Ancestry.com?

[jmiller676]

Anyone ever use it? I am using the 14 day trial and trying to trace as far back as I can on my father's father's side. Any tips to help find ancestors?

 

[lovemachine]

I want to try it out. But I'm nervous what I'd find out...

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

I'd like to do it "for real", but I for sure don't want to pay for it. It can get expensive!

 

[jason765]

this type of stuff interests me, I would like to do my father's father's family he (grandfather) was in the CIA and died of a "heart attack" at the age of 51 when my father was 12. He was from eastern Tennessee, that's about all I know about him. I have an aunt on my moms side that tracked that side back as far as she can go without a trip to Ireland.

 

[eldirector]

I've had a membership there for a while now, and spend time rooting through old records when I can. I have good records back to about the mid 1600's for my family name. I have my grandmother's family back nearly that far as well. My mother's family hits a roadblock just a few generations back. I'm likely going to spring for the international version soon, so I can push my lineage back a bit farther and start on my wife's family (they immigrated rather recently).

It can be hard to find stuff back more than a couple of generations. Names were spelled phonetically often, and the spelling would change from one census to the next. Dates are often mis-recorded or misread as well. I have to start pretty loose with my search terms, and then slowly narrow down. It just takes time. Using the web is STILL orders of magnitude faster than visiting libraries and looking at microfiche!

And don't worry about finding out "bad" things. It doesn't change the present.

 

[jmiller676]

I am trying to find out my Grandfathers real fathers lineage. His mother though I dated back to the 1600s in Switzerland.

 

[GunSlinger]

I tried it and discovered that the info I found was nothing more then already public info. Soc. Sec. death records, obit notices, some census data (with no additional follow on updates), very little immigration data, and a bit of military data (draft registration info) and that wasn't even as complete as I had already found.

I used the 14 day free trial and worked diligently (every day, several hours a day) and found perhaps one or two minor items that I didn't already know.

Overall I felt it was nothing more then already known public source info that anyone with a little time, internet connection and a phone couldn't discover on thier own. Unless a member of your family has already posted info on the site I don't feel the cost is worth it. Speaking of costs, watch closely the trial period. Ancestry began charging my card on the 12th day. I had to contact customer service twice to get a refund, but I did get my money back.

 

[jason765]

I'd like to do it "for real", but I for sure don't want to pay for it. It can get expensive!

Alot of Libraries have a library version that you can go and use for free.