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I only used Ancestry.com for a few months and it was over the summer (2013). I think it is well worth the price if you have ancestors going back a few generations in the US (1800s). I did not use records from other countries that are tied into it, so I cannot comment from direct experience there. Yes, it is tied into free and available stuff in the searches, but it worth the money. I would not have a long term subscription to it as I just don't have a lot of free time or disposable income to commit to genealogy.
You get to use Ancestry for 2 weeks as a trial. Just try that and see what you think. I also had no problems canceling it online. I had paid with a credit card.
Ancestry.com is great for building a tree, connecting with other possible relations, and accessing resources, but it's just one tool in the genealogy toolkit. There is no one "magic" site that will fulfill all of your needs.
I also subscribe to newspapers.com, and geneologybank.com - they both have a goldmine of info in their obituaries and articles. And I joined both since they don't cover the same papers (but they have some papers that Ancestry.com doesn't). I've done a lot of searching for PA and MD relatives on those sites, as well as found a lot of info on the free findagrave.com.
Ancestry is worth the money if you're new at it, but I have to stress you'll get much more fur that money if you learn how to use its more fine features--a lot if people just do as the adds show and add "hints" to their tree, which Very often results in mistakes. It takes much time to really go over learn its features and sift thru information in searches---collaborating with other members is also very useful. But again I advise to find users who actually do research themselves and are knowledgable (many users just collect names and dates off others trees, will result in
mistakes).
Also, there is aTON of more resources out there which is not on Ancestry or even online (like in state archives), but it does give you an excellent place to begin and if you enjoy it, go from there---but keep in mind Ancestry records are just a tip of the iceberg so speak----familysearch.org also provides good resources too, but not as suited for the beginner---also archive.org had excellent things too once you get skills up after a while.
Please feel free to message me if you have any more questions.
I've been an Ancestry subscriber for years. I use it several times a week. Although I've been researching for a long time, I constantly find something new in the databases or want to go back to confirm one thing or the other. I've also really enjoyed using the community message boards and have actually made new friends and found family members via the boards.
While it's not cheap, it's not grossly expensive either. I think genealogy is a relatively cheap hobby. (As opposed to my other addiction, scrapbooking.) :-)
I would start with the free resources at familysearch.org (not the trees, the actual records), and then move on to ancestry. I've been a member for over 10 years (US subscription only), and I'm still enjoying myself finding new things.
Some parts of Pennsylvania aren't well represented at ancestry - but I discovered that my Pennsylvania family was actually in Ohio and Michigan and NY and Ct...and then moved to California, and there was much more available then.
What and when they update data. As you can see they have a pretty good cadence of adding and updating records. That's probably one of the best aspects of their value, is that they are always adding more data and you'll get updated e-mails (if you choose to) when new record matches happen for your ancestors.
I love Ancestry.com, have had a paid membership for 2 years, here soon I will be upgrading to the world package. However you dont have to get a paid membership to use it. You could always do a free account with them, and when you come across stuff that you would have to otherwise pay for a membership, you could go to a LDS Center and use Ancestry there to get this info.
You do not have to post any material about yourself or your family on the site in order to use it.
True. Also, Ancestry is available for free on many public library computers.
Spend an afternoon at the library & do your research on Ancestry at no cost.
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