Ancestry Lab introduces My Tree Tags and New and Improved DNA Matches!

OMG. Thank you, thank you, thank you Ancestry!

Two new updates to opt into, in beta format, are available today and being announced at RootsTech. One concerns labeling people in your tree, called My Tree Tags, and the other is called New and Improved DNA Matches. When you log in to your Ancestry account, you'll find these options under the "Extras" tab across the top of the page. Go down to "Ancestry Lab" and click to see the new options.

My Tree Tags allows you to tag an ancestor in several ways. Some are already populated for you to choose, but you can add custom tags, too. For example, the following tags are populated in the "Research" category: Actively Researching, Brick Wall, Complete, Hypothesis, Unverified, and Verified. These tags can help you narrow down your research, but can also alert others viewing your tree that this person is Solid or needs some work still. Other categories relate to DNA, relationships, and references.

The New and Improved DNA Matches update can't be used with Chrome extensions. I hesitated because I'm using the medbetter extension because it enabled me to see my notes from the main match page. I decided to give it a go anyway and see what new things were included. I deleted the extension and enabled the Ancestry update. SO glad I did. Now there is so much more information on the match page. 

You can still see your notes, the number of cM shared, and, in addition to the "star" option, you can assign custom colors to categories to sort your matches. 
You can attach multiple categories to a match. 
So, for example, I have a match that I know is on my maternal grandmother's side of the family (because of shared matches) but I don't know how we connect...I use the "star" feature to tag all those unknown connections and now I can add the "maternal grandmother" category, too. 
From the top of the page, you can sort your matches by category - once you get them all tagged. Homework has been assigned!

When you leave your main match page to take a closer look at a match, then go back to match page - it takes you where you left off - not back to the top of the page like it did before. This is a really big deal.

If you have a shared ancestor with a match whose tree is locked, no worries. Ancestry shows you the common ancestor if you click the "shared ancestor leaf". No more messaging people to have them look for the shared ancestor and get back to you. Another really big deal. 

Also, when you click on your #cM match, you now see a list of relationship probabilities ranked by percentages - similar to using the DNApainter tool. It's a one-stop shop now!

Seriously, folks, it's like Christmas morning. I will be busy playing with this for the next several days (weeks, months)... :)

What happened to John Lucas Allen?

I have a bunch of DNA matches on my Allen side of the family, but I don't know how all of the more distant matches are connected. I was working on one not long ago, and when I looked at my tree, I had fairly complete information about all of the siblings of my great-grandfather, Elam Ethan Allen, except for one. John Lucas Allen.

John was the only one of Elam's siblings, including several half-siblings, that I didn't have information about the end of his life and his children. I wanted a death record, an obituary specifically, because for genealogists doing descendant research, those are like pure gold. I wanted to know what happened to John Lucas Allen and I wanted to be sure I had all of his children documented.

To begin, I created a timeline. With some additional research I was able to fill in most of the blanks:

Birth of John L Allen
	16 Oct 1863 to James Miller Allen and Sarah Elizabeth (Lucas) Butler Allen	Oregon	1870-1930 census records and family history compiled in 1947
Christening
Residence	1 Aug 1870	Monmouth, Polk, Oregon	1870 census
Residence	14 Jun 1880	Fifteen-Mile, Wasco, Oregon	1880 census
Marriage 1	abt 1885 Belle R Barrett	Prob Oregon	1900 census
Birth of Child	9 Mar 1886, Dora Rachael	Boyd, Wasco, Oregon	Oregon birth record
Birth of Child	Apr 1889, Ira W	Idaho	1900 census
Birth of Child	Oct 1891, Charles L	Oregon	1900 census
Residence	8 Jun 1900	Hay Creek, Crook, Oregon	1900 census
Birth of Child	16 Nov 1901, Ellen Elizabeth	Hay Creek, Crook, Oregon	from her personal bio
Divorce ?
Marriage 2	Mar 1911, Maretta C Aplington	Washington	family history compliled in 1947
Birth of Child	30 Jul 1906, Stella May - if Stella was John's daughter she was born out of wedlock. I can't find anything to prove that she was his. Could be Retta's daughter from another man.	Oregon	1920-30-40 census, SSDI
Birth of Child	5 Dec 1908, Erma Irene - unknown if she is John's daughter, either. No birth record and birth is prior to their marriage	Montana	1920 census, SS Claim, FAG
Residence	1909	Sunnyside, Yakima, Washington	Yakima County Directory
Residence	20 Apr 1910	Outlook, Yakima, Washington	1910 census
Residence	1911	Outlook, Yakima, Washington	Yakima County Directory
Birth of Child	14 Dec 1911, Lawrence Alfred	College Place, Walla Walla, Washington	family history compiled in 1947, 1920 census, SSDI, FAG
Birth of Child	14 Dec 1911, Lois Affa	College Place, Walla Walla, Washington	family history compiled in 1947, 1920 census, SSDI, FAG
Divorce ?	Retta in 1920 listed as Divorced on census
Marriage 3	6 Jan 1912 to Josephine (Kripsal/Quipsell) Stewart	Tehama County, CA	Marriage record
Birth of Child	7 Nov 1912, Delta Alma	California	1920-30 census, CA death index, obit
Birth of Child	21 Jun 1914, Sylvester Stanley	Yakima County, Washington	WA birth index, 1920-30-40 census, SSDI, FAG
Birth of Child	23 May 1916, James Wilbur	Sunnyside, Yakima, Washington	1920-30-40 census, USArmy Enlistment, SSDI, FAG
Birth of Child	23 Oct 1918, Ethel Irene	Yakima County, Washington	WA birth index, 1920-30 census, SSDI
Residence	12 Jan 1920	Sunnyside, Yakima, Washington	1920 census, Yakima County Directory
Residence	1921	Sunnyside, Yakima, Washington	Yakima County Directory
Residence	1922	Sunnyside, Yakima, Washington	Yakima County Directory
Birth of child	19 May 1923, Bernice O		SSDI
Residence	23 Apr 1930	Yakima, Yakima, Washington	1930 census
Marriage of child	17 Jul 1930, Delta to William Jess	Yakima, Yakima, Washington	Washington Marriage Return, J L Allen signed as witness
Death of spouse	28 Feb 1932, Josephine	Yakima, Yakima, Washington	Washington Death Certificate
Death	abt 1941
Burial	?
Marriage of Child	1942, Ethel to Tony Curci	California	50th Anniversary article in newspaper
Marriage of Child	1948, Delta to Fred Stone	Alameda County, CA	CA divorce index
Marriage of Child	1950, Bernice to Billy Blair	San Francisco, CA	CA marriage index

Newspaper articles I found regarding Ethel, Delta and Bernice were key finds, as they helped me to link the daughters and led me to marriage/divorce records and helped me to add information for their families.

The Palm Beach Post, 28 Apr 2009, pg B004
image from Newspapers.com

Santa Cruz Sentinel, 24 Jan 1993, pg 10
image from Newspapers.com

Santa Cruz Sentinel, 19 Apr 1992, pg 22
image from Newspapers.com

This 1940 census record for John's son James W Allen was another incredible discovery.

1940 Federal Census, Nevada, Nevada, California, enumeration district 29-16
Image #6 of 37 from Ancestry.com
James W Allen, age 23, born in Wapato, Washington,
working in a government camp in Northern California
(13th row down)

What I still didn't have was a death record, or anything at all, for John past 1932.

My hypothesis:

John's first wife remarried and the minor children all went with mom and step-dad to Canada. It doesn't appear that they maintained contact with John. His second wife took her children to Wallowa County, Oregon and again, it appears that there was no further contact with their father.

Four of the children he had with Josephine, though, ended up in the Northern California area, and in one of their obits it says "born in Yakima, Washington but resided in Northern California" so I think that sometime after 1930, maybe after Josie's death in 1932, he and the minor children went to California. That's where I needed to focus the search for John’s death record.

I narrowed my focus to California and then I found this:

San Francisco Coroner's Register - Record of Death for John L. Allen
image from Ancestry.com

This John L Allen, born in 1864 in Oregon, died in San Francisco on September 2, 1937 in his home. He was discovered by Delta Danielsen, of the same address, and the record notes that relatives were notified at the scene. This John Allen was buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, San Mateo County, California. I believe it is John Lucas Allen, though at this point all the evidence is indirect. I cannot find a record of his daughter Delta either marrying or divorcing a man named Danielsen. Is this the correct record? I'm hoping that someday a record is found that will shed more light, but for now, I feel pretty certain that this is the man.

This record also states that John L Allen had suffered a stroke about 8 years earlier and had been practically an invalid ever since. While this is a sad ending to to his life, at least the ending is now known.