• Ancestry

Ancestry

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Overview

Ancestry has a rating of 1.46 stars from 628 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Ancestry most frequently mention customer service, free trial, and credit card problems. Ancestry ranks 61st among Genealogy sites.

  • Service
    166
  • Value
    163
  • Shipping
    70
  • Returns
    83
  • Quality
    148
Positive reviews (last 12 months): 5.6%
Positive
4
Neutral
3
Negative
64
41
See all photos

What reviewers want you to know

Positive highlights

  • I dapple with other family tree building and research sites, but Ancestry has remained my favorite thus far.

Critical highlights

  • Just be prepared for rude customer service workers.
  • Despite blocking them from my credit card and filing fraud charges every year, it keeps showing up.
How would you rate Ancestry?
Top Positive Review

“Has been worth it for me”

Jennifer L.
11/4/23

Yes, Ancestry seems expensive and the membership has gradually increased over time. But what do people expect? Their database is massive and growing. It's way better than MyHeritage. I never find much on that site and I've just grown accustomed to Ancestry's layout. I love their throughline guide (not meant to be set in stone), and their hints are helpful (but also not meant to be taken without checking into them on your own). I love that you can build multiple trees (I have many experimental ones to sort out confusion on family lines). I love that you can manage the trees and DNA belonging to your family members. I love that all of the trees and DNA that others share with me are compiled into an easy-to-find and navigate list. I love that no one can change your tree unless you make them manager of it. I love that everything you attach to your tree stays attached, even when you take breaks from paid membership. No, you cannot view those attached things while you are not a paying member, but once you renew your membership, they are all still there and viewable again. This is why you should download them while you are a paid member, save them in your files, and upload them into your tree as photos. Then they will be viewable during unpaid breaks from membership. Ancestry is a huge continuously growing database. New stuff is continuously being added. Their DNA database dominates all autosomal DNA databases thus far (in my opinion). They allow you to upload DNA from other testing companies (which is kind of them). Sure they are a huge corporation that understandably wants to make large sums of money, but based on all of the things they offer that other sites don't, I think it's worth the money. Also, if you remain patient and wait for sales you can save quite a bit. I dapple with other family tree building and research sites, but Ancestry has remained my favorite thus far. Once you learn how to navigate, and what not to do when building and adding to your tree, it is an awesome genealogy tool. When used with sites offering DNA tools (like DNA painter, triangulation, and one-to-many comparison) it's even more beneficial. So yes, they are pricey but to me...they are where I get the most bang for my buck. At least, so far.

Top Critical Review

“Avoid these crooks at any cost!”

JoAnna T.
2/18/24

I was going to try a membership and had all set up but cancelled the same day due to them not resolving an issue of someone posting my mothers incorrect obituary that the funeral home corrected and they threw me to four different people and resolved nothing so I cancelled and have contacted a lawyer! Don't waste your money or time they are lawless and have horrible, incompetent, arrogant, and dumb workers!

Reviews (628)

Rating

Timeframe

Other

Reviews that mention popular keywords

customer service (91) credit card (59) dna test (62) family tree (69)
Thumbnail of user joannat51
5 reviews
7 helpful votes
February 18th, 2024

I was going to try a membership and had all set up but cancelled the same day due to them not resolving an issue of someone posting my mothers incorrect obituary that the funeral home corrected and they threw me to four different people and resolved nothing so I cancelled and have contacted a lawyer! Don't waste your money or time they are lawless and have horrible, incompetent, arrogant, and dumb workers!

Tip for consumers:
No, just don’t do business with or trust them!!

Products used:
None, after I saw how they don’t resolve problems! I don’t waste my time and energy on poorly run businesses like this one and you can bet the government is backing them and getting all of the publics data from them and that they are both using and selling everyone’s personal data they get!! Blackstone owns them and is connected to BlackRock which is who all government employee and the military have all of their ill gotten gains invested with, they are all a bunch of deceitful, dishonest,lawless, crooks who should all be in jail!!

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user dpieplow
1 review
2 helpful votes
January 22nd, 2024

I've been with Ancestry since 2005 and have endured the constant raise in their fees. I have never had them just charge me - because I turned off the automatic charge. They have to contact me. So no issue there.

My main issue is people who copy other trees as if it is the gospel truth without sources. Inexperienced or just plain stupid? Also users who put these dumb photos of flags, and other things to identify their ancestors. It's garbage that gets sent to everyone who have the same common ancestors.

Also seems everyone is Native American. They attach Dawes or Baker files to an ancestor who died 130 years ago and that's their proof. It isn't. It's sloppy genealogical research.

I've decided that after years, it's time for me to call it quits once my membership expires. I'm in the process of saving everything because Ancestry does seem to think they own our ancestors! So no where to transfer unless you use their program that has yet another fee. I am tired of been nickel and dined to death.

Other than that, it used to enjoyable and a wonderful hobby until the grownups left and now a bunch of losers (ancestry employees as well as stupid users) have ruined it.

Tip for consumers:
No

Products used:
Ancestry family trees and database, DNA

Thumbnail of user noelw81
2 reviews
1 helpful vote
February 24th, 2024

My wife has been using ancestry.com for almost two years now. Recently a lot of the data she has entered just starts disappearing. She has reached out to their support and has gotten no help whatsoever. They don't reply to her emails, her phone calls, nada. I want to personally thank ancestry.com for being on the receiving end of this madness. I guess they won't mind losing that membership money. My advice is to stay away from them.

Tip for consumers:
no

Products used:
ancestry program

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user sophiab356
2 reviews
6 helpful votes
December 29th, 2023

Ancestry rates keep going up and up. They nearly doubled my costs and started charing semi annually to mask the scam. I pay for Newspapers.com plug in which has not worked for over a year. They refuse to address it. Now they have the nerve to make software fixes and want to charge me another $9.99 per month to use them.

So their overpriced non-functioning software doesn't work and now they want me to pay more to fix it. What a crock! SCAM SCAM SCAM

Tip for consumers:
The customer service is useless. Complain and they will just threaten to delete your account.

Products used:
Access over 30 billion US and International records on Ancestry, more than 8 billion articles with Newspapers.com™ Publisher Extra ®, and millions of additional military records from around the globe on Fold3®.

Service
Value
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user jennyt341
1 review
0 helpful votes
February 15th, 2024

Started out in December and received errors during the process, this will be the 3rd times I'm giving samples of my DNA. And still waiting.

Service
Value
Shipping
Quality
Thumbnail of user mystickyra
1 review
2 helpful votes
January 14th, 2024

I was an Ancestry member for well over a decade. Paid annual memberships and had great customer service experiences, until now. They tell you that annual memberships save you money but that leads you into getting bigger packages and then automatically renewing your subscription and you cannot get a refund as it is written into their policy to deny refunds. Canceling now and never returning to Ancestry!

Products used:
Ancestry Full Access

Thumbnail of user pbfclarke
1 review
2 helpful votes
February 23rd, 2024

Ancestry was until a year or so ago, simple to use, uncluttered and just about 100%, now I wouldn't rate it 20%. Full of useless links that are difficult if not impossible to over-ride, where is the old start page? Stories everywhere of no interest or relevance to my family research. Looking for alternatives!

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user ruthe866
1 review
2 helpful votes
March 19th, 2024

First of all you are making it impossible for me to work on their tree with all your daily scheduled maintenances you are basically not letting use what I am paying for and its quite a bit. I feel like I am wasting my time and money now. Second my DNA says I get my Scottish from both Parents. My Dads DNA says he has no Scottish. Seems like you are guessing. I have been using Ancestry for 25 years and WAS pretty happy, now I am very upset. It is very stressful to use you site. I hope you fix your issues soon.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user daves298
17 reviews
12 helpful votes
February 2nd, 2024

Ancestry is now run by robots, I wouldn't recommend them if starting out now. They used to have human customer support. Now they are getting into stuff to block older people who must make up a lot of their customers with two stage verification. I don't want it but like everything they change the is no customer engagement. They changed the whole face of individual profiles and matches and I've never understood it since. Don't waste your money on them I got caught by their scam that charges USA rates when UK is much cheaper, got two years back from them but they'd made thousands out of it

Tip for consumers:
You could look at My Heritage our Find My Past but the heyday is well passed, there are all now complacent

Products used:
Whole world coverage

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user chuckb378
1 review
1 helpful vote
January 3rd, 2024

I cancelled my membership at Ancestry.com / Ancestry.org in early July of this year (2023) by calling the support line. Today I was reviewing my bank account activity and noticed that I was still being charged every month since July. I realized it was my fault that I did not make sure it was canceled, so I canceled it online. Ancestry charged me $25 fee for cancellation and still charged me the monthly membership fee as well. When I called to find out why, they basically said that they do not have any records of me calling in July snd that they will not refund my charges for this month either. My advice to anyone using this service is to be careful of being charged after cancellation.

Products used:
Ancestry.com / Ancestry.org

Thumbnail of user ak368
3 reviews
23 helpful votes
March 11th, 2023
Verified purchase

Horrible site. I had all my photos set to private as well as my trees and someone was able to use them. What really has me upset they used my info to create a tree that has my deceased father and sister as another women's husband and child. Horrifying! Stay away or use code names for everyone in your tree. I have requested the removal of at least the pictures of my family members from that users tree (several times) and it's fallen on deaf ears.

Thumbnail of user stephaniet1639
1 review
3 helpful votes
October 1st, 2023

I have been a member since 2020 and was happy enough with the site, however realised today that I have been overcharged for the last 6 months and when I queried it I was advised "no refund policy"! But it's an error! I've been charged to use the US site ( which means converted to Aussie dollars I'm paying almost double!) And when I threatened to cancel my subscription after 3 years they were more than happy to cancel and get rid of me! Terrible consumer service and a refund policy that serves only their company bottom line.

Products used:
Monthly membership on direct debit

Service
Value
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user tamaraj255
1 review
3 helpful votes
December 18th, 2023

I paid full price several years ago for the DNA kit. Sent it in found it very useful. Then they ask us to fill out traits info, now we have to pay for the info of traits we supplied them for free. No I can't even get into DNA due to their new 2 step rule. It's impossible to sign in, even with a code. Grrrrrrrr! Bah humbug stay away from Ancestry DNA

Products used:
DNA kit

Service
Value
Shipping
Quality
Thumbnail of user nice8
1 review
5 helpful votes
March 1st, 2023
Verified purchase

Good DNA product, but when signing up I specifically un-checked all memberships and fees. 3 months later they take a fee anyway. No direct customer support, just a terrible chatbot.

Recommend once you have your results go into you're account and check that ancestry have not added memberships to your account to scam you.

Tip for consumers:
Check the memberships, they add them after you sign in without your consent

Products used:
DNA Test

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user jenniferl284
1 review
1 helpful vote
November 4th, 2023

Yes, Ancestry seems expensive and the membership has gradually increased over time. But what do people expect? Their database is massive and growing. It's way better than MyHeritage. I never find much on that site and I've just grown accustomed to Ancestry's layout. I love their throughline guide (not meant to be set in stone), and their hints are helpful (but also not meant to be taken without checking into them on your own). I love that you can build multiple trees (I have many experimental ones to sort out confusion on family lines). I love that you can manage the trees and DNA belonging to your family members. I love that all of the trees and DNA that others share with me are compiled into an easy-to-find and navigate list. I love that no one can change your tree unless you make them manager of it. I love that everything you attach to your tree stays attached, even when you take breaks from paid membership. No, you cannot view those attached things while you are not a paying member, but once you renew your membership, they are all still there and viewable again. This is why you should download them while you are a paid member, save them in your files, and upload them into your tree as photos. Then they will be viewable during unpaid breaks from membership. Ancestry is a huge continuously growing database. New stuff is continuously being added. Their DNA database dominates all autosomal DNA databases thus far (in my opinion). They allow you to upload DNA from other testing companies (which is kind of them). Sure they are a huge corporation that understandably wants to make large sums of money, but based on all of the things they offer that other sites don't, I think it's worth the money. Also, if you remain patient and wait for sales you can save quite a bit. I dapple with other family tree building and research sites, but Ancestry has remained my favorite thus far. Once you learn how to navigate, and what not to do when building and adding to your tree, it is an awesome genealogy tool. When used with sites offering DNA tools (like DNA painter, triangulation, and one-to-many comparison) it's even more beneficial. So yes, they are pricey but to me...they are where I get the most bang for my buck. At least, so far.

Tip for consumers:
I feel the value is worth the purchase price.

Products used:
Ancestry.com semi-annual membership and Ancestry DNA testing kit (separate times)

Service
Value
Shipping
Quality
Thumbnail of user desirablemax
1 review
0 helpful votes
December 10th, 2023

A total waste of money. Relatively quick processing but I didn't get my haplogroupes... Guessing nationality is useless - I already know it...

Service
Value
Shipping
Quality
Thumbnail of user gwenf77
1 review
2 helpful votes
November 23rd, 2023

I had my DNA analyzed some years ago and thought I would do it again as the technology is so much better now. But the results this time were much less precise, not more. Very generic references to Scandinavia whereas before the test pinpointed Sami and Nowegian, no information about my Dutch heritage this time (and I look just like my Dutch grandmother so don't be thinking anything), no mention of the Italian or maybe Greek (would love to know which one), or the 1% Ashkenazi Jew. Some general information about Germany (hey, thanks I didn't know anything about Germany!) when the prior test was more specific, namely Alsace.
Waste of money.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user stephenb1817
1 review
1 helpful vote
January 12th, 2022

Nothing but excellent service. Got pretty much my whole family's dna test through ancestry and connected it together on my family tree. They have the most samples in their data base so amazing if you wanna connect and get the most accurate results on your dna.

Tip for consumers:
Link your family tree to the results.

Products used:
Ancestry DNA kit

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user kalei.lw
1 review
2 helpful votes
January 1st, 2024

I would vote ZERO stars if that were an option! Absolutely worthless for doing any type of search, and when you try to cancel the "free" trial, they STILL BILL YOU! AND CHARGE A $25 "CANCELLATION FEE"! SCAMMERS!

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user frasiertrisha
1 review
0 helpful votes
December 27th, 2023

I had my hopes up just to be let down I took the dna test waited the first thing they told me my dad had past away nothing about my mom or my brother or sister I had to get on another site and search I found my dad sister and brother basically I was told not to call again see ancestry wants to hear the good story's not the bad ones I wish I would have just left alone

Thumbnail of user teresaberntsen
2 reviews
3 helpful votes
October 9th, 2023
Verified purchase

I paid more money to subscribe to Ancestry as opposed to other genealogical research sites, as their claim and other online reviews stated they have the greatest depth of information. I soon found out they have a lot of information, but the data may not be true. When you accept their hints, even though the sight lists if you are researching the same person, it often creates a duplicate. This causes chaos in your tree. I have tried to reach their support on multiple occasions, and they have no answers and will not escalate. Don't bother with this site, just do your own internet research.

Thumbnail of user michaeld6190
1 review
9 helpful votes
April 26th, 2023

Couldn't find death records of someone I been wanting to find out how they passed. Tried my name as well just to see if it would work even Google has me on there. Tried 10 different people and no information what so ever came up. Also it scammed me into signing up for the free trial cuz when I did search it had someone's name there but when I did click it it was a whole different person from the Philippines. Couldn't know that till I signed up. This site sucks

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
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Thumbnail of user victord424
1 review
2 helpful votes
September 22nd, 2023
Verified purchase

Not worth the cost. To find out nothing new. Horrible customer service. Can not give a minus rating but that is what they deserve.

Tip for consumers:
Don't waste your money.

Products used:
DNA test.

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user cherrif8
2 reviews
0 helpful votes
February 24th, 2024

I have never had a paid subscription as the fees are way too much for ordinary people to afford. I also bought DNA kits for my husband, mother and one son who bought one for me. I was able to see the inheritance of MY DNA seeing what was inherited from each of my parents (only one living). Today I got into my account to see my deceased parents DNA that I inherited and it is now gone! It says you need to buy a subscription to see it! I and my son paid lots of money for all these DNA kits to be able to see DNA results! Yes I get to see my DNA origins but why was something I was getting for taking the DNA test taken away from me only to say I can no longer see it unless I pay more money?! I'm furious! What kind of scam are they running? I'm very angry and disgusted, like they don't already have people's family info cornered, they make you pay to see or know it, they must make hundreds of billions of dollars off of people! Ancestry you should be ASHAMED!

Service
Thumbnail of user zer0.g.kris
1 review
1 helpful vote
October 5th, 2023
Verified purchase

The chatbot was better help than the customer support that was rude to me when I requested a refund for my DNAkit. They are stealing people's money, providing 0 results (I've had 3 kits rejected since May) and being unprofessional to their customers.

Products used:
DNAkit

Service
Value
Returns
Quality

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1.5
628 reviews
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