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Since I finally found an ancestor who served during one of our wars, and since I was also enticed by the claim that Fold3 also has non-military records, I pulled the trigger and joined Fold3 for a year.
So far, I'm disappointed. I found one record on my WWII vet (when he was shot down by the Germans) and one naturalization record from another ancestor who came from Germany around 1900. But everything I search for is a bust.
I find the site really un-navigable. You really can't narrow a search (Or I haven't found the place to do that). For instance, I'm looking for a guy named William C. Runner. They don't let you do the "quotes" thing when searching, so I get thousands of hits on every reference to a "runner," a William," and even the letter "C." So every time the letter C by itself, or the word "runner" meaning the word, not a proper noun, shows up, I have to sift through that. The best I can do is narrow the hits down by war, choosing WWII, and then maybe the collection within WWII.
It's also annoying because everything on a document is constantly moving around every time I move the mouse. I don't even click, but just move the mouse or hover on something and stuff is moving all over and flashing and giving pop-up messages. I've noticed more and more sites doing this--I guess some people like it because it's "flashy" but it's super-annoying. If I want something to move or give me info, let me freaking click on it.
The only thing I really found that was interesting was lots of WWII photos. They aren't connected to any of my ancestors; I only got to them by browsing. But they are interesting.
So this site is right up on my list with Newspaperarchive.com. Waste of money. But I guess I let myself get sucked in by the promised "hits."
If anything I might at least do lookups for other people.
Here's my old thread on useful sites that are worth the money vs. the useless sites that are a rip-off. Genealogy websites comparison
I'm still happiest with the combination of Ancestry.com and Genealogybank, with, of course, the free Familysearch.org. The first two are worth the money, and the third would be worth it, if they charged money.
The problem isn't with the site, it's with the name you're searching. One of the primary names I research is a common, every-day word. It is almost impossible to do a satisfying search for the name.
Another problem is, there just are not a lot of WWII records available. Many/most records were lost in the fire of 1973. As Wikipedia says:
Quote:
The losses to Federal military records collection included:
80% loss to records of U.S. Army personnel discharged November 1, 1912, to January 1, 1960[2]
75% loss to records of U.S. Air Force personnel discharged September 25, 1947, to January 1, 1964, with names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.[2]
Some U.S. Army Reserve personnel who performed their initial active duty for training in the late 1950s but who received final discharge as late as 1964.
You just can't search and find what doesn't exist.
That said. Different websites are useful or not, depending on the individual and the research they're doing. I find Fold3 worth the low cost. You may not. To each their own.
That's terrible that so many records were destroyed. I had no idea. Too bad Fold3 doesn't include that in a disclaimer before you pay. I also know several Vietnam vets, and non of them have any records on fold3 either.
Oh well, I can at least do lookups for other people. I wish I could find someone who paid extra for the international part of Ancestry: I could trade lookups with them.
Tracy, I'm sorry you are having problems with Fold3. I'll admit that searching can be a pain in the , but I have found the Site well worth the cost and effort. My "thing" at the moment is Civil War Records and have found stuff and ties between family members I didn't know about and had not found on other Sites. My main complaint was the fact that "my war" (Korea) had no entries and complained to Fold3 about it and received an immediate apology stating that those records are difficult to obtain but they are working on it. They didn't explain the difficulty. A couple days later there was a single entry, on one of my fellow soldiers who was killed in an ambush.
I have Ancestry's International section. Whatcha need?
Probably a bunch of look-ups, but I would want to do lookups for you in return on the sites I belong to. If you get hits on my lookups, I'd need screenshots (since I won't be able to view the documents). I know that can be a pain in the butt, so I would only ask if I was doing you a similar favor in return.
I have a family that came from Leicester, England, and I know the two parishes they lived in. No idea what might be there on Ancestry about them.
Also have a few Swedish and German ancestors for whom there appear to be "hits" on Ancestry for immigration "arrival" records, ship's rosters, but I'm unable to view them without the additional membership.
If you need any lookups on Genealogybank, Newspaperarchives, or Fold3, direct message me and we can maybe trade lookups.
I'm glad I found this post. Ancestry was offering their members 50% off a subscription to Fold3 for $39.95. I almost took advantage of it, but after reading your post, I've changed my mind.
I think if you had multiple ancestors that definitely served in the US military in a war, and their names are uncommon, it would be worth the cost.
It's not worth it to pay and then look at see if they served in the military during a war. And if the name is at all common, or if the last name is also a regular word (or the name of a ship) you'll get hundreds of hits that yield nothing about your ancestor. I met someone whose ancestor who served in WWII had the last name "Patton." Thousands of hits, but on General Patton, and nothing about his ancestor.
I think if you had multiple ancestors that definitely served in the US military in a war, and their names are uncommon, it would be worth the cost.
It's not worth it to pay and then look at see if they served in the military during a war. And if the name is at all common, or if the last name is also a regular word (or the name of a ship) you'll get hundreds of hits that yield nothing about your ancestor. I met someone whose ancestor who served in WWII had the last name "Patton." Thousands of hits, but on General Patton, and nothing about his ancestor.
That's the problem. I tried it once when it was free. My dad's name is fairly common and there were at least three of him with different service numbers. I don't know which one was dad. If you can, find out the service number of your search person and as all the records were tagged with it you can tell you is who.
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, but I have found the Site well worth the cost and effort. My "thing" at the moment is Civil War Records and have found stuff and ties between family members I didn't know about and had not found on other Sites. My main complaint was the fact that "my war" (Korea) had no entries and complained to Fold3 about it and received an immediate apology stating that those records are difficult to obtain but they are working on it. They didn't explain the difficulty. A couple days later there was a single entry, on one of my fellow soldiers who was killed in an ambush.
