genealogy question....?

Nadia Crauswell: Well, I have an account for the present and it isn't too bad. Just DON'T take anything as "the gospel" unless you check on the sources that the person who put the information up is referencing. You may get good leads as to where to look though. I only take the membership for a month or maybe a year at a time then leave for a couple of years until their database gets more information in it. You may also find people researching the same people as yourself and be able to exchange information. THIS alone can be invaluable for a while.The only thing that I really don't like is their promotions. They assist in finding rich people's information when those people themselves didn't care about their ancestors (or they would have had the research done themselves... its pocket change for them). But then, I guess it works since most Americans seem to be "star-chasers". Anyway, my membership runs out in May and I'll probably let it go for a couple of years...! .Show more

Minh Lefrancois: If you are new to genealogy then stay away from websites that claim to 'find your ancestry' and ancestry.com is one of the worse offenders of misinformation...no database can find your family if you pay or not, you are the only one who can do that and unless ANYTHING online is an image then it is NOT a record and can't be trusted...just used as a clue..........Any website is useful if you know how to research and you know what is good information and what is bad information and generally I would suggest learn away from the compauter and internet databases, start at home http://familytimeline.webs.com/recordsinyourownhom... with the records you already have....if on the orther hand you are a researcher, know how to verify then check where you are researching and they have RECORDS with images and I am sure it will be helpful to you.................Show more

Shandi Wedge: (We get questions about the value of Ancestry.com every week. Thi! s is a catch-all answer. It is longer and better written than ! some. Politeness dictates that I tell you I didn't type it all just now, just for you.)Look athttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoQoQ...for an example of how useful the census records can be.If you work at it 2 - 4 hours a night, 1 - 4 nights a week, and your ancestors were white people in the USA, you should be able to get back to people alive in 1850 on at least 75% of your lines in 100 - 300 hours via the census records, fleshed out with the BMD ones. (Only to people alive in 1870 if your ancestors were black, sadly.) You get better with practice, which is why I suggest long sessions instead of 10 minutes a day.Someone asked about his ancestors here, and said they were from Uzbekistan. If yours are, don't even try; there isn't anything on-line.All other countries are somewhere in between, mostly "Not much in English", except the UK, Canada and Australia.The TV ads for it, where finding five generations of your ancestors is easy, are as misleading as the ones f! or "Axe" body wash that say if you use it, hundreds of hot 20-something women will fling themselves on you, longing for a night of carnal pleasure. It looks good on TV and doesn't work that way. I once showered with the stuff until my fingers were wrinkled as prunes, and it didn't work. I cried myself to sleep that night, you can bet.If you subscribe and don't use it, it will be like those Stair Masters you see on Craig's List; "Paid $800, used once, sell for $400". If you like the chase, it is well worth the money. If you don't like our little sport, it would be a waste of time. You wouldn't pay extra for HBO if you didn't watch movies; don't subscribe unless you like genealogy.It is as accurate as the people who supplied the data. My favorite example: if great great grandma was really friendly with the hired man during the winter of 1883, but both he and her husband were tall, brown-haired, brown-eyed men with big noses, so no one ever knew, then you could have birth, mar! riage and death certificates, census entries, obituaries and a short bi! ography in "The Biographical and Historical History of Monroe County", and they'd all be wrong. Only by testing the DNA of a dozen of GGGM's descendants would you find out that great grand Uncle Hezekiah had a different father than his siblings.Some of the family trees on Ancestry are accurate and well-documented; some are not. I saw one in which a gentleman died young in Missouri in 1885, then sprang to life and was on the census in Tennessee in 1910 and 1920. His was an uncommon name, and his "ghost" was born about the same year, so it was a reasonable mistake, but it was a mistake; Ancestry's little green leaves said "Here's a man named like your ancestor and born the same year - is it a match?" and the clueless lady who was compiling her tree with more speed than accuracy clicked on something that said "Yes".On the census, the ages tend to be within 5 years of the tombstone, which is usually within 1 year of the death record. People switch from John Wesley Pack to Wesle! y John Pack all the time, and get enumerated as Park, Pock, Pick, Pike, Pork and Pach. I used my surname as an example, but others are as bad....Show more

Lonnie Jehle: The good news is that they have billions of records. The bad news is that they have a weak search engine and use offshore employees to index their collections so there are many mistakes. A database is only as good as the search engine and index that sorts it.They have millions of shared family trees, but a high percentage are incorrect making them less than useless.Start with the many free resources, learn how to research your family history using courses from sites such as Family Search, Family History Genealogy Made Easy Podcasts and Family Tree Magazine. Use free sites like CyndisList, Family Search, RootsWeb, Find a Grave and USGenWeb. If you want to use Ancestry, it is often free at your local public library....Show more

Riley Migl: Yes I used ancestry.com, I found a few things interesting, ! but then I went to the Embassy of the country I live in, and they prov! ided everything I was searching for in great detail.Free of charge....

Jade Ohno: I have allowed my Ancestry subscription to expire. Part of the reason is that there are so many errors in the charts uploaded and few with appropriates sources cited. Another reason is that they assume "ownership" of material uploaded and it cannot be corrected. I have never heard that Ancestry uses Off shore indexers, meaning non-English speaking people. In fact most of what is available on Ancestry has been indexed by the source they purchase from before Ancestry ever gets to the recordsAnother is the public library and Family History Centers have Ancestry and several other subscriptions sites available and there is no fee for using the computer assess.Finally, Familysearch.org is available to the public and there is no fee....Show more