I had Ancestry for a year and can vouch 
that for myself it never helped me break
through any brick walls. Any success I've
ever had came from the help of other 
researchers, libraries and courthouse records. 

I found that once something is entered into 
Ancestry it's like it becomes gospel to some 
people and mistakes get repeated multiple times. 
Ever try to offer supporting documentation to 
someone who has wrong family information 
on Ancestry? I was met with a brick wall of silence.
User beware is good advice.
Best Regards, Vicki Ford



  Sorry, but I feel I must add a little to this discussion.  Ancestry is like
  ALL online resources, you must verify ALL information you search for.  Go to
  the image in ALL cases and if one is not available go to where you may view
  an original or copy of an original.  It's price is not as obscene as Paul
  may elude to.  Try spending a week or two in a motel and research in a
  facility.  By the time you buy fuel, pay to park meals etc.  Ancestry looks
  like a great deal.  Not saying that you still won't have to go to a
  facility, but it will cut down on the amount of time you may have to go.

  To say LDS  is without error in some of their databases is a gross error on
  your part Paul.  LDS like ALL of the data mines gets a lot of it's
  information from people like all of us who do genealogy, good or bad.  In
  some fashion we have all probably placed erroneous information out on the
  great world wide web, knowingly and not knowingly and it gets repeated in
  every database mine.

  Just verify any and all information with original documents and speculate
  where you must, but make note that you are doing so and user beware.

  Regards,
  Steve Stevens





  -----Original Message-----
  From: Research and writing about Virginia genealogy and family history.
  [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Paul Drake
  Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 4:28 PM
  To: [log in to unmask]
  Subject: [VA-ROOTS] FYI; Family search online




   You are surely correct, Kay and George and all others.

  Ancestry's prices are no less than obscene.  Then too, what you will not be
  told is that Ancestry.com probably has less than 5% of the total records
  available to you for research.  If you searched every single record and
  source they peddle on-line, you a) still will not know of the thousands of
  records that they do not have, and b) will find that they will not reveal
  that the greatest part of their information is not acceptable as evidence to
  any organization or responsible genealogist of whom I have knowledge.

  Your best sources are Heritage Quest, the Allen County Public Library,
  Library of the City of New York, the NARA, the vast sources of the LDS
  (Mormons), the many sources posted by responsible organizations and
  universities that are free and as reliable as any, and the sources listed
  and the information in the newsletters of the state societies and of the
  small societies that exist where any particular ancestor lived - the "where"
  of that person.

  Far too few researchers ever look at PERSI, and I do not understand WHY.  It
  is available in myriad libraries and on Heritage Quest also.   Try it, all.


  Paul
  ************
  From Kay
  Subject: Re: Family search online

  At a genealogy class I'm taking, I brought up the fact that the indexes were
  better than Ancestry too. the teacher who is part of the Family search
  transcribing said that Ancestry had people from India doing theirs. No
  wonder there are so many things they misread.

  >I noticed the quality of the census scans is much better than that of
  >ancestry as well.  If they were to put a major index of scans on line I
  >would not mind spending my hard earned money to subscrbe.  Ancestry has
  >just become too pricy for my budget....

  Kay
  >
  >

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