Pros and Cons of Ancestry.com

Once you have done the groundwork for your research, you are ready to learn about the Pros and Cons of Ancestry.com. If you haven’t started yet, please read my Top Ten Tips to Start Your Family Tree before moving on.

If you have done that research, you are likely at the point where you want to share your research and collaborate. Ancestry.com is certainly not the only way to do this, but it is my go-to. I also have a love-hate relationship with Ancestry.com. So let’s jump right in and review its basic Pros and Cons of Ancestry.com.

Pros

• Ancestry.com provides a variety of resources. This includes family tree hosting, thousands (millions?) of records, and DNA testing, within one platform.
• Membership is available at a variety of levels and price points.
• You can have multiple family trees.
• You have unlimited space to attach documents to your tree. This includes documents you find within Ancestry.com’s records, outside links, and documents you upload. Always be sure to check the Term of Service for information from other sites that you plan to share on Ancestry.com.
• You can “shoebox” information for people who aren’t on your family tree, but may be relevant. I find this very helpful when I’m researching using the FAN Club method.
• Hints appear as green leaves. They used to shake, and it was really annoying. Fortunately, now it is a static image. These provide clues for further research. You can easily click on a link and analyze the document to determine if it matches the person you are researching.

Cons

• Ancestry.com does not provide every needed resource necessary to conduct reasonably exhaustive research. So, even with all that it offers, Ancestry.com will never be the only website or resource you ever need.
• It’s not cheap! In my prior profession, I earned my Financial Services Certified Professional designation. So, I personally justify my subscription using the dollar-cost averaging methodology. I use Ancestry.com nearly every day, and usually for a few hours a day. This makes my per-use cost pretty inexpensive. If I only dabbled and used it a few times a month, it would be very expensive. If you are in the latter category, you can log it for free at most libraries. You can also start (or upload an existing GEDcom file) during your free trial. Your tree will always be hosted and visible, even if you don’t continue your membership. But you will not be able to access Ancestry.com’s records.
• The documents that you save to Ancestry.com could disappear. A record or photo that someone else shared and you saved could be deleted. A database that opted to make its information available to Ancestry.com could remove access. If you use Ancestry.com as your primary site,be sure to use some type of backup option.
• Some information appears as a legitimate record, like information from the “Millenium File” or “Internationation Birth and Marriage Records.” Before saving a record that you cannot actually view, research where the information came from. A database or compilation of information does not equal an actual source. Understand what you are viewing and, like most other items on Ancestry.com, treat it like a hint or finding aid for further research, not an actual source.

But the biggest Con of Ancestry.com…

Ancestry.com provides hints (which is also a Pro). Think of hints like anything else you’ve ever Googled. Maybe you searched for a snowblower. The next thing you know, snowblower ads and information are appearing in your Facebook feed and email, even if it wasn’t the particular brand or model you originally searched for. Ancestry.com uses the same type of analytics.

For example, I may search for records for David Clark, who died in 1846, in Beaver Co., PA. I save five records available on Ancestry.com to that David Clark in my tree. Those five records will then appear as hints for a variety of potential matches. Hints may appear for a David Clark who died in Beaver Co., PA in 1900 and a David Clark who died in 1846 in California. Unfortunately, many people use hints to blindly build their family trees, without ever actually viewing the record. They think somehow Ancestry.com knew something they didn’t know (which was one of my early assumptions).

There are several Pros and Cons of Ancstry.com. The cons should not dissuade you from using it, however. But a subscription may not be necessary, depending on your frequency of use. Just understand what the hints mean, and use them with caution. It is a better habit to use the card catalog to search for record sets that will best answer your research question, and start there.

---

---