Genealogy Chat

Just wondering whether to subscribe or not. For those that do is it worth it? Is the census info pretty complete or not? Exactly what info can you get from the site? I am debating at the moment but it seems pretty expensive to me. I know it isn't really worth just doing a quarter, but £69 seems an awful lot for the year. Lorraine

Lorraine I think it's worth it, especially now it has partial 1871 and they are updating all the time it has London, Middlesex Worcestershire and Shropshire for 1871. If you haven't already, why not ask for some look ups to see if who you want is there, or have you tried the 2 week trial offer? I know some people have had problems with this, but also I know others haven't. Hope this helps. Lynda

I belong to ancestry. Would you like me to try something that you know and I will confirm. if so email me direct please, as I am about to do the veg for tea. Sally.

Lorraine I subscibe to ancestry and I find it invaluable. If I were you though, I'd wait until your area has been transcribed for the 1871 census. (If you can wait that long) They have London, Middlesex, Shropshire & Worcestershire at the moment, with Yorkshire & Berkshire on their way soon. Some people have had problems unsubscribing from Ancestry but I've never had any problems. Rachel

Hi lorraine, I was thinking of subscribing myself,but having read Julie Porters thread on tips board,I now have decided against it,and I am so glad that I didn't take up the free trial offer. Diane

Hi Lorraine I took up Ancestry's "Free trial" offer - found it was not what I needed at present and tried to cancel 5 days before the free trial ran out. 7 emails from me trying to cancel as ancestry had asked were ignored and £82.19 debited from my account anyway. After involving Trading Standards I have now been offered a refund within the next thirty days - after reading Julie Porter's thread I am not expecting to get a full refund - I fear I may have lost the VAT at least. Read Julie Porter's thread "Ancestry - what a nightmare" and try typing "Cancel Ancestry" in Google. Then make your decision. Personally I wish I had never subscribed. Debbie

I subscibe to Ancestry but ONLY to the UK part - not a full subscription which includes the US - which is of no interest to me. I find the Mormon site is far away the best source of information if you do the searches correctly. When you find something of interest always do a batch search. Also downloading gedcoms gives you information you may not find by just doing a name search. Some of the downloads have other related people included.

Thanks to everybody for replying. I think for now I will not subscribe having read all the problems of unsubscribing! Also I really need Kent and Hampshire as well as London so might not be enough for me. Lorraine

I've had no problems at all with Ancestry, just the opposite in fact. When I first subscribed, I didn't know anything at all about the free trial, just took out a quarter's subscription. What I didn't realise at the time was that very little of the 1891 was then indexed. I wrote to them and complained, said that their home page was misleading, and could my subscription be held in abeyance until more was indexed. They replied that they regretted that wasn't possible, but that they would extend my quarter's subscription by another quarter! By that time, all that I needed was indexed, and once I got the hang of looking for misspellings I found all the family members that I then needed. They wrote and told me they had taken another quarter's subscription from my debit card, I wrote and said I didn't want another quarter, they refunded the money. Having then done some more research, I needed to look for some more people on the 1891, so took out another quarter's subscription. When this was due for renewal, I again said I didn't want to resubscribe until more of the 1871 was indexed, they replied by return that my subscription had been cancelled. As soon as Kent 1871 is indexed, I will take out another quarter's subscription with no fears at all. This is an extremely useful search tool, the numbers of requests for 1891 look ups proves it. Jan.