Has anyone used Ancestory.com??

Question

I am wondering if it is worth paying for. Does it research holes you don't have info for, or does it only search info you have? For example, say you have the name of one Great, Great, Great Grandparent and want to know who they married and the people connected to them Will it research that? I guess I just want to know if it will really help me to research my family history. Thanks in advance to anyone who has info.

Answer 1

Usually it will only go by the information you put in their search areas, but there are some of their databases where you can put in a birth year, for instance, and then choose a "year range" to go by. For instance, if you put in the date August 4, 1894 and choose a 20 year range, it will look up August 4, 1874 to August 4, 1914. Sometimes, too, it is easier to find the parents by looking up the children's names. It won't DO the research for you, but will give clues that will hopefully narrow down the possibilities. If you need some help, I have a World Deluxe membership, so would be glad to assist you. My email is in my profile.

Answer 2

I used this years ago when I bought their genealogy software and it included some free time on the site.  I was able to find my grandparents family, but I already had that information, and theirs wasn't completely accurate.  I was able to get better information (and free) on a special interest group (SIG).  Just search for the country or state that you're interested in and join a group.  There you can throw out the surnames that you're interested in and see if you get any responses.  That worked for me.  It's much better dealing with a real person.

Answer 3

I'm guessing from your name that you want to do American research, I've only used Ancestry to look for English records but I have found that it is well worth the money, also they are always adding to the records that they offer.

If you are looking for something specific you could try asking on here, since some of the posters here have a subscription and may be able to tell you what records are available for that time or area.

Answer 4

a

Answer 5

Ancestry.com is of great value.. as long as you understand how.

It has MANY original images of records/ documents, such as census, etc. It allows you to search the records... it does not tell you who is related or how.

What is also has are "submitted family trees".  They MIGHT be good, they might not be. They are someone else's research conclusions. Heads up.. lots of people out there are not good researchers, and they don't know it.  This is true ANYWHERE that people upload their family trees. SOME are excellent. they will tell you up front, that they found the parents on the death certificate, the tombstone, etc.  Others tell you "I got it from such and such website". Uhh.. run fast.

My advice for research (almost 30 yrs worth) is that you know if your own work is good/ bad, if you do it, and have learned what is a good record or isn't.  No website does that for you.  

Answer 6

From my experience, Ancestry.com will NOT do the research for you... you have to do that yourself.  However what it does provide is ready access to materials and databases that might contain worthwhile information and records relating to your family.

I am pretty sure that they offer either very cheap or free introductory periods (for a day or two) so you can have a look without committing hundreds of dollars.. so that way you can check it out yourself first.

Personally, I have found it to be really good... and well worth the money of an ongoing subscription.

Hope this helps.. and have fun

Answer 7

nope

Answer 8

No website does the research for you.  There are family trees on Ancestry.Com as well as many websites, but the trees are subscriber submitted (by folks like you and me) and they are mostly not documented or poor documented.

It doesn't matter whether the website is a free one or one that we have to pay for a subscription.

You might see different information on the same people form different  subscribers. Then you will see the same information on the same people from different subscribers, but that is no guarantee at all it is correct.  A lot of people copy without verifying.  The information can be useful as clues as to where to get the documentation but shouldn't be taken as absolute fact.

Ancestry.Com has family trees. They have records, message boards, mailing lists.  They have all the U.S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet.

They have U. K. censuses through 1901.

They have military and immigration records and indexes to vital records of man states.

I believe they have more records online than any website.  However, no way are all records online.  

They have transcribed the censuses but you can also view the original images.  Now, there are errors in their transcriptions but when you look at the original, you can have pity on the transcribers.

Your public library might have a subscription to it you can try out to see if you feel it would be worthwhile to pay for a subscription.   The advantage of having your own subscription is you can work on it while the rest of your family has gone to bed.

I might add, if someone has told you that they have found their family tree on a website, please tell them that unless they have verified the information, they don't know if what they have is absolutely correct.  

Thirty years ago, I noticed people more and more were interested in family history and I felt it would be a boon to us all.  As more people learned things we could share.  With the internet it has burst my bubble.  The internet can be wonderful at finding records in many cases and helping people make contact with distant cousins they never met.  However, unfortunately the family trees on websites means a lot of information people have is not correct.  You can make up a family tree and upload it to any of the family tree websites and it will be accepted.