Ancestry Review
You may have wondered if it is worth the trouble and money to sign up for an Ancestry account. In my opinion an Ancestry membership is well worth the money, but even better when the information is free. Much of the information I need can be found on Ancestry saving me an expensive trip to another state. My last two day genealogy trip to Illinois cost over $200.00; gas, food, and hotel all add up. The most valuable genealogy information on Ancestry is the online databases such as census records, county histories, marriage records and death records. I would treat the online trees with skepticism and use them for leads only. The Ancestry surname forum is good when you really hit a road block, but again be careful of taking all the information at face value. Check sources! Most of the online trees are copies of copies of copies of someone’s research and are very rarely documented. I have found more errors than I wish to discuss on many of these trees. However, if you factor the cost of even a weekend trip to another state to do research the price of a subscription can pay for itself many times over. If you are able to dedicate a block of internet research time over the holidays or a vacation it may be well worth your while to sign-up for a free 14 day trial. Every hobby cost money, but in these economic times free is always better than pay! Many researchers claim they can find every census, marriage records free online, but I have not found this to always be true. Yes, there are free resources, but they are limited and usually never quite what I need. I am a document junky, and need the sources. Many libraries and archives will offer Ancestry for free, but if you are a working gal like me time to trek to the library is limited. I have tried to add many documents on my website to aid in free genealogy search, but they are limited by the time I have to transcribe, do research, and have a life. In the end my subscription to Ancestry is a valued tool in my research. If you are interested the Familytomb (me) will get a small cut if you sign-up for an account via my weblink. However, I have recommended Ancestry to many researchers word of mouth without a kick back. I do believe they provide a valuable service, just not free. Next time a review on my new favorite Footnote.com.
You may have wondered if it is worth the trouble and money to sign up for an Ancestry account. In my opinion an Ancestry membership is well worth the money, but even better when the information is free. Much of the information I need can be found on Ancestry saving me an expensive trip to another state. My last two day genealogy trip to Illinois cost over $200.00; gas, food, and hotel all add up. The most valuable genealogy information on Ancestry is the online databases such as census records, county histories, marriage records and death records. I would treat the online trees with skepticism and use them for leads only. The Ancestry surname forum is good when you really hit a road block, but again be careful of taking all the information at face value. Check sources! Most of the online trees are copies of copies of copies of someone’s research and are very rarely documented. I have found more errors than I wish to discuss on many of these trees. However, if you factor the cost of even a weekend trip to another state to do research the price of a subscription can pay for itself many times over. If you are able to dedicate a block of internet research time over the holidays or a vacation it may be well worth your while to sign-up for a free 14 day trial. Every hobby cost money, but in these economic times free is always better than pay! Many researchers claim they can find every census, marriage records free online, but I have not found this to always be true. Yes, there are free resources, but they are limited and usually never quite what I need. I am a document junky, and need the sources. Many libraries and archives will offer Ancestry for free, but if you are a working gal like me time to trek to the library is limited. I have tried to add many documents on my website to aid in free genealogy search, but they are limited by the time I have to transcribe, do research, and have a life. In the end my subscription to Ancestry is a valued tool in my research. If you are interested the Familytomb (me) will get a small cut if you sign-up for an account via my weblink. However, I have recommended Ancestry to many researchers word of mouth without a kick back. I do believe they provide a valuable service, just not free. Next time a review on my new favorite Footnote.com.
