Does Ancestry.com work well? Is it worth the price or are these just public reco

Question:I belong to Ancestry.com and like you was doubtful if it would be worth the price. You can do a two week trial. The records I have found on Ancestry, mostly the census records have proven invaluable and also I have connected with many cousins and traded information with them. You will have to contact the Courthouses in the areas your people came from for wills and marriage records and deeds.
My suggestion is to give it the 2 week trial and see how much you can dig up.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I belong to Ancestry.com and like you was doubtful if it would be worth the price. You can do a two week trial. The records I have found on Ancestry, mostly the census records have proven invaluable and also I have connected with many cousins and traded information with them. You will have to contact the Courthouses in the areas your people came from for wills and marriage records and deeds.
My suggestion is to give it the 2 week trial and see how much you can dig up.

I have heard they work well. Not sure if they are public records but even if they were they would be better than nothing. Keep a positive attitude and use any resources you can.

Yes, it's well worth it, I am working on my tree from a distance, I live Yorkshire, My tree runs through South Wales and into Cornwall, I can access all the census returns I need plus other records,

Good luck and Good hunting

Ancestry.com is a wonderful resource for genealogy. They have so many records that it can be a bit overwhelming. It is definitely worth the cost. I think you would be very satisfied if you are just getting started with your family research. I believe they have a free 14 day trial but I don't know the terms, that should be enough time to decide if you like them or not. If you are willing to go to your local library most have ancestry.com available. If you want to start with census records you can access those at home. They are free through Heritage Quest and your local library. All you need is a library card. Just give them a call. Good Luck with your research.

They are not just public records. If they were, no one would buy a subscription.

Consider HBO. If you like movies and have a 27-inch color set, (or bigger) HBO is well worth it. If you don't like movies and have a 12-inch Black and White set, HBO would be a waste of your money.

If you are more than casual about genealogy, have a fast connection and live in the USA, UK or Canada, Ancestry is worth it. The census images, to take one example, are 1.5 MB or so each, so they are basically impossible to access over dial-up.

If you are in Canada, the USA or the UK, there will be lots of data bases. If you are in Inda or Isreal or Italy, there won't be. If your parents moved to the US from I, I or I, there won't be much either.

You can access the US census for free from LDS FHC's and some public libraries, but you have to put on your pants and go when they are open. To some extent Ancestry is selling convenience. With a subscription you can look up dead relatives from home at 4 am in your PJ's.

I like it for the records. They do have public records. But if they didn't have them a lot of people would have to do a search (traveling, writing etc) to find out where they were. They are still at your county courthouses etc but if you have ancestors that migrated you might not know exactly what counties they came from. You have to spend money going on a fishing expedition. Now not all records are on line or at a Latter Day Saints Family History Center but a lot are.

Also they have the censuses transcribed. You can also look at the original images. Some of the transcriptions leave a lot to be desired but I realize when you look at some of the pages, I don't know if I could do better. They have all the U. S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 is not available to the public yet.

Yes, Ancestry.com is wonderful. But here's a little hint. Allot of library's offer ancestry.com for free. I use the library for my research. It's quiet, you can consecrate much easier if you have a family at home.

Good luck on your research,

White Wolf

I think that ancestry.com is worth every penny and then some. After a trial period you can decide to sign up for the regular pkg or the 'deluxe' pkg; I would recommend the U.S. deluxe. At some point in the future you might want 'world deluxe.' I haven't reached that point yet.

Family Tree Magazine list the top 101 websites in each years Sept issue. They can't seem to say enough about the records accessible thru amazon.com.

Also, you're not signing on for a year; you can discontinue your subscription anytime you wish.