alternatives to ancestry.com?

Jules said:
Other than telling you the name of an ancestor or relative, do these sites tell you any information about them? I’d hope not.
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great question. it tells us quite a bit about them. date of birth and death. county and city they lived in. kids and their names/ages. occupation. relatives. were they in the military? I can see old census data (hand written)... what they paid for their home.... even their photo sometimes... when they graduated high school. I can add information on my relatives or add a photo if I wish for others to see... I can add notes like what their hobbies were... I can see trees other members made...

Nothing is private these days in the information age.


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macgeek said:
great question. it tells us quite a bit about them. date of birth and death. county and city they lived in. kids and their names/ages. occupation. relatives. were they in the military? I can see old census data (hand written)... what they paid for their home.... even their photo sometimes... when they graduated high school.

Nothing is private these days.
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Census records: :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
macgeek said:
great question. it tells us quite a bit about them. date of birth and death. county and city they lived in. kids and their names/ages. occupation. relatives. were they in the military? I can see old census data (hand written)... what they paid for their home.... even their photo sometimes... when they graduated high school.

Nothing is private these days.
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I don't see any info like that on 23andMe. One would have to initiate contact .. and then, I haven't seen such intimate details posted.
 

macgeek said:
did I make a joke and not realize it? that is what they call it right, federal census data?
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I don't see the humor either. That's exactly what it is called and it is taken every 10 years in the U.S. Early census data collection was not uniform.

Before 1850 the only thing recorded was name of head of house. Others in household were scored according to gender and age group and sometimes race and social status (slave). The 1850 census did include the actual name and age of everyone in the household and their relationship to the head of house. Also, race and gender.

Subsequent census years saw large differences in the amount and detail of the questions asked, the 1880 census being the most elaborate available for research today. The 1890 census was destroyed in a warehouse fire and would have been even more helpful to genealogists.

Census information is sealed for 72 years. The latest available for research now is 1940.
 
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macgeek said:
did I make a joke and not realize it? that is what they call it right, federal census data? Of course it was hand written back then, with so many errors I'm sure.
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No, no mistake on your part, I was referring to thinking Census records are reliable/accurate.
I encountered errors ranging from how individuals in households were related to each other to race to name to gender!!
An additional complication: many people take misinformation from census records and post it on other genealogy sites.
 
jujube said:
You can also go to a Mormon genealogy center (they have one in many larger cities) and use it for free. They'll give you any help you need, too. You don't have to be Mormon; everyone is welcome.

The day I spent at the big genealogy center in Salt Lake City got me started on my searches. They assigned me a helper who sat with me for a couple of hours until I got the hang of it. They didn't even charge me for copies nor would they accept a donation.
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my aunt used this... https://www.familysearch.org/help/fhcenters/locations/saltlakecity-library/ to put some branches on our family tree.
 
Sassycakes said:
I am lucky that I have a cousin on my Dad's side of the family that was obsessed with our ancestry.
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I too have a cousin on my Dad's side doing all that.
I was just chatting with her via email tonight
Then....outa the blue, she zapped me with a personal zinger
Told her, 'Heh, that's nuthin', I've done much more than that'

Don't think we'll be havin' that reunion any time soon, she was talking about
 
I don't give Ancestry.com a nickel, I think it's a travesty that I have to pay to get access to MY family data. I used to do genealogy back in the 90s the "old fashioned" way, started with visiting the LDS family history library, reading census records on micro-film, searching the book selections etc.
Occasionally I do some googling and turn up new information, such as the lineage of my g.great grandmother(maternal side) that I had previously known nothing about. I also recently stumbled across a .PDF document on the acceptance of the house my mother grew up in, as a local historical location.
 
Wikitree. Totally free, very community oriented, plenty of help if needed. They glean DNA info from all sources. There's a forum if needed.

Please just be dedicated to being accurate. So many people think they figured something out and put it on their site, then lose interest. Unless it gets changed or deleted it lives in perpetuity. When I was into it I was very careful to only add things that had provenance or some kind of proof. I did learn some really neat things. Like, I had a 1st cousin 4X removed that was a Kentucky Sharpshooter at the Battle of New Orleans, made famous in the song by Johnny Horton. I even found his pension info. I also learned that he had been released after the war without pay and he hired an attorney named Drewery Shrewsbury to collect for him. I had to ask for help at Wikitree to decipher the old style of English and writing.

One that surprised me was a Great Grandfather that served in the Civil War. That's one or two generations too close for my age. It seems that he had had my grandmother later in life, and my grandmother had my mom later in life, and my mom had me later in life. It all added up to 120 years for the three of them, with an average of 40 years between births.
 
A long time ago, my wife and I were talked into giving Ancestry a try. For her, the information has not changed much over the years and there was little that she did not know.

For me, it confirmed that the older half sister I found in 1960 when I was 18, was indeed my sister from my natural father. I did not know that she even knew she existed up until that time, but she knew about me. We became very close over the years.

My ancestral origins has changed several times over the years:
- On the first "go around", I had a small amount of DNA from the Sub Continent of India. I was rather pleased with the idea that I might have a little Hindu in my. It makes for good discussions. But the second "go around" took that away and gave me some "Spaniard" which sounded good as well. The latest "go around", took away my Spaniard and gave me a little French, which still works for me.
- On the second "go around", my English, Welsh, and NW Europe were all lumped together at 46%. The last "go around" split out the Welsh at 2%, bumped up Norway, Finland and Scotland. It also tossed in a little Icelandic.

I am a true Mongrel, with piles of cousins.

Take Ancestry with a grain of salt.
 
Ancestry is a tool and best used for the easy access to so many primary records gathered there. They are the backbone of genealogy research and even they are subject to error. Gleaning information from that site or any other is

Gleaning information (especially anything from one of the Member Family Trees posted there) is wonderful as long as we remember that it is mostly someone else's opinion.
 

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