Name: Ancestry.com
Rating: 4.2

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Teresa Saldana Arlington, TX

I tried Ancestry.com during a 2- week free trial and cancelled during the time period. I received an email confirming my cancellation. Today I find out I am still being billed. I called and after their associate looking for awhile i was told they have a "sister" company. While you are on the ancestry website you are also unknowingly signing up for a free trial with their sister company..If you don't cancel that one too Ancestry continues to bill..Of course, you aren't made aware of this. When I asked the guy at Ancestry for the phone number to this sister go. I was told he handled both..I would NOT recommend Ancestry.

10 years ago

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Jessica McManus Corsicana, TX

Over the past three years since the investment firm Permira bought Ancestry, it has steadily gone downhill. It usesd to be the best place to go for genealogy. Now the website is broken more then it's fixed. They sold Family Tree Maker to Software Mackiev, but seem to be making the takeover as difficult as possible. For the past week, the website and Family Tree Maker just aren't working well together. And I'm sure it will be the same whenever RootsMagic also begins to sync with Ancestry. The customer service is non-existant and you are on hold upwards of an hour to speak to a live person. If you use email support, you get responses that are evident that no one actaully read or comprehended your words that it's ridiculous! I emailed about problems with the Ancestry version of Family Tree Maker and the support person, Bryan, emailed me with the response "I'm sorry you are experiencing problems with our website." No one in customer service or support seem to know how the website even functions. And the standard response are either clear your cache & cookies, use another browser, or "We are aware of the issue and are working on it but we have no idea when it will be fixed." And if you are too vocal about the problems you are having with Ancestry on their facebook page, they will ban you from it. But at the same time they allow certain "trolls" to continue to harass and disrespect those who are honestly just wanting to be able to use what they pay for.

10 years ago

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Melanie Wood Rohnert Park, CA

Ancestry.com. They had a nice, easy to navigate set up, one that was handy to review and double check, didn't take up too much room/too much ink if you print. Now we have a truly ludicrus and plain goofey convoluted "Story Book" for every single person that seems to gather information and facts from Pluto or something - just doesn't make sense,: events repeated over and over but with a new date for each repeteition it seems. I can't depend on your presentation anymore. You have gone way too far A.C. And I was such a fan! I was your cheerleader. Get rid of Story Book because there is comical information you've added - God only knows who came up with that stuff. Please, get real with the plain old common sense method that made sense. No more color book with crazy dates, numerous repetitions and goofey stories. I do NOT want to pay for that. Please pay attention to loyal customers!

10 years ago

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Pat Forest, MS

I have been using Ancestry.com since 2000. I have had a wonderful experience. I loved it and used it every day........UNTIL they changed to this new format. I hate it! It is too busy, hard on my eyes and too much information to look at all at one time. All this information in front of you on the screen makes it hard to stay focused on what you are actually trying to research. This new format has taken a lot of the joy out of researching for me. Ancestry.com is a wonderful tool and was a good investment for your money. And it really made researching your tree very exciting and rewarding! Please, please, give us a choice on which format we want to use, after all..............we are paying for it. Doesn't customer satisfaction count for anything?

10 years ago

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Barb Third Ellicott City, MD

Once upon a time, there were thousands of cubicle dwellers. Contentedly in their spare time, many worked for years personalizing their space with family photos, framed documents, tales of true adventures,...in short, they made a house a home. One day, each person entered his home to find complete chaos. Unfamiliar, mass-produced and plastic furniture was anchored where antiques had stood. Carefully tended bookshelves were in disarray. Ancestral photo frames had been torn off, leaving beloved bodies to appear beheaded. Generic pictures from children's encyclopedias hung like giant posters on the walls. The walls themselves were covered gray and black, and purple arrows pointing to maps that led to nowhere had been spray-painted throughout. Family treasures were later found crammed in closets. The bank that held the mortgages proclaimed, “the times, they are a'changing,” saying newcomers who had few furnishings, records, or history lessons needed more. Hundreds of people wrote and wailed for months, to no avail. Final reactions varied: Pack up and move. Lock up and leave. Stay and accept. A few liked the Instant Family feel. This is what the executives of Ancestry.com did to millions of Family Trees they'd been paid to preserve. Inexperienced and unintelligent computer programmers were allowed to turn a decent genealogical website into a disappointing, flaw-filled waste of time. What a travesty!

11 years ago

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mary Myrtle Beach, SC

Here are 3 examples of the offensive, juvenile, incorrect nonsense being added by Ancestry to MY carefully constructed historical display: My grandmother was born in India to American citizen missionaries. The way Ancestry tells it she “moved from India to the US at a time when immigrants were expected to quickly assimilate into American society,” This insightful gem is accompanied by a helpful photo of “huddled masses.” Uncle Henry went to “Bleeding Kansas” in 1855 because he was a Quaker and abolitionist. He rode with John Brown, was charged with treason, and eventually became a major in the Union Army. Ancestry implies, photo and all, that he was a homesteader in a covered wagon. They even added the now infamous HUGE shot of the #^$& grasshoppers! “James was one of many Irish living in NYC at a time when the Big Apple was experiencing a boom in Irish immigrants.” I suspect even many 12-year-olds would know that nobody called NYC the Big Apple in 1871. Who writes this crap? For Ancestry to respond that I may feel free to delete it is beyond the pale. Ancestry makes a mess and hands US a mop?

11 years ago

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Lauren Tanner Salt Lake City, UT

I love Ancestry.com. I use it all the time and really love the hints, resources and the set up. Thanks for all you do for us. It makes research easier.

11 years ago

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David Mcalan Palm Harbor, FL

Recently Ancestry unveiled and "new" version of their web service. I has been a pure disaster. There are new challenges every day. These include problems with searches and results; changes in background colors and screens to make it modern looking, while damaging people's eyesight (it will be nice to read about the first law suit regarding damaged vision); lost data; a ridiculous new Lifestory page; Ancestry's manipulation of data, photos, and reports you have uploaded to Ancestry; truncated photographs, extra functions added to accomplish tasks that used to require one function... a very lengthy list of issues that they will not address (maybe 20+ out of hundreds reported), The lack of customer support as been astounding. Thousands of complaints have been posted on their Facebook pages and on their blogs, all to no avail. There has been absolutely NO apology issued by their upper management for all the problems they are causing their customers. They have become a monopoly, snapping up other companies that offered genealogical services, leaving us to deal with one big, faceless conglomerate. Their team of beta testers have become Facebook hyenas, attacking every dissenter who posts and unfavorable comment. My goal is to complete the project I started and get out of Dodge, and i am not alone in this sentiment. This has become a greedy business, with one goal in mind, more and more money And, ignoring customer demand, requests, suggestions, they are forging ahead with this loser application. Customer service be dammed.

11 years ago

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betty amirault Melrose, MA

I loved Ancestry when I had it for years. But it is getting too expensive & I can't subscribe because of financial issues. I really miss using it especially when I want to look something up. So I have stopped genealogy for now & doing photography instead.

11 years ago

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Barbara Cleveland, TN

I have been using Ancestry for 15+ years. Love it. Only one problem is search parameters sometimes don't come out in the order I would like. Not a big deal.

11 years ago

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Ana Robledo Tarpon Springs, FL

I loved Ancestry. I have discovered amazing things through their website. However, they changed the format of the trees to " improve" them and mine is now a mess. My husband appears as married to his brother and I have disappeared. I hope they can fix the mess, otherwise it is now useless to me.

11 years ago

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Jim Robinson Pinckney, MI

I found my Birth Father's family through Ancestry DNA!! They are wonderful We had a reunion just this Saturday. The new format is rather hard for me to use. The Data Base is amazing.

11 years ago

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Pam Barton Kirksville, MO

I don't like new look too confusing and I have sent several messages about the poor transcribed census and other items I've learned to really find anything you have to go and look at actual images as so many times I have found names horribly butchered K turned in to H's J's into I's etc. If someone was looking for a family named King it will never show up as it is under Hing. I have found several of my ancestors under wrongly transcribed names and I try to correct them but do you correct all the ones you know that are wrong sometimes there is no place to correct a name and I'm not talking about the different ways a census taker spelled a name but if your are looking for a name like Sanaft and you find them spelled Janaft it will never come up on searches only looking thru the images yourself Sometimes I don't think the transcribers even tried which makes me believe if some one was looking and didn't find them they think they are not in that area but they are, just under a badly transcribed name

11 years ago

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Bonnie Carnegie, PA

FINALLY figured out how to post a photo - but cant find how to change a profile photo. It looks nice but too many changes - will take a while to get use to it. Prices for long time subscribers should be discounted if you want to keep us. When adding to a John why do all the John's come up without their dates? Wrong media and photos can get attached to wrong John!! Frustrating.

11 years ago

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Motelgma Manchester, MD

When I started researching my family lines, Ancestry.com was wonderful and affordable. You had the option to re-new your subscription without counting off the days until it was over and having a sudden charge on your credit card! People used the service just to take a family name and adding their own bogus un-verified and un re-searched information too the name! Nothing that is public has is safe from the lazy researchers !!

11 years ago

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David MacRae Essex, MD

Ancestry is Ok but a customer like me can never get any real help from you unless he pays for it you never get an answer to any question that you have.and the price for most folks is 386.00 unless you have been there for 10 yrs like me I have never gotten an ANSWER to any question I have asked. Google has more ans to problems than you.

11 years ago

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Dana R Hyde Gloversville, NY

Over the past several years, I have seen where much of my Ancestry membership money has been going: Investment in the acquisition and cataloging of many newly available databases, and upgrades to the site's user interface that make it more useful and powerful by many orders of magnitude than was the case when I initially joined. While downtime can be occasionally annoying, they work hard to minimize inconveniences and maintain partial functionality during the outages. Some years ago I interviewed for employment with the company when they were doing a couple of data-collection projects in my region; although I wasn't chosen I enjoyed the opportunity to meet their representative face-to-face in NYC. While Ancestry is not inexpensive, they also do offer some less-comprehensive affiliated sites such as rootsweb.com that are free or at more nominal cost. While I've had a longtime interest in my dad's Canadian roots and my mom's Italian ones, I maintained my membership at the $68/yr US-Only level until I could afford to upgrade to global again this year. The opportunity to share research and collaborate with other members has opened new doors for me. I have also been able to meet cousins I had never previously known, and substantiate my family's claim to a small indirect inheritance three years ago. While I haven't yet joined their $99 DNA program, that opens possibilities and potential that I'm just starting to imagine.

11 years ago

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Denise Tornga Wyoming, MI

I was able to find out so much more than I ever knew. I found my 3rd great grandparents on my Mom's side. I found how important this family was to the area and in history.

11 years ago

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Chris Albany, OR

The site has the most resources compared to other sites and generally has good customer service. The cost though is too much, with so many customers they could reduce the price by half and many more people would join. There are frequent problems with the website as well and they keep changing it around, and usually for the worst, which is annoying. Since many of the documents are difficult to read, you need to label who they are about so you now have to download each one since they all now have numbers instead of people names. That was the worst because it is a big waste of time to download all the files one by one.

11 years ago

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Kathleen Washington, MO

I had a subscription prior to 2008 and I really loved their website. Now they have made so many changes to how they index the records that it is impossible to do an exact search. I have never and would never rely on the trees people add indiscriminately to the website. My biggest complaint now is there lousy search engine. The results it returns are mostly irrelevant and require extra time to sort through. If you filter the search you get no results at all. I am glad I am not wasting my money on Ancestry.com any more..

11 years ago

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Janann27 Wood River, IL

I feel like the hints are ANNOYING, most of what I get now are hints to Find a Grave that I put in. Also, I bought the international one year in hopes of finding my paternal great x2 grandparents. Never found them and the few hints I added for my maternal great x2 grandparents is inaccessible now. I already had some info on them but wish I would have printed it out. I have been a member for quite a few years. A few years ago was told I would save $50.00 if I renewed, which I did but never saved the money, when I called it was basically too bad so sad.

11 years ago

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J A Lesich Charlottesville, VA

Ancestry.com is expensive and their pricing may be out of reach for some. The most comprehensive membership option has a hefty price tag of $199/annually. Having been a member since 2000 I was surprised that my fee was so much higher than new members. I was charged $299.40 and that does not cover all the services provided by ANCESTRY. There are sites that are absolutely FREE and proclaim to remain so forever. I'm not sure that ANCESTRY can continue to compete.

11 years ago

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David Stagner

This is insane, I signed up for the 14-day free trail not knowing that every month after the free trial they charge you $16.50, it took me 3 months to discover the funds being leaked out of my Paypal account. I sent ancestry.com a email asking them for a refund explaining my situation. Of course, they denied me a refund so I canceled my subscription with them only to be charged a $10 early cancellation fee. By this time I'm about to go insane, I sever all ties they had to my Paypal hoping that I wont lose any more money. The total loss: $59.50 Just thrown in the trash, thanks ancestry.com. (I don't want to give them a star, far too overrating)

11 years ago

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Laurel Dalton Riverton, UT

I have used Ancestry.com in partnership with FamilySearch. I love that these two large genealogy websites have found a way to support one another and make it easier than ever to find past ancestors.

4 years ago

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Sandra Little Eugene, OR

I have found many ancestors some dating back to the early to mid 1700's. Given that records are sparse and sometimes difficult to decipher, I feel like I have been able to identify those that are my ancestors.

4 years ago

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Fernando

I found connections to family I have never met and found pictures of my great uncle who was in WW2. I also found his military cause of death card. It’s crazy the info they have. Thank

4 years ago

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Bx Chick Yonkers, NY

I Love Ancestry.com! I have been able to find relatives through other relatives on their own trees. I discovered that a great uncle is buried at Arlington Cemetery. That was really awesome.

4 years ago

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Paula Pili Provo, UT

It’s simple pretty advanced and super easy to use! I have gathered so much info on my family and ancestors. Their dna is probably the most accurate compared to the other companies

4 years ago

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Mandy Pesce Laurelton, NJ

I enjoyed seeing all of the hints of my family tree once I signed up. The only thing I don't like is that my family is really huge and it just keeps showing me the same people over and over again, nothing about extended family, cousins, etc. Only my grandparents on both sides. Weird.

4 years ago

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Chrissi Parrish Dallas, TX

Family and I have built a our ancestors tree it has helped us to connect to one another. This has helped us to connect to other family members you would have nor know about. I love how we can find out where we are from and go from there.

4 years ago Edited January 14, 2022

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KG Lebanon, NJ

I have used ancestry and was able to trace my family, some of which I didn’t even know of. I have been able to see cousins in different generations and have made some connections as well.

4 years ago Edited January 3, 2022

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Jec Canby, OR

I use another company more often than ancestry.com, but both companies work very well to compliment each other and ancestry.com has been very helpful in helping me link my ancestors record together.

4 years ago Edited November 16, 2021

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Amber David Tallahassee, FL

Using Ancestry was very easy. I just had to submit my saliva and received my genetic results within the time period they said I would. I learned about my family history as well as other family members.

4 years ago

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Joy V Salt Lake City, UT

I got a testing kit for my Dad’s birthday and he loved it! It was super easy to use, but it does take 6 weeks to get your test results in. We found out a ton about our family and it even gives you a map that breaks down the timeline of where and when your family was there. Definitely worth it.

5 years ago

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Jackie Spokane, WA

I have used Ancestry.com countless times to find and verify family records - it is an invaluable resource! I appreciate the access to census records and ability to search so many different records on one website.

5 years ago Edited September 14, 2021

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Lex Midway, UT

I have an account but I don't use it very often, it is interesting to look at and pretty easy to use, they make it very esay to see your family tree and connect with others in your family

5 years ago Edited September 14, 2021

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Taylor Hall Los Angeles, CA

Ancestry.com is fabulous! There are features that I didn’t even know I needed. It is like treasure hunting for my family! I would highly recommend it and I’ve never had any issues.

5 years ago

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Jason Burt Riverton, UT

Ancestry.com has a lot of great records, such as census records that really make family history work great! I have an account with Ancestry and often search these records to identify my ancestors. I have also had a DNA test done, which was great and gave me some very cool information!

5 years ago

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Brandon Farrow Gilbert, AZ

Ancestry has been an awesome experience for me not only in learning about my ancestors but also in connecting with family that I haven’t had contact with before from around the country.

5 years ago

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Myah Freeman Jacksonville, FL

What I like best about Ancestry is their ability to help me uncover my ancestors. One difficulty I didn't like much is the uncertainty of not knowing for sure if the connection was correct. Black Ancestry is a different battle because we have no confirmation past the 1870 Census.

5 years ago

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Jen Smithfield, UT

I love that you can find your ancestors on ancestry.com. I love that they've made it a great place for anyone to go and search their history and find out more about their relatives. Thanks for all you do!

5 years ago

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Ryan Harpenau Fayetteville, AR

I liked being able to trace my heritage back and learn more about where my family is from. It was very informative and I enjoyed reading the attached documents on some of my ancestors. I wish there was a way to ensure that the ancestry is accurate, but I am not sure how this could be accomplished.

5 years ago

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Dan Whiting American Fork, UT

I used Ancestry.com to research my family tree for free. Their record database is huge, and easy to use. It made the process of researching my genealogy fun and interesting. 10 out of 10. Awesome.

6 years ago Edited September 14, 2021

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Patrick Curry Salt Lake City, UT

Love the ease and user friendly feel of the site. Has been a great tool to track down family and locate family I never knew we had. Had many help articles that where beneficial to us in helping us build our family tree

6 years ago

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Karen Torino Tallahassee, FL

Ancestry helped me figure out where older generations of my family are from and what makes up who I am. It was interesting seeing how far back my Italian lineage goes. Website is nice if you want to find out a little more about yourself.

6 years ago

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Kiara Howard Tallahassee, FL

Ancestry.com allowed me to learn more about my heritage and I am so great full. If it wasn’t for this site, I wouldn’t have known multiple things about my origin so I am glad I joined this site.

6 years ago

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Dette Phoenix, AZ

At age 67, my husband found out that his dad is not biological father. His world has been turned upside down but he has found 5 new siblings. He waa completely shocked by the news. Be prepared for the unexpected!

6 years ago Edited September 14, 2021

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Jaci Rhoades Arlington, TX

I have used this company for the last 10 years. It's a great way to start a family tree. The only problem is it's dependent on the people before you that have started the tree. For example I opened our family tree account. Because of that there is zero history recorded of our family.

6 years ago Edited September 14, 2021

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Kaitlyn Rios Ogden, UT

Ancestry.com is probably the best, most comprehensive genealogy service out there. They have data, records and info that no other service can provide at great prices. Their platform is easy to use and explore.

6 years ago

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Audrey Mitchell Managua, MN

Ancestry has so many resources and documents to use because of their large database. The only trouble is in order to have all the features, you have to purchase the yearly membership

6 years ago