Put This Genealogy Assistant to Work for You

In "6 Steps to Finding Your Living Cousins" I used a tool to download all my AncestryDNA matches to a spreadsheet. The result is an all-in-one-place file to store your notes as you work to identify your matches. The big DNA sites still haven't given us a way to do this for ourselves.

Now a friend has shown me an impressive tool called Genealogy Assistant. It does tons of useful, time-saving things for you, the genealogy researcher. Downloading all your DNA matches from Ancestry and MyHeritage is just the tip of the iceberg.

Enjoy a hassle-free download of all your DNA matches with this feature-packed genealogy tool.

Quoting from their website: "Genealogy Assistant adds over 100 custom features to popular genealogy websites like Ancestry, MyHeritage, FamilySearch, FamilyTreeDNA and more!"

Install this web browser extension, then click to use it on your favorite genealogy websites. Imagine these scenarios.

Scenario 1: DNA Matches

You're viewing your DNA matches on Ancestry.com and MyHeritage.com. You notice that one site has lots of matches the other doesn't have. You'd love to be able to download them all and make notes about your discoveries.

No problem. Go to your DNA match list on each website. Activate the Genealogy Assistant browser extension if it isn't active already. You'll see a button labeled "Download CSV". Before you click that button, you need to see how many pages of matches you have. When I scroll to the bottom of my MyHeritage DNA matches, I see that I have 14 pages of matches. Whatever number you see, use the up-arrow button on the box next the to download button to reach that number. Then click the Download CSV button. When the file is complete, you'll find it in your default downloads folder.

Now it'll be much easier to review all your DNA matches. You may discover that a match who stumped you on DNA Site A has a family tree on DNA Site B, solving the mystery.

Scenario 2: Shortcuts Galore

You're building your family tree on Ancestry.com (here's why that's a bad choice), and you've got a big new branch to add. From any person's profile page, you can click "Gallery", then click "Add media" to see the upload box. With Genealogy Assistant, click the words "Upload photo" or press Alt-U to go straight to the upload box.

When you have to upload files for a lot of people, this is a real time-saver.

I've worked on Ancestry trees where a person has the right father but the wrong mother. After a lot of searching, I found "Edit relationships" in the Edit menu at the top-right of the profile page. This is where you can correct wrong spouses, parents, or children. With Genealogy Assistant, click "Edit relationships" or press Alt-R to go straight to the proper screen.

Become a power-user, searching 7 genealogy websites at once, with this Advanced Search tool.

Scenario 3: Advanced Search

I love when I search for someone on Ancestry, go to a resulting record page, and find links to suggested records. Well, Genealogy Assistant puts your family tree search on steroids. Their search button can search 7 different websites—all at once, if you like—and open each one in a new browser tab. You can do this with the Search button on a record page or the Advanced Search button on a person's profile page.

If you routinely carry out searches on several websites, I know you'll love this feature. It can search:

• Ancestry
• FamilySearch records
• FamilySearch trees
• FindMyPast
• MyHeritage
• Find a Grave
• Newspapers.com

How to Get Genealogy Assistant

Genealogy Assistant works on three different web browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox

Go to https://www.genea.ca/genealogy-assistant to read about its features, watch a demonstration, and install the extension. You can try it out for 14 days for free. If you want to keep using it for a little while, it's only $2.95 per month. If you find it to be a game-changer, pay $29.95 once and enjoy it forever.

The more time you spend doing genealogy research, the more you'll enjoy Genealogy Assistant.

And now, the end-of-the-prescription-drug-commercial disclaimer. Read it in a soft, fast voice: Please note that no one is paying me to discuss this product. Since I spend all my time researching Italian records, I don't plan to use this product beyond the 14-day trial. Ask yourself if Genealogy Assistant is right for you.

This Ship Manifest Clue Saves You Time and Effort

Has this ever happened to you? You're searching for a person's immigration record to learn more details about them. But the only search result for your person is a page with a heading like "Record of Aliens Held for Special Inquiry".

Pages with this type of heading don't give you all the details you want. You need to see their original listing that can tell you:

• their age
• who they traveled with
• their hometown
• the relative they left behind
• their final destination
• who they're coming to join and where
• their height and the color of their eyes and hair
• if this is their first time in the country
• and more.

Whenever this happened to me, I had to search each page of the ship manifest for my person's name. Sometimes that's an awful lot of pages. But earlier this year a RootsTech webinar showed me the clue I'd been overlooking.

The detention page shows the page and line number for each person's original listing! Once you know what to look for, it's obvious. I'm embarrassed that I needed a webinar to point this out to me. Let's look at two types of headings you need to find.

Sometimes your search for an immigrant ancestor delivers their detention page. You need their original listing. Here's how to get from one to the other easily.

1. The Manifest Heading

In 1913, Luigi Bruno arrived at Ellis Island in New York. The authorities detained him as an LPC—Likely Public Charge. I needed to find his original listing, so I went searching for his name on every page. But the answer to this search is on the detention page. Under the heading Manifest (which should have been the tip-off) it says Group 131, No. 8.

This means I need to look for the page with a large 131 written or stamped at the top, and then look at line 8 to find Luigi Bruno. And there he is! The detention page shows that he ate 4 breakfasts, 4 lunches, and 4 dinners, so they held him for 4 days. His original listing has a rubber stamp that says ADMITTED. It tells me:

• he's 17 years old
• his father is Marino Bruno
• he's heading to Clearfield, Pennsylvania, to join his cousin
• he comes from Sant'Angelo in Italy, and
• it's his first time in the United States.

This level of detail proves he is the same Luigi Bruno born in my great grandparents' hometown in 1896. I found his Italian birth record on the Antenati website.

And speaking of ship manifests:

• Finding the Chain of Immigrants that Led to You
• Find Out What You're Missing on Those Immigration Records
• 6 Key Genealogy Facts on a Ship Manifest
• Why Your Immigrant Ancestors Came Here 'Legally'
• Why Did Your Ancestor Leave Home?

2. The Ticket No. Heading

This example is specific to Japanese immigrants detained at Angel Island, San Francisco.

In 1929, Tatsu Kadoguchi arrived at the port of San Francisco. Authorities detained and released her on the same date. The reason is not given, but it may be that she's a woman waiting for her husband to claim her. Her detention sheet has a heading of Ticket No. with the entry "11 - 9". Each person on this detention page has a similar ticket number: 7 - 17, 7 - 18, 10 - 2, etc.

This number tells you which list and line number to look for. Tatsu's original manifest entry is on List 11, Line 9. Once again, you can look for the manifest page with a stamped or written number 11 at the top. Then look at line 9 to find the person.

Every immigrant in my family tree arrived at either New York or San Francisco. I took a fresh look through my collection of downloaded ship manifests. Every detention sheet has either the Manifest heading or the Ticket No. heading. How I didn't realize this on my own is a mystery.

I wanted to find more detention examples and different headings to share with you. So I asked Microsoft Copilot this U.S.-specific question:

I know that some passengers arriving at Ellis Island were detained for reasons including health problems and being a likely public charge. Passengers were also detained at the port of San Francisco. Which other ports were know to detain passengers in the early 1900s?

Copilot culled its answer from FamilySearch, GeneSearch, and the U.S. National Archives. It says New York and San Francisco were the main east and west coast detention centers. But other ports known to detain passengers were:

• Boston
• Baltimore
• Charleston
• Galveston
• Mobile
• New Orleans
• Philadelphia
• Seattle
• various Alaska and Mexican/Canadian border ports.

When it comes to Ellis Island ship manifests, the lists of detainees are always at the end of the collection. I spent time searching through manifests at many of the ports listed above as well as some non-U.S. ports. But I can't find any detention records.

If you've found detention records from other ports, please share an example with us. These special headings are an enormous time-saver when you're researching a detained immigrant.