Discussions

I am interested in using an ancestry website, just curious what website do others use? Do you like it? Do you have to pay anything to have an account? Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

These sites are gathering information for you, but on you as well. Do your own research. Do not give these sites your DNA. You open the door to giving info on yourself, and your blood relatives by doing so. It’s not paranoia. Big Brother is compiling data on Joe Citizen with no clear intent evident, but it’s not for your  
benefit.

I just saw a show on that testing, maybe it was W5? The testers found them all to be inconclusive. Oh, and 2 identical twins had pretty different results. It seems like a money grab to me.  
 
What exactly is it you are hoping to find?  
 
Edited by Happy_ Hour, 2020-02-24 06:43:08

I was curious and have had my DNA analyzed by 2 different companies and then through Upload service sent my analysis to the other different sites. ( 4 sites in total).  
 
My known ancestry is Ukrainian / Scottish. One site says I have this background, 2 others say Ukrainian/French/German and the 4th site just says Europe.  
 
One site has found about 2000 5th cousin or closer hits, One has over 6000 8th cousin or closer, third site has 1500 and the 4th says I have no relatives anywhere. No one has found anything closer than 2nd twice removed.  
 
I sent my DNA files to all groups. So I compared my DNA in their database to the analysis from the 2nd company. The one says the second analysis is me, the other says I am my father or brother.  
 
Unless you are looking for and get a direct familial hit like parent or sibling I think there is a lot of bogus science. A fun exercise but do not believe everything you read.  
 
If I had stuck with my first analysis I would have to believe my mother cheated on my dad and I was the result based on their geographic profile. The other analysis of my geographic history refuted this supposition.  
 
Enjoy but do not believe everything you see!  
 
Edited by Nutritionist, 2020-02-24 08:42:42

ancestry.ca gives you a great deal of information. It has birth, death, marriage, census and voters lists from a lot of different countries. There is a charge to access this site-like 29.99 a month. You can access Canadian census up to 1926 on line free and you can go into provinces vital stats to find info-free as well. Everything you can access on any sites have certain date restrictions such as in Manitoba you can only bring up info if a person has been dead for 80 years, married for 70 years or born 100 years ago. The restriction dates vary from country to country of even province to province.

Ancestry is the major one out there. The basic free account lets you do some basics, but very little research. They will however open up free access to particular records from time to time.  
 
If you decide to use ancestry, you can enter everything you have while using a free account. This is what I do, then every few years I sign up for a month of the "world" level and then cancel. If they have the info you're looking for, you'll find it in that month. Save any documents, etc to your local hard drive, google drive, etc. Go back to free level after doing research. Wait a couple years, repeat.

This is the website of the church of latter day saints. https://www.familysearch.org/en/  
They have an incredible amount of worldwide information that is free to search and in many instances view microfilms of the original records.  
They also have research centres where you can use their computers to look up records. No hassle, no trying to convert, no preaching. Very friendly.  
If you have UK ancestors then Find my past, like Ancestry is another subscription site.  
Rootsweb and various other internet sites also are worth exploring.  
Did you have a particular area or background that you want to research?

Depending on your faith practices and beliefs, you may want to stay clear of most online genology websites unless they are clearly owned by a government entity, as most are either owned by the LDS church outright (like the above-mentioned familysearch) or has ties to the church, like Ancestry. Ancestry started with two Brigham Young University graduates (a university owned by the LDS church) selling data to church members on floppy disks back in the 1980's. That's how old/massive their database is.  
 
The LDS church is very interested in family and ancestry data because they have religious practices tied to this, most notably baptism of the dead and proxy baptisms.  
 
If you have no concerns about that based on your personal beliefs, then it's a non-issue. But if you are religious at all, you might want to further examine if that's compatible with your beliefs.  
 
Keep in mind, however, that Ancestry.com "won" in 2019 the "Big Brother Award", for basically exploiting people's interest in their origins, while amassing and monetizing a huge database with people's personal details, including millions of genetic profiles.

I found out when I was 28 that my dad was adopted and also I have a half brother who was adopted out. We don’t talk about either adoption. I have tried thru the adoption agency, but I can’t submit to find my grandparents till my dad goes and I have very little information about my half brother.

Family member had a near miss identity theft. Bank caught most of it but only charge they didn’t catch in time was “ancestory.com” took me awhile to figure that one out then I realized....the answer to most security questions and the most common question on a visa or MasterCard application? What was your mother’s maiden name?

Hi  
I’ve actually used ancestry sites  
The one I used was myheritage.com  
That one I found better for Canadians and I did really good and was able to make a book from it  
If you want email me and I can tell you more about it

We started for the adoption information too.  
IT is interesting process to find birth grandparents.  
Recently we have connected with both sides of my father in laws birth family. the birth parents are gone but it was great to connect with cousins. and yes DNA matched on both sides.  
we also went through the government for answers which helped solve things too.  
I have helped other people find family was well that was result of adoption.  
Just for interest sake there is a facebook group who helps adoption people find family. they have search angels on the site who use memberships with ancestry sites and the newspaper.com memberships to find details. i also use local history books.  
 
If interested let me know and i can help you get on the closed facebook group. or may even be able to help with some ideas closer to home. All that is volunteer help and no charge unlike a DNA website. However they usually want to know if you have done DNA and have got your disclosure info done too first steps.  
 
also what about checking with the local genealogy site. They may have some ideas too.  
 
The family search site as others said are affiliated with LDS church as is Ancestry.com.  
I soon hope to tour their facilities in UTAH as i am fascinated by the journey. The family search site is free and you can create many things and if someone has already done the work you can expand your tree further then imagined. I just found yesterday a spot where you can answer questions basically to write memoirs.  
 
I guess i am not afraid of big brother watching me. Also if you are there are people who can help and you do not have to give up so much info.  
 
Good luck with your journey. I have seen great success for a few and i wish you well.