Anyone subscribe to Ancestry.com & the alike?

[shelbylovesmelby]

Has anyone subscribed to Ancestry.com or similar genealogy services? Are they worth the money?

Or am I better off continuing to try to find things on the web for free... though I'm @ some points in the tree that I can't find further info w/o spending oodles @ requesting birth certificates & such from various manicipalities ect.

[JanH]

I subscribed to Ancestry.com last year and loved it. They had the census records online and you can view the actual records. I found out a lot by using those alone. I haven't really dug into a lot of their other records yet, except for the military applications. I'm not sure whether it is a good cost or not, but I had a ball using it. I plan on doing more this winter. It can be very addicting and you end up staying up half the night tracing someone through records! And you can print them out so you have a copy for yourself.

[JoyJoy]

Both hubby and I use Ancestry.com. We both have traced our family history back to the 1700's. It's well worth the money we feel.

[PRICEPLUS]

Never tried it. It looks interesting!

[LuckyRobin]

My husband and I have both done the free month or month for $1 at different times. It is very easy to use and we enjoyed it a lot but we couldn't justify the expense of keeping it.

[simpleyme]

I used to subscribe and loved it, I did not renew last year seems like its about 250 bucks a year for the subscription I had bought ,I will subscribe again one day

it is most usefull if you do all the local research first,interview any elderly relatives and get all that info you can,also use the LDS website familysearch.org the info there is not sourced well but can still be useful

[shelbylovesmelby]

I have used the lds site, roots web, and gencircles for free info. But there are parts of my family I'm stumped on, especially the side where no one's talking KWIM?

Thought I'd ask, as I can't justify paying that but seeing if I was to request all that info I would have to pay a fortune anyway.

[simpleyme]

well depending on why they are not talking ,you probably will not be able to find that kind of info on ancestry.com, if the brick walls are within the first 3 generations you really have to break them at the local level, find a relative that is willing to spill the beans ;-)

once you have documented all you can then it is fun to go into the census and look ,but unless you know when and where to look it does you very little good

I have one line were its is if info on who great grandpa is we have a name but its common and we are not sure how it is spelled and all info is sketchy ,if the family kept the secret too good odds are it may never be discovered ,I think DNA research will break my brick wall someday .

i interviewed every elderly relative I could find that really is the best source of family info, gossip, lore and photos

[fairy74]

One of my aunts uses it and made lovely family history books a year or two ago for Christmas, they were very unique and interesting to read

[Lukanic]

Do you have a good library in your area?

Our local library has an excellent gegealogy department, and offers free online access to Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest. It's not as nice as being able to research from home, but if you go with specific ideas/tasks, it's OK and cheap!

[shelbylovesmelby]

I don't believe they have a free online resource @ our local library. It just has history for that particular county,..... unfortunatly the decendants I'm looking for are not from this county. I know where the big library is but I don't have a way to take two lil ones under 5 to a library downtown & do my research w/o someone watching them & I don't have that luxury.

Well the two that aren't talking are my half sisters. They are the only ones left on my fathers side. I do have a few generations back that my cuz found in census records. But I'd like to know more. To make a long story short my sisters have dispised me since I was concieved & they are + 20-25yrs my senior. The more questions I did ask when my aunt was alive got ignored or passed to someone else. Lets put it this way I didn't get a pic of my dad til I was 22! (& it was my maternal uncle that found one of him) That's how much my mom & sisters get along! *sigh* I just want to know where I come from KWIM?

[simpleyme]

ancestry,com is not really much good for the first few generations

but I was just looking online as my genealogy software is a mess and very old I have family treemaker version that is over 13 years old it is in my old computer and backed up on 3.5 discs my new computer does not like any of that ,so i have been unable to get rid of my dinosaur computer!

I just looked at the walmart website and the have family treemaker 16 available for 69.95 and it comes with 9 months of ancestry subscription!

I am assuming it is basic bare bones subscription ,but really as long as you can get access to the census it would be worth it for sure ! I paid 250 but I think i bought one of the most inclusive which was a waste for the most part