Genealogy Chat

My contract finishes next month with Ancestry what did others think about it ???

The cost is so high so I wont join again

Members copy each others trees

T he members tracing the same surname ancesters are all different :-S

If you want to remain a member but at a cheaper price, try looking for ancestry australia or canada for example. I think it was Joonie Cloonie who had a thread here extolling the virtues of "foreign" membership

Trees on any genealogy website, not just Ancestry, should all be taken with a pinch of salt.
Always verify info yourself from actual records.
As far as finding records is concerned, there are pros and cons on all the websites.

Cheap Ancestry membership:

[EDIT 2023: Deleted link as no longer valid.]

This will only work if you join again from scratch, as if you were new member.
Use a different email address from the one you use for your current membership. You can use the same password.
If you're logged in with your current membership, log out.
Then join from scratch via that link.

And (if doing the above) remember to cancel your current subscription before it's automatically renewed.

For cost-effectiveness, do this just a few days before your current membership is due for renewal.
.You'll remain a member with a free account under your current log-in details, but won't have access to records, etc. Note - it's not possible to cancel membership - only the subscription.

Canceling

1.Log in to your Ancestry account.
2.Click your name or username in the top-right corner and select Your Account.
3.In the Subscription Options section, click Cancel subscription. ...
4.Scroll down, select an option, and tell us why you're thinking of leaving.
5.At the bottom of the page, click CONTINUE.
6.Click Continue to cancel.

Thank you Greyghost & ArgyllGran


I will look at the Canada and Australia renewal after September

Also I never thought you had to cancel ancestry so thanks for that tip

joyce :-)

You would only cancel your current subscription if you start a new contract with Ancestry in another country, or if you start a new UK membership to take advantage of the discount I posted.


If you're just renewing your existing contract, then of course you don't cancel anything.

I was given this as a birthday present last september so can I still cancel it

Also can I copy my tree instead of printing it all off

You'll still be able to see and add to your tree if you log in with your present log-on details.

Details here - scroll down to "After cancelling":

https://tinyurl.com/ya5wfwfu

I don't use Ancestry, GR or FMP for their trees ........

......... most of them are just plain copy cats with no documentation.

Family Search (the Mormon site) is the same with its trees and "member-submitted" information.


HOWEVER, ancestry, FMP and Family Search are all extremely valuable for the legitimate records that they carry ............ and those are what you should be searching to enlarge your tree, NOT member trees, hints or "member-submitted" information.


I find both ancestry and FMP are invaluable ....... luckily OH now pays for them both for birthday/Christmas/anniversary, as the case might be.

I have only the basic membership here on GR ............... they didn't have any records when I first began, and what they do have now are linked to other sites, such as sister site FMP, or taken from free sites such as Freebmd.

But my subs to ancestry and FMP are what allow me to help others on GR to find their ancestors.

Sylvialn

Thank you for the advice what is FMP

I am very confused with all the different dates on my ancesters in Ancestry


It put me off looking at other members trees with the same surname

I was excited when I first joined but not anymore

ArgyllGran

Thank you thats good to know I just wondered if I could save it somehow incase the computer ever breaks down

FMP = Find My Past

The main problem you will have when you don't renew is that you will no longer be able to see the images and transcriptions of census data, parish records etc. Before you cancel you should download all such records that you want to retain into your PC. You should also back them up to external storage in case of computer breakdown.


If you purchase Family Tree Maker 2017 (or later) then you can synch your tree with Ancestry which downloads the images and records to your PC automatically.

-----

Possible reasons for date differences are:

From census records the age of the person is given. Ancestry subtracts this from the census year to give the birth year, however as the census was usually taken at the beginning of April the birth year is only correct for those born between 1st January and the census date, for the majority the birth year will be out by one. That is assuming the correct age was given in the first place. Trees that have the information from certificates or other sources will therefore differ.


For UK dates before 1837 information is usually gained from parish records and often birth and death dates are not available so baptism and burial dates are often used without it being noted.


Transcription errors can also account for date differences so you should always check supplied transcriptions against the images if available. Often there is more information in the images than is supplied in the transcriptions.

Kense

I only have FTM 2014

So how can I back the ancestry tree up or download it ??

Thank you for all the info you are well into this family tree stuff as I am not

You need to look at this site to see if you can get a free upgrade

https://www.mackiev.com/store/ftm/upgrade_center/verification.html


Did you use the synch facility on FTM2014 to align your tree with your Ancestry tree?

I cant go online to open F.T.M. 2014 it states No Internet Connection

I will have to see what version and what I paid for it

to download 2017 if I can

Hi Joyce
I agree the price for the various sites is high when you are paying it out but it doesn’t work out as much per week, compared to what you would pay for any other hobby. It really depends how interested you are in family history and how much you enjoy doing the research.

If you want to carry on could you have money towards subs etc as birthday/Christmas presents, or is there anyone else in your family who is interested and would share the cost? In my case I subscribe to Ancestry and my brother to FMP and we do look ups for each other.

As others have said, never take info direct from other people’s trees. Use it as a guide to point you in a certain direction but then do the checking of records etc yourself. You will find that a lot of trees are wrong - sometimes hilariously wrong. I think people get so carried away that they forget to use their brain.

Good luck with your research.

not only are trees hilariously wrong, but so can the site "hints" be the same

eg, I found my gt aunt and her husband had been "lifted" by someone else and added to his tree as a result of an ancestry "tip"

My gt aunt and uncle born in the 1870s in Lancashire, married 1902, emigrated to Newark, USA 3 days later, never had children

His ancestors ............... same name, born around 1800 in Lancashire, emigrated to Newark, USA, sometime around 1825-1835, had many children between ca 1820 and 1840

so some similarities in both couples having the same names, being born and married in Lancashire, and emigrating to the same city in the USA, but over 80 years apart


I was lucky ................. I left a message on his tree, and he had removed my gt aunt and husband within a week. But it could be that others had copied the information from him by then!



I would add to Kense's list of reasons why ages differ ........................ deliberate lying by the person involved.

It was not uncommon to find lying about the age if one spouse was much younger than the other .............. an attempt to make the difference appear less. This will be found on marriage certificates, censuses and death certificates, as well as elsewhere.

Vanity lying ............ women often lied about their ages, but men soemtimes also did.

Someone really did not know when they were born either because their parents lied to them or they had no parents. Birth date or age really was not that important way back in the day when people were having a daily fight to live.

Someone else gave the information to the census taker and made a guess.

SuffolkVera Thank you for the reply my son did his fathers tree for him but wouldnt help me so a relative in A.U has after I got stuck with my 4th and 5th grt grandparents as they came from Ireland and the 6th grt grandparents came from scotland as the mcdowell surname changed so many times I am getting so confused with my tree now so I wont rejoin to expensive anyhow

Sylvian
Thank you for the reply its interesting knowing what other people get up to which really has put me off joining again

Could you tell me how to copy my tree onto a memory stick from ancestry

Or any other way please


joyce