Anybody used Ancestry.com?

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerntz From the few Aussies I've talked with, the highest ancestry status there is to be descended from an English prisoner brought there in the late 1700's. So I ask if they are descended from a murderer, a robber, or a mere petty thief.

I believe that, for some time now, it's been 'fashionable', (reverse snobbery), for (mainly) law abiding Australians to present the image of having some kind of spiritual 'reformatory chic' relationship with Ned Kelly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8rbyFgsDEs

[tinlizzy]

Can these companies use a person's DNA to develop human cell lines (like the HeLa cell line)?

[target2019]

Alas, I am not matching any Neanderthal. No Aleutian or Clovis either.

Per this page, I am a fast coffee metabolizer. I would have guessed that, if I had known such a thing existed.

Coffee: how many cups are safe to drink? - Genes and Nutrition

[Taxman59]

I have been on Ancestry for about 20 years. I have had generally good experiences with it, but as others have posted, some people don't double check their research and they end up with a parent having children before they were born (wasn't that the problem with the Tribbles in the Star Trek series?)! There is a ton of information out there, and Ancestry lets you sift through much of it and make your own decisions. The DNA testing is OK, but there are better ones out there (FTDNA for the all male line and the all female lines for example).

[target2019]

There is a nice selection of tools for use at the following page.

Genetic Genealogy Tools: Tools

I used the Ancestry Calculator (large) to make comparisons of my autosomal file with various ancient remains. Ancestry uses similar to calculate your matches from a high level and render your ancestry map at their site.

[meierlde]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnrealizedPotential The best thing to do is go to your nearest Family history center. Ancestry.com is free to use there. Ancestry.com is awesome. At the FHC there is always an experienced researcher to help you look up census records or any other records they might have.

Actuallly there is a web site associated with the family history center https://familysearch.org/ which is free and has census records and others records online. In addition if you live near them several public libraries have significant sections on geneology such as Fort Wayne In, Houston Tx. I used to live in Houston so it was easy to get there. Fort Waynes is a big bigger however.
Managed to confirm a few family stories etc.

[meierlde]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolau I did try the LDS system in Laie. It had never heard of either side of my family. Go figure. I'm afraid to try the DNA tests now - they might prove I'm not even human since no record can be found of my family. YMMV

If your parents were born before 1940 you can likley trace them with census records assuming you know where they lived in 1940 or earlier (census years only). familysearch.org has the 1940 census online. It does help if you also know the name of any siblings of your parents. Then you look at the census records and see if you can match the family. My parents did this for a while and I have confirmed what they found and gotten some other facts.

[meierlde]

In addition to understand the life a bit, there were a lot of books published in the late 19th century with histories of communities, some are online. This gives information on the communities founding etc.
Also there is find a grave, which I managed to use to find where some great uncles are buried.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meierlde If your parents were born before 1940 you can likley trace them with census records assuming you know where they lived in 1940 or earlier (census years only). familysearch.org has the 1940 census online.

You still have to use a bit of creativity in guessing the spelling of names.

I was one of the volunteers who digitized the 1940 census and in some cases it was incredibly difficult to decipher the census taker's handwriting. Even though they used a multiple interpreter/consensus/referee system to minimize errors, quite a number of egregious (IMHO) mistakes were made in the spelling of a lot of names.

[UnrealizedPotential]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meierlde Actuallly there is a web site associated with the family history center https://familysearch.org/ which is free and has census records and others records online. In addition if you live near them several public libraries have significant sections on geneology such as Fort Wayne In, Houston Tx. I used to live in Houston so it was easy to get there. Fort Waynes is a big bigger however. Managed to confirm a few family stories etc.

I know, but unless you subscribe online and give them information you may not want to, your resources are limited. About 10 years ago you could go into a LDS family history center and put in a name and get an ancestor's ancestry ,"pedigree" chart without being a subscriber. You can't do that anymore unless you either subscribe to their website or are a member. I don't want to do either one of those. But you still can't use ancestry.com unless you pay or go to a family history center. Well, I am not sure if you are a non paying subscriber to family search.org if you can access ancestry.com for free or not. My guess would be no. You can't even get an ancestor's pedigree file without logging in, and that is at a family history center. It did not used to be like that.

[Koolau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meierlde If your parents were born before 1940 you can likley trace them with census records assuming you know where they lived in 1940 or earlier (census years only). familysearch.org has the 1940 census online. It does help if you also know the name of any siblings of your parents. Then you look at the census records and see if you can match the family. My parents did this for a while and I have confirmed what they found and gotten some other facts.

Thanks for the info. A few years back, my sister was able to find our dad in census records but it was just a photo (or maybe photocopy) of the actual census book. Kind of interesting, but that was all there was. As it turned out, dad was living with at least one of his sisters at the time. Kind of interesting. Someplace, I have some old documents of his which might show addresses. I'm thinking that would help in IDing him. Thanks again!

I'll check further.

[Just_Steve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolau I did try the LDS system in Laie. It had never heard of either side of my family. Go figure. I'm afraid to try the DNA tests now - they might prove I'm not even human since no record can be found of my family. YMMV

I thought I was the only one who just appeared out of thin air.
LDS site produced nothing.

[tfudtuckerpucker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UnrealizedPotential I know, but unless you subscribe online and give them information you may not want to, your resources are limited. About 10 years ago you could go into a LDS family history center and put in a name and get their ancestry ,"pedigree" chart without being a subscriber. You can't do that anymore unless you either subscribe to their website or are a member. I don't want to do either one of those. But you still can't use ancestry.com unless you pay or go to a family history center. Well, I am not sure if you are a non paying subscriber to family search.org if you can access ancestry.com for free or not. My guess would be no. You can't even get an ancestor's pedigree file without logging in, and that is at a family history center. It did not used to be like that.

I volunteer time to support the computers and internet at several lds family history centers in central Texas. I don't know that much about the familysearch web site, but here's what I found.

Non-members can set up a free account at familysearch.org. Some historical record collections won't be accessible- only members can view the original records.

Family History Center access:
Anyone can go into a family history center, but most (around here, anyway) have very limited hours, and consist of a room set aside in a churchhouse, with multiple pc's and internet access. They are staffed by volunteers, who can help answer genealogy questions, and help using the software. In some (most?) centers, there are microfilm readers and microfilm collections. While in a family history center, all visitors have access to
Ancestry.com
Heritagequest.com
Fold3.com (formerly Footnote.com)
World Vital Records
Findmypast.com
Ancestral Quest
Get My Ancestors
and probably a few more.

Open hours and locations are posted here

Hope that helps.

[braumeister]

Another valuable resource:
I was trying to find some old church records from a small town in Germany. Not likely they will ever be online. But I found that LDS researchers had actually been to the town and microfilmed the records. I looked it up online and found the reel number for the microfilm, which is stored in Salt Lake City.

Then I was able to go to a nearby FHC and request a copy of the microfilm. A couple of weeks later I was notified that it was in, and I could go there to view it on their microfilm readers. What a great service!

[Fedup]

I might want to look this up when I have time. Posting here so I can go back and search.
It would be interesting to find out. My husband has either 1/16 or 1/32 German blood. I'm curious to where he is from actually.

[AllDone]

I thought it was stupid when my husband signed up for it, but actually it was kind of fun.

My great-grandmother told me a story once about when she was fifteen and took a train to the east coast with her mom so that her mother could do the research to join the DAR. I sat on my living room sofa and found ten more Revolutionary War veteran ancestors using my little tablet. Every generation had twice as many ancestors and not a one of 'em did anything distinguished beyond the one who was hung at Salem for witchcraft.

[Koolau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Just_Steve I thought I was the only one who just appeared out of thin air. LDS site produced nothing.

Heh, heh, dad used to tease us kids that we were found under a rock! A close friend's parents were a bit worse. They stated that he was found under a fresh "cow dab." Amazing any of us boomers grew up at all. Seriously, I long for a time like I grew up in. Things were not just slower, but easier for a kid to understand (just my opinion, of course.)

I look back now and think what I wasted in time, NOT getting to know my family's history. There were enough bad things in my family's history (my namesake was murdered at age about 14) that I never pressed.

I recall dad putting me on his lap when I was about age 10 and he took me through his family album. Mostly they were tin types. I don't recall anything except that he made this effort to let me know where I came from. Following my parents deaths, I found that album and was disheartened that almost none of the picture were identified or dated. There was one picture that made me cry. It's a picture of my dad - probably about age 21 which showed him with both hands. He lost most of one hand in a train accident shortly following that picture. To find work during the depression (dad was effectively head of household as the eldest following my grandfather's untimely death) dad "rode the rails" to get from job to job. I obviously never knew him with both hands. He never let that deter him. He never asked for help and I was always proud of him for his attitudes about life.

Youth is wasted on the young - probably no truer words ever spoken. But I digress. YMMV

[athena53]

Just so you know at least one purpose of the Mormon database...
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/0...tize-the-dead/

[MichaelB]

Let's keep this an enjoyable and helpful thread on ancestry.

[braumeister]

I think that's why the LDS genealogical resources are so good -- it's important to them.