested in, for example, searching for census records. Using the record identification number, you can filter out all record hints other than the specific record you are looking for. Does that make sense? Thanks for the feedback - I am curious to know if anyone else is using this functionality.

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  4. Actually - I see exactly what you are saying. I am going to re-title. Thanks again!

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  5. Thanks so much for writing this up, Lauren. I share this tip all of the time but have never done an Ancestry.com blog post about it. Now, I'll just point people here! :-)

    One minor correction. The "record number" you refer to is not actually a record number (those are specific to a particular record ie. the 1880 census in Bibb County, Alabama for Sally Jones). They are correctly called a "database id" - hence the "hdbid" in the URL. Record types are things like census, birth, etc. A database is a specific collection of records like the 1880 Census or the Pennsylvania Town and Church Records. Make sense?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Crista! That makes complete sense and I did not know what hdbid stood for - you learn something new every day :) I'm going to update my post now!

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  6. Between you, Russ Worthington and History Chick ( the writer of Genealogy Musings) is why I keep my Ancestry account and my FTM 2012 on my computer. Thanks for sharing these tips.

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  7. This is incredibly helpful. I cannot believe ancestry.com does not have this type of filter available on their website. Thank you!

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  8. So if say you wanted to look at ALL hints that were for Census & Voter Records, no matter the year, would you be able to enter the "category" number that pops up?

    Example: when you go to the Search dropdown box, &hover over Census & Voter Records, the end of the address is "cat=35". Would it be accurate to replace the "hdbid=" with "cat="?

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  9. MusicWheelie - Great question! I just tried and didn't have any luck but it may be a matter of placing it elsewhere. I'll keep trying!

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  10. It's worked for me thousands of times, but I can no longer get it to work...

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    Replies
    1. Same here. This was crazy useful. Anyone know what's up?

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  11. Looks like there was a change made that disabled this hack. I've pinged the product manager and she is checking with the developers to see what can be done to get this functionality back. I'll keep you posted.

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    1. Hi, any news on getting this to work again? Would love to filter out unwanted hints from the near 10000 that have accumulated on me.

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  12. Fix here - http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancsite/13332/mb.ashx

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  13. List of Hint filters for Find A Grave
    Replace “MyTree” with your tree number.

    Alabama
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70507
    Arizona
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70499
    Arkansas
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70054
    California
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70500
    Colorado
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70501
    Connecticut
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70057
    Delaware
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70503
    District of Columbia
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70502
    Florida
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70504
    Georgia
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70505
    Hawaii
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70506
    Idaho
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70508
    Illinois
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70509
    Indiana
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70510
    Iowa
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70511
    Kansas
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70610
    Kentucky
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70633
    Louisiana
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70611
    Maine
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70612
    Maryland
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70583
    Massachusetts
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70582
    Michigan
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70581
    Minnesota
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70613
    Mississippi
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70614
    Missouri
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70596
    Montana
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70615
    Nebraska
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70616
    Nevada
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70617
    New Jersey
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70609
    New York
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70572
    New Hampshire
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70618
    New Mexico
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70619
    North Carolina
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70634
    North Dakota
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70620
    Ohio
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70559
    Oklahoma
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70621
    Oregon
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70622
    Pennsylvania
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70573
    Rhode Island
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70624
    South Carolina
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70625
    South Dakota
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70626
    Tennessee
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70636
    Texas
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70580
    Utah
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70627
    Vermont
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70628
    Virginia
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70635
    Washington
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70629
    West Virginia
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70630
    Wisconsin
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70631
    Wyoming
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70632
    International
    trees.ancestry.com/tree/MyTree/hints?hf=record&hdbid=70699

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  14. Thank you for this! I had Alabama's database # & couldn't find the others in the card catalog!

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  15. That's terrific! This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

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  16. Is this still working? I keep getting redirected to your tree, Lauren. What am I doing wrong?

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    1. Hi Amy! It's still working - you just need to replace the "tree number" with your tree - the link provided has my tree number.

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  17. Anyone know how well this still works with the new Ancestry layout?

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    Replies
    1. For some reason, my links have not been working since yesterday. I'm hoping this gets resolved!

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    2. J Anonymous - You are my hero! Thank you!

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    3. This works to a point. However, now once you add a record to your tree it takes you back to your FULL list of hints, whereas before it would take you back to just the list from that database. Disappointed...

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    4. @musicwheelie - I completely agree. This is a new issue - it never used to happen. What I do is right click on "review hint" and then open in a new tab. Then I refresh the list of hints after I've added it. Definitely a pain, but better than the alternative!

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    5. Thanks! I'll have to try that and see how it works!

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    6. FWIW, mine seems to be working fine with the new ancestry layout. :-)

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  18. Can this be used to stop the reappearance of hints after they have been "ignored?" Another Ancestry user downloaded hundreds of my photos and documents and then, I believe, uploaded them to her Ancestry tree, thereby changing the attribution from my username to hers. I continue to receive these photos/documents as hints even after I have chosen Ignore. They continue to periodically clog my hints. Thank you!
    Linda Wagner

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  19. Does this still work as of May 10th, 2018 or is there an updated link? For some reason I cannot get it to work. Thanks, Tyler

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  20. It was working about 2 months ago. I used this method frequently.
    Anyone have a new URL?

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  21. Hi Richard - The new link is:

    https://www.ancestry.com/hints/tree/XXXXXXX/hints?hf=record&hs=last&hdbid=YYYY

    XXX = Tree Number
    YYY = DBID

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  22. Lauren,
    Thank you so much !!!!!!
    It works.

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