Comparing ancestry.com and other memberships

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Linda Sue Hollingsworth Robbins on August 14, 2009 at 10:23am

Thanks for bringing up this topic. I subscribe to the following for different reasons, and feel that all are vauable:
1. Ancestry.com--Some people may point out its positive and negative points, but it really has the largest database of records that are helpful to the genealogist. One has to learn to work with it and over the 7 years I have subscribed, it has gotten better and is easier to navigate with each year. I subscribe to the US part because personally I think I have plenty to research without the International part.
2. www.legacyfamilytree.com is my family tree software. I can export my Ancestry gedcom file(s) from ancestry.com and everything including sourcing and notes transfers to Legacy Family Tree. I have to transfer pictures manually unless something has changed that I missed. All programs improve with time. I can upgrade Legacy Family Tree online. I really like this program for its ability to make and copy reports and offers many sizes and styles of pedigree charts, up to 11 X 17 copies if you have the printer that can handle that. I would not purchase a software program that gives me problems or does not allow for free upgrades online. There is a Legacy Family Tree group on www.genealogywise.com.
3. www.worldvitalstatistics.com is an additional database I subscribe to for a few addtional perks. They are finding college yearbooks with information about ancestors that documents where and when they were in a location. I also like the links to Google books that are online. This is the company that owns www.genealogywise.com.
4. www.newspaperarchive.com is valuable "IF" your ancestors were mentioned in the newspapers and years in the Newspaper Archive database. I was lucky to find more than I knew about relatives' early lives in newspaper articles where I did not know about their lives in between census records. Ancestry does not have the same newspapers that Newspaper Archive does.
5. www.footnote.com is one of my secondary subscriptions. Sorry--footnote lovers. Perhaps for you there are collections on footnote that are valuable. I just haven't gotten there yet.

Permalink Reply by Linda Sue Hollingsworth Robbins on August 14, 2009 at 11:27am

Sorry I goofed on #3. database. I should have called it www.worldviatalrecords.com, "NOT" www.worldvitalstatistics.

Permalink Reply by Sue Pearson Greichunos on September 17, 2009 at 9:30am

Ms. Linda ~ I am relatively new to Ancestry.com & just building up my Tree on their site (I don't yet have a tree software on my computer & don't know how to upload/download a GEDCOM). Recently I ran into a little problem with Ancestry & the data I've input to my Tree therein. My Grandfather was married twice. He had a child with his 1st wife; the wife died; he remarried and had three more children. Because I do not know his 1st wife's name, I didn't put in that relationship at first, but I had already put in the four children's name & attached source documentation, etc. Finally, I added the 1st wife by just inputting "Unknown," but I don't know how to move the child they'd had together from the stepmother to the bio mother. I went into the details & tried changing the status of My Grandmother from bio to stepmother, but it didn't move the child to under the bio mother. Anyway, long story short, somehow now I have two of the same daughter, and I gave up at that point cuz I was frustrated & kicking myself for being stupid. Can you tell me how to fix the situation? Maybe deleting that daughter & just starting her branch all over from scratch under the proper bio mother's status is the only way to go?

Permalink Reply by Joan Lightfoot on September 23, 2009 at 1:20pm

Sue,
I have found that it's not that hard to remove a link to a parent by going to the "edit this person" button, then to the "relationships" tab. Hit the remove button on the wrong mother, this will remove the link to her without removing the person. At that point you can add the correct mother or the program will put the child with an unknown mother. That is probably as clear as mud but it has worked for me.
Joan

Permalink Reply by Charles Donaghe on August 25, 2009 at 2:24pm

Just a thought, Check at your local public library. Some have a subscription to Hertiage Quest. At our local library with your library card you can access it from home.
I alos have a subscription to Ancestry because of its large number of databases. I do not like there search function. If I tell it to search the 1860 census for a state, it still returns results from every other state.
I've subscribed to footnote for a year and it had a lot of good stuff. I really liked to civil war records.
I have found family information on Hertiage Quest that corrected years of reasearch done aon one family member.
If I oculd only have one subscritpion service it would probably be Ancestry. This is due to again the large number of databases and the completeness of their census index.

Permalink Reply by Molly McKinley on August 29, 2009 at 1:22pm

I subscribe to both Ancestry and Geneology.com as they do have different ways of looking at data and also have different databases. I get really frustrated with Geneology.com as they will throw up 50 pages of people that have no relation at all even though you give the date of birth, death and place. But...they have many family histories in their library that you can access in full. I go between both when searching. If you have Family Tree Maker (I use 2009) you can add sites into the program and seach directely from the person you are looking for and merge the information into your file. If it is a website like FamilySearch.org, it will tag it as a webpage you can access later.

Permalink Reply by Phillip Wayne Cushman on September 10, 2009 at 11:21am

This is not entirely about Ancestry.com vs other memberships but rather about the Ancestry DNA project vs other DNA testing sources. I purchased a complete Y-DNA and mtDNA test kit and returned it to the Ancestry DNA project which in due time informed me that my haplogroup was O2a which is basically Asian. I pointed out that my ancestry was supposed to be English/Scot/Irish and there were no Asians in my family back to the early 1800s. I was never able to get any real assistance with an explanation nor did they offer to recheck their results. I retested with Family Tree DNA and came back with an R1b1b2 Haplogroup which was exactly what my family tree would suggest. FTDNA has also provided me with an exact 37 marker match whereas Ancestry DNA had nothing even close. I would therefore, based on that single but very important experience, recommend FTDNA over Ancestry DNA for genetic testing. I would add that the FTDNA kit was much more professionally done with special vials to hold the collecting swabs and based on that alone I can understand their results being more reliable.

Permalink Reply by Mavis Jones on September 22, 2009 at 3:46am

I agree with you on your assesment of the Ancestry DNA project. I plan to redo both my mother and father using the FTDNA.

Permalink Reply by P. Murphy on September 14, 2009 at 1:24pm

It somewhat depends on where your ancestors were located. I have a subscription to Ancestry.com and New England Genealogical Historical Society (NEGHS). They have some good searchable information for New England based ancestors. Another source that has not been mentioned is Ancestry.uk If you have ancestors from the U.K. that might be worthwhile checking a free trial. Before your trial is up, make sure you download your file (if you have found some worthwhile information) as a gedcom (the standard that will allow you to import it to any other software) The problem I find with Ancestry is (and most genealogy sites) is the random coverage/gaps in data. There is also an Irish website, but their membership is I think more than $100 per month. Too much for me!

Permalink Reply by Sue Pearson Greichunos on September 15, 2009 at 2:42am

Wow! >$100/month??!! Doesn't it seem criminal to hold your heritage ransom for that much money?

Permalink Reply by P. Murphy on October 19, 2009 at 4:30am

Absolutely, I plan to spend the money someday, to get to Ireland and research some things in person!

Permalink Reply by Danny Nieves on October 17, 2009 at 5:37am

Hi, I have ancestry.com but I also look at some of the census's through Heritage Quest which I access for free online through my local library. I can actually log on from home using my library card. Sometimes the search engine on Heritage will pick up a name that the search engine on ancestry does not pick up and vice versa.

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