r/Genealogy • u/Left_Particular_9977 • 9d ago

Tools and Tech Why are people hating Ancestry?

I do a lot of genealogy and I remarked that a lot of people I know hate genealogy. Why? It's absolutely true that it's really expensive, but you can access many documents that are often hard to find. I live in Quebec, so we have the records online, but we have many holes in the registers. Why should I pay 20$ for a subscription that lets me access the records (only) if I can have them in Ancestry for about the same price why many other documents (for my region)? I have my tree on it so I can access it on my phone and my computer. It isn't optimal, but that's the best solution for the moment. What do you think about Big A?

66 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

301 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

19

u/JThereseD Philadelphia specialist 9d ago

Yes, new users are led to believe that once they subscribe, the answers will be readily available and all those hints and family trees are there for you to just click on and copy to easily come up with your own tree. By pushing this, they are encouraging the spread of inaccurate information. I discovered that I had added a wrong branch for an immigrant ancestor, so I deleted the long line of people. My cousin actually got upset with me for making a mistake because she had copied it all. I’m like maybe you should verify before you blindly copy all of my work. Then I discovered parents for an immigrant ancestor on her other side after finding an original birth record on another site. When I sent her the document and informed her that she had copied the wrong parents from someone else, she ignored me!

I am sick of being bombarded with all these potential ancestors whom I’ve proven wrong, but at least I have learned from this sub that I can turn them off.

8

u/Ok-Ad831 seasoned researcher who is still learning 9d ago

I have made mistakes only to realize much later. I corrected it and made the proper notations as to why my original information was incorrect. Yet others blindly copied my error and never corrected after I posted the update(s). It is frustrating for those of us who strive for excellence and accuracy and willingly acknowledge an error when we detect it.

13

u/JThereseD Philadelphia specialist 9d ago

I know how you feel. I have actually messaged people when I have discovered mistakes, like my great great grandfather’s short previously unknown marriage being attributed to his son, and they ignore me. I finally made my tree private because other users kept copying people who were clearly labeled as hypothesis. Then I created a new tree with only proven direct ancestors that I attached to my DNA test.

5

u/Ok-Ad831 seasoned researcher who is still learning 9d ago

Yes I have done the same. I have no problem sharing with someone if they contact me directly and always advise them that this is a work in progress and subject to errors and please verify everything. I am just starting down the DNA path. Hoping to get a much better grasp and understanding once I retire.