How to get those cute emojis like Crista Cowan

The DNA icon added to my profile at Ancestry.com

Have you wondered how some people have emojis on profiles in their Ancestry or MyHeritage or Geni family trees? If you have been watching Crista Cowan at Rootstech you probably noticed those cute emojis she has in her tree at Ancestry.com. She has hearts and other little icons that appear in her profiles and her pedigree tree. If you were wondering how to do that, here is how:

• Pick the emoji you want to use here. Use the “Copy” button on the page of the emoji you picked.

• Go to the Ancestry.com or MyHeritage profile you want to add the emoji to, and in the Suffix field, paste the emoji, and that’s it! At Geni, you can paste it into the Display Name, the Title field, or the Suffix Field.

I absolutely adored all of Crista’s presentations this year. Turns out she is my 11th cousin, and I’m delighted!

There are lots of great ways you can use these emojis in your family trees, so you can quickly and easily see things that you may want to know from the pedigree views at Ancestry. I use tags at Ancestry to indicate that a person has been DNA tested, but they do not display when I view the pedigree. Now, I also add the emoji to the suffix field, and I can see at a glance who has been DNA tested when viewing the trees. The emoji also shows when doing a “Tree Search” at Ancestry, so it can be used to help you find the person you are looking for faster.

Some ideas of how you can use these emojis include using a symbol for the country of birth, a symbol for “be careful, lots of potential errors here”, a symbol for occupations, a symbol for a certain family branch etc. You know your own research best, so use your imagination and have fun!