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I got a membership to ancestory.com Its the 14-day free trial, then pay something like $150 for 6 months. tonight is the first chance I've had to play with it. Its intriguing, I've found some records of my grandparents. However, I find you need to know a lot of information just to get information. Is it just me?
Ok, I haven't done their tutorials, just played around with it. But I find it a little frustrating as well as interesting.
So, what do the rest of you think about this website/ Is it worth the price? Or do you find you have to have a lot of information just to get started?
Also, I'm no "fool". They wanted a credit card, even for the 14-day "free' trial. I know from past experience such "free trials" run your cc through when you want to cancel, so, I just used a debit card NOT linked to any bank accounts, if they want to run it through, there's not much there
We (spouse & I) have been subscribers for many years, don't recall paying that much for a subscription though. Yes it's worth it. We've probably found a million dollars worth of information over the past 12 years.
When you join Ancestry and you have a lot of information, or just have some information, that leads you to more information where you get a lot more information that leads you to even more information.
It's fun, you'll enjoy it after awhile, it's intoxicating, or at least habit forming and takes up a lot of worthwhile time.
Do not worry about ancestry.com trying to scam you. Cancelling after the free trial is easy. They may have discounted membership promos in January, too, if you decide to continue. I would not buy the more expensive world membership until you have more experience and know you are going to be able to use it.
You jumped the gun a little bit with the free trial. It's better to figure out what you already know, then make a "to do" list of what you are looking for so you can use your two weeks efficiently.
If you just want to nose around a little bit, you're OK. On the other hand, if you want to get serious, you'll want a genealogy program to store your data. They are not expensive. Genealogy research causes a massive information overload and rapidly becomes addictive. Be prepared!
Be aware that the family trees on ancestry.com contain a lot of bad information. Anything you find there really needs to be confirmed with other sources.
Ancestry has millions of records. You'll see scanned copies of original documents, including federal Census records, which are sort of the backbone for beginning your research. Most people start with the census and work back in time. Right now the most recent census the general public can see is from 1930. The 1940 census will be available in April of next year.
I would suggest talking to your living relatives first. Find out all they know. You are even likely to find someone who is already doing research, because the hobby is so popular.
You can browse this forum for several threads on getting started. I would do links, but it is late and I need to get to bed.
I would whole-heartedly recommend Ancestry.com. I new virtually nothing about my various families and the amount of documentation and contacts I have found there was nothing short of incredible. And fun to both confirm and refute various family stories.
There is a learning curve, yes. There are so many different types of records available, many of them unfamiliar, that it takes some time to learn to "fish" with a method.
I agree with OP. Ancestry is a great tool when researching genealogy. As OP have mentioned don't assume information generated on personal family trees is correct, rather verify the sources. As an example, many times I have found listed 10 children with birth dates, yet if you look at the father's DOB, he wasn't born yet.
You can get off track easy, with Ancestry, as it can be so interesting. I had a subscription for a couple of years, but this year I am not renewing, as I find I am not using it much and it has gotten very expensive for those of us retired. Even when they offer you a discount it still is expensive. I didn't care for the fact that Ancestry automatically renews you, year to year, charging your credit card, without first reminding you.
There are also good sites that are free such as Family Search, Cindi's list, etc.
Before your spend $$$, get as much information together from relatives, family bibles and papers. Good luck, it's an addictive hobby!
I don't recall having a ton of information when I first signed up... I was able to find a lot of info, mostly from the census data to get the ball rolling for me. I have been a paying member for several years now and have no intention of ending my subscription. That being said, you can't use Ancestry.com as your sole source for info. Visit other geneolgy sites as well... and also visit the State Counties (of your ancestors) genealogy sites, they are typically FREE and will have a ton of information as well.
I got a membership to ancestory.com Its the 14-day free trial, then pay something like $150 for 6 months. tonight is the first chance I've had to play with it. Its intriguing, I've found some records of my grandparents. However, I find you need to know a lot of information just to get information. Is it just me?
Ok, I haven't done their tutorials, just played around with it. But I find it a little frustrating as well as interesting.
So, what do the rest of you think about this website/ Is it worth the price? Or do you find you have to have a lot of information just to get started?
It's worth every penny ... to me. I use it daily. Even hourly. You have to judge for yourself how much you'll get out of it.
One downside to it is, I don't think it's all that user friendly. It's not very intuitive. You do need to know something about it to get the most use out of it. And you need to know something about genealogy. So read some "how to" genealogy manuals as well as some of Ancestry's tutorials.
But knowing a lot of information? You don't need to know a lot, but you do need to know something. You need to know what you're looking for and have a general idea where to look. Having just a name and expecting to pluck their data out of Ancestry isn't going to happen. There are probably going to be a lot of people by that name. Even what you think is an unusual name. And there aren't going to be records covering every where and every time period. So you have to learn to use what is available.
And, if you have specific questions ... feel free to ask them here. Someone is sure to help out.
I have been using Ancestry for several years and pay big $$ for the "world-wide" subscription. But be aware, as has been mentioned, don't take any of the family stuff for fact without double checking. All of it has been added by individuals and is only as factual as that individual makes it. And too many of them are only interested in adding numbers to their "tree". The scanned documents though you can "take to the bank", with one excpetion. What they show you, i.e. census records, have been transcribed by a person who may not be as careful as they should be, and some of the original documents are very hard to read. So, when possible, also look at the originals.
On a personal note; Four cousins have found me through Ancestry. One I knew about but had never met nor been in contact with, and the other three I did not know about. They are in AR, OR, OK, and TX. Three of them came here for me to take them on a tour of our AR homeland and we had a ball.
Oh, I must warn you - genealogy can become adictive!
Pretty much all I have is names from my mom, but I tried my grandfather in a search. I found an existing family tree with his brother and was able to backtrack from there to the origional Spurgin who arrived on a convict ship in 1719, even with the record with his name on it from the Old Bailey. So check family trees and you might luck out with a big chunk of information.
Where I have run into roadblocks is with my grandmother, who I'm sure was right when she said her dad was her mom's second husband. It doesn't reflect that but she was 5'11' with the rest of the family barely over five foot, including the the father. It just doesn't happen that way. Now, I have to learn how to look at records and see if I can find a marriage certificate or some other information.
But its really amazing what you can find if you have a key name or two. Start with a relative that you know the names associated and see what you find.
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