I signed up for Ancestry.com back in the beginning of 2000. My sister was excited that I had started it. We planned on going through the vital records here in Augusta to find my father's side of the family which we didn't know much about.
We got as far as my great grandparents of my mother's side of the family. We kept it up even though she came down with cancer the next year, then we paid for the annual fee but after 3 years we gave it up.
Tonight, when I went to support the Breast Cancer site that was posted I saw the ad for ancestry.com and went to it. They had me in the system but all my information was gone! Luckily, I kept a file with all the information I had on the site. I had to reenter it all and actually had a couple cousins on my father's side I was able to put in that died this summer.
I know that my sister really wanted to do this, so I am going to do it on my own. I found some relatives who are related to me on my father's side of the family who live in my area. I have contacted 2 of them and they are going to give me some information about their families.
My question is: Is it worth it to pay the monthly fee? I know they offer a 14-day trial. Is there any other way I can get information over the computer without paying?
If you can help me with this it will be much appreciated. Thanks.
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Comments: 13
You can do it with the free trial, if you get it all done in 2 weeks, works great. But you need to really buckle down for those 2 weeks :-)
My info has not gone away - everything is fine - one year later...
Other than that - I know of no other good way to get information w/o paying...
I believe it was that web site who had a huge law suite back then?
It takes work, lots of work but one can do it without paying such fee's.
I went back as far as the early 1700's. Using ftp sites, then just finding others through email. Lots of graveyard places on the web. Then government web sites, vital records places.... Newspapers on and on.
Almost got to be a private detective lol! I may even be at those paid places though I have never paid?? Been a while..... the church there in Utah were/are record keeping gods....
The native American side of the family is where information stopped.
The record keeping place on the east coast was burned to the ground in the late 1800's when the Irish and part of my family come here. So that was a huge snag on that side too.
Those who ran from Germany (when Austria was absorbed) also was hard to get through.....
Persistence and it can be addicting lol!!
Wish you well k!
Then, we you are doing the trial, print everything you are able to, such as marriage records, death records.
You can do searches for free on the social security death index, that is helpful.
Also check out www.familysearch.org - free
you can also pull up records from Ellis Island immigrants for free.
All that said, I would input as much as you can into ancestry.com before the trial. That way you are not wasting time adding info you already know while you have such a short time with it.
I use Ancestry.com myself. I love it and pay the annual fee. The great thing about it is the constant up dated addition of material. But yes, I can see where the price would be a problem for some.
Let me know if I can help you.
I also use footnote.com. It's free to search but some information you can't see without paying. They have an option to pay by document.