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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