The “shaking green leaf” is the most recognizable symbol on Ancestry. It means the site’s algorithms have found a potential match for someone in your family tree.
These Ancestry Hints are shortcuts. Instead of you searching manually for a birth certificate, Ancestry brings the record to you. However, hints are just suggestions, not facts. You must review them carefully before adding them to your tree to avoid copying errors.
This guide explains where to find hints, how to process them, and how to customize which notifications you receive.
What Are Ancestry Hints and Shaking Green Leaves?
There are three main places to view these potential matches.
- The “Shaking Leaf” Icon: When viewing your family tree, any person with a green leaf next to their name has pending hints.
- The Hints Notification Hub: Click the Leaf icon in the top-right corner of the main navigation bar (next to your profile). This shows a list of all recent hints across your entire account.
- The Tree Overview: Open your tree, click the tree name in the top-left corner, and select “All Hints” from the dropdown menu. This allows you to filter hints by surname or record type (e.g., viewing only “Census” hints).
How to Process Ancestry Hints Correctly (Review, Ignore, or Save)
When you click on a hint, you have three choices. It is important to know what happens with each action.
1. Review and Accept (Save)
This merges the information into your tree.
- The Process: You view the record side-by-side with your current data. You verify that the names and dates match.
- The Result: The source citation is attached to your person. If the record contains new info (like a middle name you didn’t have), it updates your profile.
2. Ignore (Reject)
Use this if the hint is for the wrong person (e.g., a “John Smith” who lived in the wrong state).
- The Process: Click Ignore.
- The Result: The hint disappears from the “New” list and moves to the “Ignored” tab. Ancestry’s algorithm learns from this and tries not to show you that specific bad record again.
3. Maybe (Undecided)
If you aren’t sure, don’t just leave it in “New” forever.
- The Process: Click the “Maybe” button (or just leave it be, but “Maybe” organizes it better).
- The Result: It moves to the Undecided tab. This keeps your dashboard clean while saving the record for later analysis.
Warning: Be careful with Member Tree Hints. These are suggestions based on other users’ family trees. Since many users copy incorrect info, you should verify how accurate Ancestry family tree hints really are before blindly accepting them.
How to Customize Ancestry Hint Settings
If you are getting too many notifications—or if you hate seeing “Potential Father” suggestions—you can tweak what Ancestry shows you.
- Go to Site Preferences: Click your profile image (top right) > Account Settings > Site Preferences.
- Adjust Settings: scroll down to the “Hints” section.
- Member Tree Hints: Uncheck this if you only want to see official government records (Census, Birth, Death) and ignore other people’s trees.
- Potential Ancestors: Uncheck this to stop Ancestry from guessing who your unknown parents might be.
- Email Notifications: You can also choose which specific trees send you email updates. If you have an old test tree you don’t use, uncheck it here so your inbox stays clean.
Troubleshooting: “Hint No Longer Available”
Sometimes you will click a leaf, and instead of a record, you get an error message saying the hint is unavailable.
This usually happens when a hint was generated from another user’s private tree or a database that has been updated. The “leaf” notification lingers even though the data is gone. For a full explanation of why this happens and how to clear it, read our guide on unavailable Ancestry hints.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Go to the person’s profile, click the Hints tab, and select “Ignored” from the filter menu. You can then click “Review” to move it back to the active list.
New trees take time to index. If you just uploaded your GEDCOM, wait 24–48 hours for the algorithms to crawl your data. Also, ensure you have entered at least a name, approximate birth year, and location for your ancestors; the system needs these three facts to find matches.
Yes. As Ancestry adds new record collections (like a new set of Obituary records), the system re-scans your tree. You might see a new leaf appear on a profile you haven’t touched in years because a new database was just added.
Conclusion
Ancestry Hints are a powerful assistant, but they are not a replacement for research. Treat every green leaf as a clue, not a fact. By reviewing them critically and managing your “Ignored” and “Accepted” lists, you ensure your tree remains accurate and clutter-free.
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