Ancestry results

I've been a family genealogist since I was 15, when my grandmother first introduced me to family history, so I've been tracing my family for 53 years. I use Ancestry every day. It's a fascinating hobby.
 

fuzzybuddy said:
At times, I'd like to research my ancestry. But I'm not sure about those ancestry sites. Are they really worth the money? One common complaint I have gotten about them was how inaccurate they were. You could not take anything there as a given. You had to do your own research to ensure it was a fact. The other concern I have is the information about yourself and your kin, which you put on the net. I just had a scam where my SS checks were rerouted to some unknown address. And I'm paranoid about my DNA being screened for criminal activity. In some areas, a 80% match in DNA is considered a legal match. I'd like to find out about my parents & grandparents, yet I'm fearful of opening a legal can of worms. I don't want a cop banging on my door, saying he's 80% sure I raped someone.
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It has been worth it for me. And no, you are right, you can't just take what you find on Ancestry (or any other site) as being accurate, that's why you have to do your own research.

Everything that is found on Ancestry is also found on public records and available for anyone who wants to take the time to get it.
 
Cindi Rose Bliss said:
Everything that is found on Ancestry is also found on public records and available for anyone who wants to take the time to get it.
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Yes, if your ancestry are family from the U.S. Not good for anywhere else. Try finding public records from other countries. I had no help whatsoever from Ancestry.com and their people/staff whatever.
 

Olivia said:
Yes, if your ancestry are family from the U.S. Not good for anywhere else. Try finding public records from other countries. I had no help whatsoever from Ancestry.com and their people/staff whatever.
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Actually, I've found documents from many other countries; Germany, The Netherlands, England, and others. What kind of help were you looking for?

I think a lot of people misunderstand the purpose of Ancestry. They are there to offer documents that in the past we either had to crawl through dusty libraries and court houses to find, or had to write letters (and include money) to court houses and hope that some over worked law clerk with take the time find the document we wanted. Sometimes they would and could, other times nothing happened. Getting documents from other countries was even harder unless you understood the language and the system of each country.

Ancestry is constantly digitizing more and more records all the time, but there are still millions that need to be done. I don't know about you, but I don't have the means to travel all of the world to do this kind of research, so I more than appreciate that Ancestry provides them for me so that I can do the research in the comfort of my home.
 
I had Zero help from Ancestry.com and a ton of help from the other site I used. That's all I'm saying. You don't have to believe me. I know what I experienced. I found it by accident by putting my grandmother's name on Google, of all things. And Ancestry.com couldn't even do that. Well, fine. Whatever works for you or anyone else.
 
Olivia said:
I had Zero help from Ancestry.com and a ton of help from the other site I used. That's all I'm saying. You don't have to believe me. I know what I experienced. I found it by accident by putting my grandmother's name on Google, of all things. And Ancestry.com couldn't even do that. Well, fine. Whatever works for you or anyone else.
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What kind of help were you asking for?
 
How would I know what to ask? There was no way to connect with anyone. Okay fine. It's great for a lot of people including yourself. So, it wasn't for me. I'm telling you my experience. If you think I should have done better and it's my fault, then okay. I found out about my family in Austria from a site assistant from Israel that other site. Maybe he was just more interested in that part of the world's population. Who knows. I plugged in a name on Ancestry.com and zero, nothing. No concern no help--zilch. And that was supposed to be a free introduction supposed to end at a certain date. And they charged me anyway. Can you tell I'm not a fan?
 
Olivia said:
How would I know what to ask? There was no way to connect with anyone. Okay fine. It's great for a lot of people including yourself. So, it wasn't for me. I'm telling you my experience. If you think I should have done better and it's my fault, then okay. I found out about my family in Austria from a site assistant from Israel that other site. Maybe he was just more interested in that part of the world's population. Who knows. I plugged in a name on Ancestry.com and zero, nothing. No concern no help--zilch. And that was supposed to be a free introduction supposed to end at a certain date. And they charged me anyway. Can you tell I'm not a fan?
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Okay, that's what I was trying to understand. All Ancestry does is provide the data. But it sounded like you needed someone who would help guide you find the information you were looking for, and unfortunately, that's not part of their program. They charged you for looking at the data, and that's all. If you had written to a library or courthouse, you would have been required to pay for that too, even if they didn't find anything.

I don't think it's your fault at all... it's just you didn't seem to understand how it all worked. On the other site, they provided genealogists to help you find what you were looking for. That is not part of Ancestry's focus. And yes, you are right, Ancestry really is set up for the researchers to search the records and it doesn't sound like that' what you wanted or needed.

In all fairness, though, plugging a name on Ancestry isn't a guarantee that you will find the information you want. It's just a tool to be used to help with the research. Even if a name did come up, it would only show you the tiny bit of information attached to the document that the name appeared.

I know some people think that Ancestry has their family tree already compiled and are upset to learn that's not the case. I'm not saying that's what you did, but some do.
 
Cindi Rose Bliss said:
I know some people think that Ancestry has their family tree already compiled and are upset to learn that's not the case. I'm not saying that's what you did, but some do.
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You're right, that wasn't me. Do you work for Ancestry.com or something? Why should my description of my experience bother you so much? People out there. Research that sites you use. Google them for opinions.
 
Olivia said:
You're right, that wasn't me. Do you work for Ancestry.com or something? Why should my description of my experience bother you so much? People out there. Research that sites you use. Google them for opinions.
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No, I don't work for Ancestry. I have been doing genealogy for over 50 years and I just hate to see someone have a bad experience with it.
 
You just kept saying Ancestry, Ancestry, Ancestry. I told you that I had a good experience with another gemology site. But you Just kept on with about Ancestry (with a capital A). So I could only surmise that you were advocating for Ancestry.,com. I DID NOT have bad experience with genealogy, You keep saying I did. I didn't. Only with Ancestry.com.
 
AnnieA said:
That's called a NPE (non paternal event) in genealogical parlance. I kid you not. I can hardly say it with a straight face at genealogy conferences ...'cause there was most definitely a paternal event, just not with the fellow in the family tree. I call it a paternal line break.
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LOL, Annie! I love it!!!
When I see all those folks carefully constructing their genealogy all the way back to the Mayflower or some such, I cannot help but snigger up my sleeve because of the great likelihood of a non paternal or other tainting event occurring sometime over the past 500 years. Human nature being what it is.
 
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Olivia said:
I have gotten very much good results on another genealogy site about the last two (Or three?) generations about what happened to my three great uncles--died in concentration camps. A great help from that sites's assistant from Israel.
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What site do you use? I'm on ancestry, but use a lot of others as as well and am always interested in checking out another.
 

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