Ancestry.com charging to research what was stolen?

Question

I understand completely that it takes money to run a website ( I manage one for myself), however, when I see uber sites like Myspace, Friendster, and Blackplanet, who all have I'm sure 3x the traffic that Ancestry.com gets, not charging a penny for their services, it kinds ticks me off. One could argue that on those sites the users supply their own info while Ancestry.com supplies you with info. Fair, however why not pay by info received as opposed to unusually high monthly membership rates?? Most people who pay for memberships don't even find the info they're looking for anyway. Not to mention, the part that really burns me, is that most of the people who would really benefit from sites like Ancestry.com, were robbed of knowing their history in the first place, and now you want to charge us for it??? Something seems a bit unethical there to me. Africans of the diaspora have a right to know their heritage and I think they paid for it a long damn time ago.

Answer 1

It's called FREE interprise



You can order the copies of the census records and look at the bad writing yourself.



Ancestry.com provides a service. Do you have any idea how many man hours go into putting all that information on line in such a nice little package. Not to mention setting up the search engines. They have a right to charge!



You can get much of the info on line but how much is your time worth?



there are free sites:

rootweb

usgenweb

ect.



and most of them have a link to Ancestry.com because they have took the time to INPUT the census information.



Comparing Myspace to Ancestry.com is like comparing riding a bus to buying a car.

Answer 2

I am one of those who was involved in research, well before the internet. I personally remember being asked about evaluating a "new" program, which was based in persons submitting their accumulated family files. And I was particularly enraged by a comment on the promotional material that directly stated that it was NOT NECESSARY that the material be verified. I was well aware of the long term damage of that thinking.

The concept was that genealogy was (at the time) exploding in interrest, and it was a great time where "someone" could turn that into a viable and profitable business. The expectation was that persons would LOVE to sit down at their computer and find their family online, with little or no effort.

That prediction was accurate... people now do expect to find their family tree, and have little concept of how to find that info, unless someone else has already done the research. Not to mention that by never knowing how to search real records..they don't have a clue as to why much of the online information is completely worthless.

Ancestry does offer many sources (not all of those are faulty). I think they have excellent marketing, since few new researchers realize that there are many other ways to obtain those records, that there are many records that Ancestry does NOT have. That does not translate into "research is/should be free", nor does it mean "its all public records anyway, why do I have to pay?" There are millions of legitimate businesses on the internet. That does not make them unethical. I do object to the thinking that the information is not available through other means.

I do think that people's expectations are exaggerated, if they expect that they "should" find their family on Ancestry, or any other site. They don't read the fine print.. they don't know there IS any fine print to be read. On the other hand, the membership fee, for MANY persons, is very realistic, compared to the idea that they cannot get to a library (perhaps they are disabled, have small children, so forth).

I can't agree with your statement that anyone's history has been stolen by Ancestry. The lack of records for African-Americans is a sad fact of history, but that's a whole different debate, and has nothing to do with whether or not historical records are accessible online or not.

Millions of persons trace their ancestry without using Ancestry. Others choose to utilize the services, and find it worth the fee. One is not better or worse than the other.

Answer 3

I agree with Shirley T. I started doing genealogy at a time that if you wanted information, you would need to order microfilm from the LDS Family History Center, make phone calls (long distance charges) or go directly to a location to do the research. For me it would entail going to eastern Europe. Although the computer existed, all of these online databases did not.



The computer has proven to be both good and bad w/ regard to genealogy and many things. There are now folks who have never experienced the 'hunt', so to speak. I do not mean this in a bad way, but genealogy is done differently today than only 10 years ago. This means that now some people have come to expect that instant gratification that can come with the internet, as this is their only experience, so to speak.



By the end of this year supposedly Naturalization Records via the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) - formerly INS will become easier to obtain. The program, will be called the Genealogy Program, but, funding is minimal and those making requests will pay a hefty fee. So, the choices would be pay the fee, go to Washington, D.C. or hire a researcher.



Personally, I think everyone has the right to government documents via paying a minimal fee, such as: copying and mailing costs only, especially when the details of the document are known and no research is required.



Regarding the African diaspora - if you have relatives who found their way to the U.S. via the slave system and want me to check the Freedman's Bureau Records (I have the database) just email me privately. At the moment you do not accept private messages or I would have made the offer to you privately.



Bottom line is that the sites that charge have paid for the database indexing and are trying to recoup the money spent. In the case of ancestry.com, it is a for profit company, so it does not want to just break even. They do have the 'Trial Offer' system from time to time and if you work it out just right, you can jump in and jump out (sort of like Double Dutch jump rope) and not have to pay a dime, I believe.



Peace...

Answer 4

You have to realize that Ancestry.Com has to pay people to get all the records and information it has in its website. They have to set up the computer system and pay people to input it in that system. They have to pay not only salaries but I assume benefits.



Now your county and state could put all that information into a website free for everyone, but that means the taxpayer is paying for it, even those who could care less about genealogy.



Some way or another it is going to cost. If it wasn't on Ancestry.Com you would have to pay someone to do the research for you or spend time and money traveling all over the U. S. and other places to go through courthouse records,state archives etc. That means not only gasoline (ugh) but hotel or motel rooms, eating out etc.



Not all records are on Ancestry.Com but they are getting more and more all the time.

You can imagine the amount of records throughout the country that they have not obtained yet but hopefully someday they will.



My big quarrel with Ancestry.Com is One World Tree. Some people have put their information in directly to One World Tree themselves and they might not understand the problem. Ancestry.Com has taken liberties with the information people have put into Ancestry World Tree and have put all this information together. A lot of people have different information on one person and they show it all for the one person but I have found at least twice where the one person they have all the different information on is actually two people. I would imagine I am not the only person who has complained about that.

Answer 5

Get a No Cost Background Check Scan at https://bitly.im/aNQhE



Its a sensible way to start. The site allows you to do a no cost scan simply to find out if any sort of data is in existence. A smaller analysis is done without cost. To get a detailed report its a modest payment.



You may not realize how many good reasons there are to try and find out more about the people around you. After all, whether you're talking about new friends, employees, doctors, caretakers for elderly family members, or even significant others, you, as a citizen, have a right to know whether the people you surround yourself with are who they say they are. This goes double in any situation that involves your children, which not only includes teachers and babysitters, but also scout masters, little league coaches and others. Bottom line, if you want to find out more about someone, you should perform a background check.

Answer 6

Capitalism. It takes a lot of work to put that stuff together. You are looking at hundreds of thousands of hours of research and information gathering. Charging a fee pays for the work that was done so that someone like me doing Kentucky research can do it from Louisiana. It is not easy for me just to get up one morning and drive to a courhouse or library in Kentucky. Ancestry.com makes it easier for me and I have found lots of information that has been very useful.

Answer 7

Everyone has a right to know their past, but companies don't have an obligation to provide that to you free of charge.

I also have a right to clean drinking water, but I don't expect the city to give it to me for free.

I don't think Ancestry.com is comparable to the other sites you mention, because it is providing source material that it has spent time and money to acquire. The other sites provide only a framework, with no content. In today's information economy, it's only the content that matters.

Answer 8

Pardon me, but I don't understand what your rant is about. The two premises have no relationship that I can see. In addition rants are violations.



As best I can tell TANSTAAFL covers the subject. Ancestry.com pays to put resources online (and has the best searchable every-name census) and in turn charges US a subscription fee for the use of some of its resources.



*Yes I did understand that "somehow" ancestry.com should pay to put resources online but that Some People should be privileged to get access to those resources free - while perhaps other non-privileged people should pay for (subsidize) access. I call that dishonest. I don't subscribe to Ad Baculum threats let alone consider rewarding them, if that's what was meant.

Answer 9

No honest genealogist charges for results; they charge by the hour, and tell you they may not find anything. Ancestry does the same. They provide data that would be hard to get (unless you lived in Salt Lake City) and let you look at it from home, while eating a jelly donut. (Something you can't do in any library.) They don't guarantee you'll find your ancestors in their data, only that you can look through it for a fee.



The Mormons will let you (or anyone else) look at census images for free at their FHC's. Many FHC's have the Freedman's Bank records CD too. You have to put on a nice shirt and drive there, though. I can browse through Ancestry's images from home, in my underwear.



My monthly Ancestry bill is less than my cable TV bill. "Unusually High" is relative, I suppose.



I don't follow your logic of making Ancestry atone for the sin of slavery, since all of us had at least part of our history stolen from us by fire, flood, Priests who demanded a fee for a baptism, illiterate census enumerators, illiterate ancestors and men who mentioned their wives 14 times in their wills but never wrote her maiden name once.



I'm not saying slavery was anything to be proud of, just that you shouldn't single out Ancestry.

Answer 10

I have to disagree that Ancestry paid for the info they post. I don't like them charging for what we submit and we receive nothing for it.

Talking about the census. I have found many errors in what they have put online and what I found in the actual census. It is very plain in the census report and ancestry typed in something totally different.

I agree their rates are way out of hand. So is genealogy.com and myfamily.com.They are all owned by the same company

Answer 11

Ancestor.com is way over priced, maybe even a rip-off and a scam (?). Cyndi's List is another, better site which has thousands of listing, really.