Does Ancestry.com Work ?

Question

I want to know has anyone Successfully Used Ancestry.com ? Has anyone found their great , great ,great ,great grandparents ...without spending too much money ? And if there are free websites similar to Ancestry.com ...then what are the names and do they work as well ?

ps...please don't tell me to ask my grandparents ...they're in their 80's and their memories are not that good . Thanks

Answer 1

Ancestry.Com is a useful tool in aiding people in genealogy research because of the large number of original source records they have. Now you have to distinguish between the records they have obtained and put online and their subscriber submitted family trees. Information in family trees on ANY website must be viewed cautiously. They are not submitted by some experts working for the websites but by folks like you and me, the subscribers. Even when you see the absolute same information on the same people from many different subscribers that doesn't mean the information is accurate. Too many people copy without verifying. So the ads Ancestry.Com has, many are right on but when the person in the ads gets their info from submitted family trees if they don't verify the information with documents and records, they are damfules. Actually if you find any of your family in an online family tree and there is wrong information, those that run the websites will tell you that is between you and the other subscriber. There is no way they can hire people to check all the information people submit. It would be too costly.



Ancestry.Com has

a) all the U.S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet.

b) vital records(birth,marriage and death) from many U.S. states

c) immigration records. I have a friend whose mother came from Calbria and father from Sicily. She has made many trips to the National Archives in Washington. She says now Ancestry.Com has all the records on her family that the National Archives has.

d)some land, wills and other records

e) military draft and enlistment records.

f) many old newspapers online.



When I go into their website and I go under "search" then on the next page, I click on "Old Search " which is on the right toward the top as I feel it is far more functional than their New Search which is just prettier.



Don't expect to find information on the living on any website as that can be an invasion of privacy and can lead to identity theft. If you find Ancestry.Com too pricey, your public library might have a subscription to it you can use for free. You might want to test the waters on it at your public library first.



Now a good free website you can use along with Ancestry.Com that has lots of records it the one FamilySearch.org has where they are putting records that the Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church online.

They have records on people all over the world, not just Mormons.



https://www.familysearch.org/



If you haven't you should check a Family History Center at a Mormon Church. They can order microfilm for you to view for a fee of about $3. I have never had them to try and convert me nor have heard of them doing that to anyone else that has used their resources



Even if your grandparents are elderly and not as sharp as they use to be sometimes they will remember things of the past when they won't remember if they have taken their medicine. It would be wise to tape them if they will let you. They might get into telling stories of days gone by you wouldn't write down but in those stories if you go back and listen to the tape again after doing research you might hear clues you didn't hear the first time around.

Answer 2

> Does Ancestry.com Work ?

Yes, if you use it and have decent research skills. Figure 100 - 300 hours to get back to 1850 on 75% of your lines, if you are white, and just to 1870 if you are black.



> I want to know has anyone Successfully Used Ancestry.com ?

I have







Has anyone found their great , great ,great ,great grandparents

> Many people.



...without spending too much money ?

It is only $13 a month if you pay in a yearly lump. That is less than a bottle of wine for a company dinner.



> And if there are free websites similar to Ancestry.com

Not really. If the omelet fairy delivered free breakfasts to everyone every morning, would Denny's stay in business? If there was a web site just like Ancestry, but free, would Ancestry stay in business?

Answer 3

Ancestry.com can work if you spend the money on the paid version and ignore the vast majority of other people's charts. There is a ton of junk genealogy and inaccurate, unsourced charts but they also have a lock on a great many valuable sources and documents.



Start with Family search. It is free and has a great many documents that can give you a good start. https://www.familysearch.org/



You can also find a lot by just using Google.



And you might be surprised how much those grandparents still remember. At least ask them their dates of birth and marriage and the names of their parents and siblings and their dates of birth and death if applicable. That will give you a good base to work on..

Answer 4

You could ask your grandparents if they still have their birth and wedding certificates, or old letters, family bibles etc which may give you a few clues.



Very good free website www.familysearch.org



Ancestry is an excellent website and in my opinion is well worth the money. But how useful it will be to you depends on where abouts your ancestors were living. They have lots of excellent record for the US and UK but none for say China so you are out of luck if your family came from there.



The other thing is Ancestry doesn't do you tree for you - it just provides the records you have to do the research and use clues to work out which person was your ancestor. If you just blindly follow Ancestry's hints or copy other people's trees with out checking them you soon will have a huge mess of names that are unrelated to you.

Answer 5

I prefer to use Familysearch.org. I have found that the database is larger, and it is free, has a tutorial; and I have found copies of actual marriage certificates not just index information. I also use state archives and Genealogical societies Family search doesn't have pedigree charts with flashing leaves, actually it doesn't have much in the way of pedigree charts. It is a research site. I have also had success with Roots Web, which is also a free site. I have never found anything further than a 3rd Great Grandparent on Ancestry.

Answer 6

In a nutshell, yes. I work for a university and most of them, through their libraries have access to free Ancestry.com links. There, you can view documents, U.S. Census being amongst the most prevalent. If you know anyone who is in college, they can probably tap in through their college database. But that kind of access allows you to see premium documents, but does not allow you to personally link them to a tree. After I played around I decided to go to Ancestry.com. I used the free account. There, I was able to create a family tree, see the quivering leaves, and even connect with people who are searching via another branch of what can end up being the same family tree. It is very exciting. Once there, and after building my free tree, I signed up as a paying member for about 6 months. Ancestry.com is expensive-about $20 a month. Long term it is expensive. So while I was a paying member, I was able to connect documents to my family tree. I recommend a limited premium membership. I found many documents that were able to substantiate and also debunk some family stories. I was able to connect with distant relatives and we met in the middle on many occasions and could share and link our accounts. Be careful of spellings. Back in the old days illiteracy was rampant and a name was spelled phonetically in all kinds of ways. Once I felt I had exhausted research (6 mos in my case) I reverted back to the free account and all of my information remains. Be prepared that some family word of mouth stories, told to you with absolute conviction, might not be real. If the surname your are searching for is common...William Jones for instance, then your quest is far more complicated than if you have less common names in your family tree.



I was always told I was related to a famous general in the Rev. war on my father's side. I never knew my maternal grandparents and only knew my paternal grandparents. Beyond that- very little. I have been able to go back to the 19th century with my mother's side and the 18th century with my father's. I found out the legend was false. But I also found out some cool stuff, substantiated by other people who had done extensive research and who freely and generously shared.

Answer 7

I am in Australia and have found it very useful. Have tracked my great great grandparents, births, marriages, deaths etc and it is fun. There are other sites of course that specialise in certain countries. Trace my Ancestors is also a good one and you can arrange a free 14 day trial before deciding to pay for it.

Answer 8

Yes you really are confused. The DNA that was done for the Jefferson - Henning family was a comparison of the results of several people in each family. NO samples of DNA are not collected from hair brushes, or other items from over hundreds of years ago. There happens to be a documented ancestral association of the descendants of Andrew Jackson. If you have documented your ancestry you could contact the association office. Your need to remember that ANCESTRY is a commercial company, in business to make Money. The Ads on TV are presented to generated income. and not for the purpose of helping you prove your ancestry necessarily.

Answer 9

Ancetery.com

Answer 10

See -- https://backgroundreports.im/ancestry