Anyone used Ancestory website and find it useful?

[jpclarke]

Just curious if it is worth the money or is it mostly Americans on it looking for long lost relatives? Thanks

Oh I absolutely love it but I haven’t got a membership at the moment. I keep wanting to treat myself but it’s quite expensive and I don’t have so much free time to make use of it.

it’s not actually over priced because I get so much enjoyment from it but I know in USA they have loads of half price offers and here in uk far fewer offers and it puts me off!

lots of people from the uk use it. People all over the world. And more and more records are discoverable on it’s databases nowadays. def not just Americans although they did seem to lead the family research hobbyists.

I’ve had it on and off for 20 ish years now. My favourite hobby. I should buy it for myself for Christmas!

Iv had a membership for years.
Iv done my DNA with Ancestry as well which helps a lot.
I love it..I've got several trees on there that I'm working in for other people .
My own tree is huge
I love doing look ups for others so send me a pm anyone who wants help

I've used it to build a family tree going back to 1700 and something. No DNA, just using historic records like censuses and birth/marriage records. It did become a special interest of mine for a while and could spend hours on it. The subscription is expensive but once you have built tree, you can cancel it and still be able to view your tree.

Yes, I have it and I've learnt loads about my family. Have confirmed some family stories, found relatives in Canada and Tasmania... You need to wait for special offers. Also, join the Ancestry boards on Facebook as they will publicise special offers on there. It's true about the US site - you can join the .com site more cheaply and then switch to .co.uk.

Agree with PP that the thing to do is join, create a family tree over the course of a couple of months and then cancel membership, you will still have access to the tree. That’s what I did. Building a tree is really easy as it searches publicly available records and other people’s trees.

Did it help discover any secrets about your DNA or just standard stuff?

A friend had their result back informing of a 15% Scottish link. This caused mentioned friend to drink and become an alcoholic. Therefore, there may be some truth to this DNA service .

Ancestry. Not ancestory.

I don’t think you understand what it is, to be honest. DNA is a small part of what the site offers which is mostly genealogical records and family tree building software.

It brings up links to people who have entered their DNA. Ancestry matches the DNA connection between you.
It also shows ancestry members who have done their DNA and ate matched to me but haven't started researching and so don't have a tree.
Iv found some great information from historical newspapers.records and census
Through DNA I found that I'm 1 percent German !

Ok thanks for clearing that up for me.

DD does it and has discovered who my grandfather was despite it being a long buried secret. That knowledge disappeared with my DGM who died in 1976 having told no one.

I love it. It’s my main hobby. I take a break from time to time but am usually tinkering away at the family tree, adding new information. I love the contacts I make with people far away who are related but our common ancestor lived 150 years ago. It is expensive but lots of hobbys cost even more.

Interesting, that is the kind of information I am trying to figure out if it is worth me hoping up for. Thank you.

Was that a lame attempt at humour, or just plain nastiness?

again, ancestry is far more than DNA. If you have not built a tree and started to research ancestors, DNA testing will be pointless as you will have no idea what to do with the results.

There is a lot of Americans on there because their ancestors are British I suppose. Our paths cross if we have what looks like a common ancestor. My subscription is not worldwide so I don’t see non-uk records. It is very addictive, I have been on and off it for years but had a breakthrough this year and now can spend hours a day playing detective and getting carried away. I’ve also recently found DNA connections, so a whole new world has opened up! Words of warning - some transcriptions of records are not good, you have to learn to search ‘outside the box’. Eg my Welch ancestors are recorded as Walsh, Wilch, Welsh etc so it gets tedious tracking them down having to use all variations. Also if you search for an ancestor and you find them on someone else’s tree it won’t necesssarily be accurate, not everyone will be as meticulous as you! I pay £69 per quarter and I think it’s quite good value, new databases get added all the time. If you are mainly interested in parish records though, Findmypast is way better, Ancestry has very few parish records.

I would have a good amount of information as far back as great grand parents but with a few skeletons thrown out of the closet lately I am just wondering what other secrets could exist.

I’m going to try this. You’re saying I could join on an offer for USA site? Off to look this up. I’d love to treat myself

I found an enormous amount. It’s worth every penny. This thread is making me wonder why I haven’t just bought a membership for myself this year. I have to do it

Actually it was true, I have no idea what you are insinuating and will take no lessons from someone with a username such as yourself

I can imagine how hard it was for that person @CalmShakerespecially if they weren’t expecting to find something a miss.

Lessons? are you quite well? And I stand by my username. Shein is shite. As is Temu.

anyway OP, my advice is to start by building your tree then do a DNA if you are interested in doing so.

Treated myself to a subscription in lockdown, and have enjoyed it since.
I periodically cancel, then restart when I know I’ll have time to work on it.
I love researching people/ places- all sorts.

I use Find My Past, the other big site. It's British owned - actually owned by D C Thomson, publishers of Beano and Dandy. With the top level subscription you get access to all the local newspapers on the British Newspaper Archive, which is well worth having. You find out all sorts of things not just about your own family but about the local area. I'm currently paying £169.99 a year, but that's with a loyalty discount. Less than 50p a day, I think it's well worth it.

You do have to be very careful about accepting other people's family trees as accurate - I nearly always find errors, often where people have found someone with the same name as a relative and added him or her to the tree even when it's obviously the wrong person.

I had a year’s membership some time ago and used it loads, really helpful, but I couldn’t afford to renew it. My sister is a member (or was recently) and has a DNA test she hasn’t yet submitted. We’ll decide over Christmas whether to pursue it.

It's definitely worth looking into. I discovered that I'm related to Alexander the great on my fathers side.