AncestryReviews 635

Ya, its great for the free storage, but beyond that the site is very useless. My mom tried to gift me a membership, and we sure learned quick this site is TERRIBLE. Customer service was either 15-30 min of holding, or they told you to call back the next day, and they did not fix the problems at all. It won't let my mom just purchase the account under mine because my name isn't on the credit card. The only reason I would suggest anyone to use this site is if they want to store and organize their ancestry work. Otherwise, the thing is useless and doesn't care at all about their customers.

Ancestry.com is one of the most useful genealogy paysites. I have the full membership which gives me access to every record they have. Since I am based in Europe, the annual charge is 199 Euro, which is a bit pricey. They do not have nearly as many original records for European countries as they have for the US, though. As a European, Ancestry.com will be most useful if you have American relatives and you want to research the branches of your family tree on the other side of the Atlantic. I would estimate that on average, I am able to find about 5-10 original records for every American in my family tree (depending of course on how long a person lived). Ancestry.com add tons of data every month, so the site is worth re-visiting over and over. Lately, they added city directories for most of the places I am interested in.

The interface to view original record images has been "updated" recently. Not a good idea, since it uses flash and crashes quite regularly on Firefox. You can still choose the older interface under the "Options" tab, which will perfectly do the job.

The search interface could be more sophisticated, but it allows for wildcards (not a given on many other sites). If you complain about too many irrelevant search results, simply use "exact" search or give more detailed information on the person you are looking for.

One con I would mention is the questionable quality of many user-submitted family trees. But you cannot really blame Ancestry.com for being so popular that they attract a lot of - let's say, not very diligent "researchers". The problem with the global village are the village idiots, as they say...

THE BEST PLACE TO PRESERVE YOUR PRECIOUS PHOTOGRAPHS AND STORIES FROM FIRE FLOOD AND THE ROUND FILE. Ancestry.com IS the BEST GENEALOGY search engine out there. And always will be. I wasted time and money on all sorts of things. Time is the most importntant. Especially at my age. It is worth every penny. I have a dozen trees for my mom/dad, even spun grandparents family to their own tree. /husbands. I am thrilled that they are getting Quaker records to search... It is just a FANTASTIC site..

Finally retired and able to devote time to a Digital Family History. This site
Is extraordinary at "connecting" family members. I have two "trees" going:
Birge Family Tree (married into), Harrington/Lee Family tree is my blood lineage.
My Harrington ancestor was a 2nd. Lieutenant in the 7th Cavalry... unfortunately with
CUSTER at LITTLE BIGHORN! Henry Moore Harrington... on Lee side we are related to Robert E. Lee who "lost the BIG ONE... THE ENTIRE SOUTH and at Jamestown settlement 1607 but killed by Indians! I have forgiven them since. Mrs. B. p.s. I KNOW... wrong place each time... oh, also... one of the Minute Men at Lexington so we "started" the war my other relative lost!

Ancestry.com has a wealth of information to glen. But the content of other members trees is so polluted with bad information that just gets passed from person to person. One of my main complains is site rules. They laxly enforce their own rules. People post stolen photos and it is like pulling teeth to get Ancestry to address the issue.

Cost is extreme for what you get. They have become a giant that has swallowed up true genealogy work and turned genealogy into a fad. Quality is gone, quantity is in!

Ancestry.com has fabulous data, but the web interface is terrible and the customer service is non-existent. Firefox is totally incompatible, despite their claims to the contrary, and no one ever answers an email, ever. Their customer service hours are geared towards people on the east coast, and even they had better not have a day job if they want any technical support. It is impossible to get through on a Saturday, so forget that. I hear lots of rumors that it is impossible to cancel, too, and that better not be true, because that is just what I am about to do.

I had been thinking of signing up at Ancestry.com to develop a better-organized database for information on my extended family, but was discouraged by the high price (as of Dec. 2010, almost $156.00/year for a US subscription; even more for access to international records). Then I saw a number of customer complaints about Ancestry.com on the Internet: the most common complaint is that the company fails to stop your subscription when requested, and continues to apply charges against your credit card, even after telephone calls to the service dept. A second complaint is that they provide no way to correct bad data (when the customer has discovered, through personal research, that it's incorrect). So, be sure to read the fine print (a 14-day free trial subscription will slide into an annual subscription, unless you opt out) and to check your credit-card charges after canceling a subscription. Cancel your credit card, if you can't get out of the loop!

Ancestry.com has great records if you are into doing your geneology. They have old census records and is a great place to get started if you do not want to do tons of researching yourself. Geneology can be a difficult task, requiring hours of research and sometimes difficult procurement of records. Ancestry.com is very helpful in this respect.

The DNA testing they offer is nice and could be fun but I haven't tried it yet.

This is well worth the price if you are really into Family Ancestry.

Everything you see on the TV ads and internet ads are right on the money. I love this site.

As a Genealogist myself, I use it all the time and I've located some wonderful things on my own family. Draft cards, census, phone book records, it's all there. The little leaves that are used as hints are just fantastic. I actually saw my Grandfather's signature and personal information on his draft cards and I've connected with family I didn't even know I had!

It's well worth the money and they've got different plans to suit everyone. They offer a free trial and if you join you even get more access. Give it a shot. You may be related to someone famous or someone right around the corner that you didn't even know about!