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

Can anyone advise what would you do to help find out more about your Mums side in my situation.
I have wanted to try these sites but don't know where to start or if they would be any help really.
My Mum is deceased and was adopted in 1943 in Ireland when she was about 3/4. I don't know anything about where/children's home/birthplace etc or any of her early life.
I know her adopted ( my grandparents) names but not DOB or anything else.
Do you think a DNA search would be a good place to start or something else?
Thanks in advance x

As you can see from my username, I am DNA expert (qualified DNA genealogist). Yes a AncestryDNA test will definitely point towards your mother’s birth family. You may be able to work it out yourself if you have close matches or you may need help from
someone like myself - I can usually work it out even if second cousins is the closest match you have. AncestryDNA have a sale on right now and it’s the cheapest I’ve ever seen it. I would also recommend you purchase a MyHeritageDNA test and do that one at the same time to get as many matches as you can

Wondering about getting a subscription however my Mum’s family were Irish and Mum never got very far in tracing her family tree despite visits to Ireland. Would it be worth it?

I’ve done a DNA with ancestry and it was interesting, apparently I’m related to Florence Nightingale

I did the DNA test and then built my tree. I found it easier that way as it tells you who you are connected to via DNA and you can see their trees if they have allowed them to be public. I really enjoyed it, found out lots that I didn’t know.

I did the ancestry DNA test a few years ago and discovered some really interesting things. I also ended up connecting with some cousins (several times removed), one of whom gave me a photo of my Russian great grandfather. It was fascinating.

I cancelled the monthly subscription after a while as I no longer had the time to do the research properly but if I did, I think it is good value for money.

In that case, you'd probably find it interesting & worthwhile. I keep joining the damn things, getting really frustrated and then bored. I am clearly not target market.

As far as I can tell, it's quite a lot of work to trace your tree, especially as the software keeps making useless suggestions and is very US-oriented. But, as the genealogy board on here shows, many users find it fascinating and get really good at it. Hope you enjoy your new hobby, OP!

If you are being serious, then I highly doubt that is a provable descent. Much too far back for good documentary evidence and unless we have Alexander the Great's DNA, then DNA proof is also unlikely.

OP I have membership of both Ancestry and FindMyPast. Ancestry is best if you want DNA analysis, but FMP is very good on English records.

I have been doing genealogy for twenty years and have never done DNA. I don't have any issues that it would solve, but it is incredibly useful for many people. However, if you want to build a family tree there is no substitute for detailed research to document your ancestors lives. Many trees on Ancestry are strewn with errors. Americans in particular like to prove they are descended from nobility or royalty or to support a family myth.

Be aware though, once you start going down the genealogy rabbit hole, you may never escape. I can while away whole days in research and writing, I have gone on trips to places the family lived and made friends with distant family connections. I consider my research subscriptions good value for money.

AncestryDNA have a sale on right now and it’s the cheapest I’ve ever seen it. I would also recommend you purchase a MyHeritageDNA test and do that one at the same time to get as many matches as you can

Why would you do that when you can just download the data from Ancestry and upload it to MyHeritage?

Also doubtful on the Alexander the Great claim - I see this so much with people claiming direct descent from notable historical figures like William the Conqueror, Robert the Bruce, Charlemagne.

Autosomal DNA (like an Ancestry test) can only take you back 5-6 generations at the very most because after that point the amounts are tiny. What happens is that people do a test, then start clicking on hints on Ancestry and making assumptions. Y-DNA is a different matter but only men can take that one, and Ancestry don't offer it.

Ancestry is only good if you never accept the hints it gives without checking them back very carefully. The same applies to family trees other people put on there.
DNA is separate and can connect to family..

The DNA mainly helps you find people related to you that you can contact if you want to, or figure out exactly where they fit in your tree. I did find my GF had an unknown half brother, which was interesting!

@SheinIsShite You can’t upload Ancestry results to My Heritage anymore.

I love Ancestry. DNA test has confirmed that my Dad and Uncle were half siblings though my cousin seems to have not noticed this. My 2x G Grandfather is not who he was on paper but some guy who lived round the corner from my my 2 x G Grandmother’s half sister so that section of my tree needed redoing as was incorrect.

I’m not confident that my G Grandfather on my Mother’s side is correct so will look at that when I have time and hopefully my Aunt will test.

One of my DNA matches was adopted and we have spent 4.5 years building a tree from his matches to try and find his father and confirm his mother is who is on his birth certificate. Slow process as small matches and privacy laws for the country of his birth make it tricky but we are getting there and have over a hundred of his matches linked into the tree now. Next step is persuading some people to test so he is stocking up on tests whilst the sale is on.

Check with your local library, mine has access to Ancestry available for free, obviously not the DNA bit, but you can search their databases and print the results or get them emailed to you. There's often offers for a month free home usage, you just need to remember to cancel the direct debit in time. As PP, there are often mistakes in the original records and in the transcriptions,

I have been on it for ages, and found masses of family tree information on both sides of family. Ancestry is great for this, but a downside is that other people's trees and information is often very unreliable, so you need to double check if you get info or hints from other people's trees. Many researchers will see a name and just put it in their tree without checking it is the right person. I have seen this dozens of times.

I've spent a few hundred quid on subscriptions and that led me to spend a little more on official records.

It's been fascinating!

I discovered my 2x Great Grandmother who we all thought only had 2 children in fact had twelve!

She was married in 1884 and had nine children before 1901 then had an affair and giving birth to my Great-Grandmother illegitimately in 1902 then had twins with another man at the age of 43 in 1906, one died aged 15 months.

She was in a relationship with a man for 15 years at least before she died in 1931 and he seemed to only know about her 2 daughters who were with her and not her previous 9 children! He registered her death and said she was 52 when she was in fact 67!

Also discovered one of my other Great-Grandmothers married bigamously. Apparently before 1920 divorce was only for the extremely wealthy who could have their divorce heard at the high court in London so it was pretty common that working class people just married again without being divorced from their previous spouse.

It's become a hobby of mine now and I think it's well worth the money.

I didn't realise you couldn't any more @Seaitoverthere . That's a total pain. I did hear that Ancestry were going to start allowing uploads from other sites but no movement on that front ever since 23 and Me went under.

@SheinIsShite , it is so annoying but I guess they felt they are losing too much money by allowing it plus they have their new processing method they are rolling out so they will be wanting to push that. The only decent thing is both Ancestry and My Heritage have their sale on, My Heritage cost £32 including postage when I bought one the other day. It’s for my neighbour and when she originally talked about doing a DNA test you could still upload Ancestry there. Sadly she waited !

After finding some VERY juicy info from doing his DH bought me a kit and I found that I am very uninteresting
I haven't checked it for ages.

At least they're not removing the tests of those of us who uploaded before they stopped accepting.

I didn’t realise the newspaper archive came free with Findmypast, I only use the local library version and although it shows newspaper links it doesn’t allow full access. I might join for a while. I have an Ancestry upgrade to allow newspaper access to another archive but it hasn’t produced much and I will probably drop that.

Well, I managed to find my biological father using just dna matches and his name.

I did the family trees of my strong dna matches until I found a common ancestor with the same surname (born 1872) I then worked forward from that ancestor and ended up with two possible people. This all took quite a while...

Then I was contacted by a family member of his who had done a dna test. She couldn't work out why I was a first cousin so I had to tell her I was her uncles child! She was very excited but he didn't want to know ( fair enough after 55 years)

It solved a mystery for me though.

Don’t forget Find My Past, a similar platform but British, owned by DC Thompson, they won the contract to make the 1921 UK census data available. Don’t know if that data is on Ancestry yet.

It can get confusing using both sites and growing trees with slightly different people and data. And expensive.

Beware the DNA testing. Can’t recommend highly enough listening to a radio series on BBC Sounds called The Gift. A few years ago when DNA kits were a new thing it was all the rage to gift people kits for fun. It’s 2 series of 6 x 30 minute programmes, exploring the stories of people for whom DNA testing had unintended consequences, sometimes awful.

My mum found almost her entire paternal family via Ancestry. No DNA involved, but an ancestor in common linked her to a cousin.

I didn’t realise the newspaper archive came free with Findmypast, I only use the local library version and although it shows newspaper links it doesn’t allow full access. I might join for a while. I have an Ancestry upgrade to allow newspaper access to another archive but it hasn’t produced much and I will probably drop that.

I've found lots of interesting info on various relatives in the local papers - court appearances, inquests, funerals. You're probably more likely to get detailed reports if they lived in a smallish town where people knew each other. And of course if they were on the local council or otherwise well known locally they'll often pop up.

My Ancestry DNA test got me a new dad totally unexpectedly so… proceed with caution! 😂