Question about Ancestry.com?

Sundew

I was recently asked to join Ancestry.com by another family member so I could view her tree. I don't have "paid" membership.

Is it really worth paying up for an annual or monthly subscription?

The other thing is that I recently uploaded a photo of my Grand-father wich seems to have disappeared from my family tree.
Would anybody familiar with how Ancesory works know why this has happened?

pinkypinky

There are a few things on Ancestry now for Ireland but in my opinion there's very little that you can't get free elsewhere. You have to carefully pick the right subscription to get access to the Irish stuff.

The main Irish things are:

*Griffiths Valuation (available free on askaboutireland.com)
*Tithe Applotment books (not available anywhere else but limited use if your tree doesn't go back to pre-famine times yet)
*Civil registration indexes (free on familysearch.org) but arguably an easier to use interface
*RIC index
*WWI casualties and some military records

They have also started to add third party records like that of Irishgenealogy.ie or the Kerry burial records. See Claire Santry's post for more details.

On the whole, I don't have a full time subscription - it's far too much money but I have occasionally bought a month's sub to look for something that had recently come to my attention.

No idea what has happened to the photo - I don't think someone else could delete it, if that's what you're thinking.

Sundew

pinkypinky wrote: »

T

No idea what has happened to the photo - I don't think someone else could delete it, if that's what you're thinking.

Thanks PinkyPinky for that. My Grand-Father's image has been replaced with a "stock photo" and I am trying to figure out what's happened to it.

Most of the research I'm considering doing is on the American side as my Grandfather had 5 siblings who went to New York State and I have now discovered he also had 2 Aunts who emigrated in the 1850's. I was just wondering if it was worth joining to access some of the "hints" or possible connections on other trees.

pinkypinky

Well, for American stuff, I think it would be worth a month's subscription - again make sure you get the US package. Just be aware though that the hints (cute little leaves) are nothing more than a name reference. It has thrown up a couple of clues for me but more dead ends than not. My family didn't have a lot of early emigration though.

Ponster

Sundew wrote: »

I was recently asked to join Ancestry.com by another family member so I could view her tree. I don't have "paid" membership.

You don't need to pay to view family trees. You just need to receive an invite from your family member which is made through the Ancestry site. Best IMO to pay for months worth of access and see if it's of any use to you.

I have paid the yearly subscription for 2 years now (full package) and have done the family trees for a lot of my friends which have paid me back in beer

Coolnabacky1873

For the US/NY I would try Familysearch first before paying for the Ancestry sub.

Familysearch have almost all the Federal Censuses (1790-1930) indexed and they have a few New York State Censuses on there (1875, 1892, 1905). There are also lots of randon 'upstate' BMD indexes on there too.

Also, there is a superb site for New York State local newspapers, fultonhistory.com. It's a bit hard to use sometimes but you can get some quality stuff on it.

pjproby

I have been looking for a man who achieved a certain notoriety in his day. Born in Ireland in the 1860's, died in the UK in 1922.
He has a double barrelled name and I could not find him birth details because of that.
I googled his name recently and it brought me to
http://www.geni.com
where his family tree is listed. I presume some family member posted it there.
They do look for €30 for annual membership which might be worthwhile as the original records might be available there.

pinkypinky

I am skeptical about geni.com.

A friend had his tree up on it and a cousin, who was allowed to access it by him, changed information because she thought it was wrong, even though he could document it. I don't know if it was the settings he used or what but I wouldn't like others messing around with my work.

dido2

I'm subscribed to the monthly membership on ancestry, it has so far probably paid for itself in terms of marriage certs in ireland because it listed the matching people on a page of marriages which has saved me having to send off for marriage certs to check names..
I've also found a good few travel records for both my own and my husbands family..
But for me this is my hobby so I don't mind spending money on it, I browse it where before I couldn't because I didn't have a subscription so I can check out more

I suppose it depends on what you do, do you do the direct lines and thats it or are you like me just plain curious as to what the siblings got up to!!!

annieoburns

If you ever spent time in UK (and USA, Australia) there is free access to Ancestry in the public libraries. I am not sure how the library version differs if at all. Not in Ireland though .....

I have done most of basic research and nearly had as much fun checking out things for other non family but not worth having to pay sub just for that reason.

RGM

I'm on a two-week free trial at Ancestry.com and while it's been great, I don't think I'll continue the subscription when the trial is up. It would be one thing if my family had been in the USA longer, but my dad's parents were born in Ireland and I've traced most of my mother's roots back to Ireland as well. In order for me to access Ancestry's Irish records ("World Explorer Membership"), it would be $300 a year? That's far too expensive, especially given the number of records available for free.

I'm not sure if the prices are different depending on where you live or not, but that's what they're offering me.

I have 4-5 more days to go and I'm just going to bang out as much info as I can before then.

RGM

dido2 wrote: »

I suppose it depends on what you do, do you do the direct lines and thats it or are you like me just plain curious as to what the siblings got up to!!!

I'm definitely curious about all the cousins I have out there, but it gets to a point where there's just too much information. I have the names of six sets of great-great-great-grandparents, as well as a few names of fourth-great-grandparents, and I can't imagine trying to dig up everything on all their descendants. And that's just what I've got so far.

I did happen to stumble across a straight-up fourth cousin online, that was interesting.

dido2

RGM

I pay per month I think about €18 which I can cancel at any time it only goes month to month..

I've made contact with 2 distant relatives of my husbands, the only way I can explain the connection is that the relatives grandparents and my in laws grandparents were siblings so don't know what kind of cousins that makes them, but it's leading to a lot more family information!

RGM

dido2 wrote: »

RGM

I pay per month I think about €18 which I can cancel at any time it only goes month to month.

Yeah, so it is different then. For me, if I wanted the international option on a monthly basis, it would be $35 per.

I'd love to go full blast on there, but it's just not in the budget. Especially since I'll be emptying the bank account for a trip to Ireland in June.

patsman07

annieoburns wrote: »

If you ever spent time in UK (and USA, Australia) there is free access to Ancestry in the public libraries. I am not sure how the library version differs if at all. Not in Ireland though .....

I have done most of basic research and nearly had as much fun checking out things for other non family but not worth having to pay sub just for that reason.

Ancestry is available for free in some libraries in Northern Ireland. I was in Newry recently and found my Great Grandfather's entry into America (which was post Ellis island so couldn't find it before) and a G-Grand-uncle who I couldn't find previously on any of the US census.

Definately was worth the trip North.