How to Save Records from Ancestry.com or Ancestry.ca

A step-by-step guide for saving genealogy records with proper source citations

⚠️ Important — where your records come from: A copy you save from Ancestry is a great way to locate a record, and for many supporting records it is all we need. But for some records — especially birth records, and any record that proves a key link in your lineage — IRCC expects the record to come from the original authority that created or keeps it, and an application cannot be supported solely by third-party records. When in doubt, save what you find, upload it to Visto, and we will let you know if you also need to obtain it from that original source. See our FAQ for more detailed guidance.

Note: Ancestry.com requires a paid subscription to access most records. If you do not have a subscription, many local libraries offer free access through their website or on-site computers. You may also wish to explore free databases such as FamilySearch.org.

When you find a record on Ancestry.com or Ancestry.ca that is relevant to your application, we need two things from you for each record:

The document image

The source citation

Good news — you can capture both at once. Ancestry’s print option lets you save the document image and its full source citation together in a single PDF. This is the easiest and most reliable method, and it is the one we recommend — see below.

The Easiest Way: Save the Whole Record as One PDF (Recommended)

🎥 Prefer to watch? A short video walkthrough of this method is just below the steps.

This captures the document image and the source citation together in one file — nothing to match up later.

Open the record image

From your search results, click the record to open its page, then click the document image to open it in the full-screen image viewer.

Click the Tools (wrench) icon, then Print

On the right-hand toolbar of the image viewer, click the Tools icon (it looks like a wrench), then choose Print from the menu. It is easy to miss — the diagram below shows where to find it.

SavePrintDownloadRotate leftRotate rightFlip horizontallyFlip verticallyInvert colorsSettingsReport problemsClick the wrench (circled), then choose Print.

Turn on “Also print index and source data”

In the Print options box, select Print entire image, and make sure the box for “Also print index and source data” is checked. This is the key step — it adds a page with the full source citation and record index. Setting your printer to portrait is recommended. Then click Continue.

Choose “Save as PDF”

When your computer’s print dialog opens, choose Save as PDF as the destination instead of a physical printer (see instructions below), and save the file.

That’s it! You now have a single PDF containing the document image and its source citation. Upload that one file to Visto.

Watch: Video Walkthrough

Alternative: Save the Image and Source Separately

If the print option is not available to you, or you prefer to save the two pieces individually, you can do this instead.

Part 1: Download the document image

Open the record

From your search results, click on the record to open the record page. You will see the document image on the left and record details on the right.

Click Share on the record page

Look for the Share button in the top-right area of the page. Click it.

Click Download

In the popup that appears, click the Download button at the bottom. The image will save to your Downloads folder (usually as a .jpg file).

Part 2: Save the source citation

The source citation tells us exactly where the record came from — the collection name, archive, and reference numbers.

Click the “Source” tab

On the record page, you will see two tabs near the top of the record details: Detail and Source. Click Source.

Screenshot it or print this page to PDF

Take a screenshot of the Source tab or print the page containing the Source tab to PDF (see instructions below).

What to Send Us

For each record, please send us either of the following:

Option	What to send	File type
Recommended	One PDF containing the image and source data (open the image → Tools icon → Print → “Also print index and source data” → Save as PDF)	.pdf
Alternative	The document image (Share → Download) plus a screenshot or PDF of the “Source” tab	.jpg image + .png or .pdf

Optional — merge separate files into one PDF

On a Mac, open all files in Preview, display the thumbnails in the sidebar, and drag the pages into one document. Then go to File > Export as PDF to save the merged file.
On Windows, you can use a free online tool such as ilovepdf.com or Adobe’s online PDF merger. Simply upload your files, arrange them in the correct order, and download the combined PDF.

How to Take a Screenshot OR Print to PDF

Option A: Take a Screenshot

Device	How to Screenshot
Mac	Press Cmd + Shift + 4, then drag to select the area you want to capture. Or press Cmd + Shift + 3 to capture the entire screen.
Windows	Press Windows + Shift + S to open the Snipping Tool, then drag to select the area. Or press PrtSc (Print Screen) to capture the full screen, then paste into Paint or a document.

Option B: Print to PDF

Device	How to Print to PDF
Mac	Press Cmd + P. In the print dialog, click the PDF dropdown in the bottom-left and select Save as PDF. Choose where to save the file and click Save.
Windows	Press Ctrl + P. In the Destination dropdown, select Save as PDF (or Microsoft Print to PDF). Click Save and choose where to save the file.

Either method works! A screenshot is faster, but Print to PDF often looks cleaner and automatically includes the page URL in the header or footer. Use whichever you are more comfortable with.