Since I first started researching my genealogy and my husband's genealogy almost three years ago, I've had a pretty constant relationship with Ancestry.com. I have a U.S. membership on a six-month renewal schedule. Up until recently, I know that what I paid to maintain the subscription was well worth it, as far as the quality and quantity of records that I found through the site. My subscription is up for renewal in early November, and I have decided that I am going to cancel it, at least for now. I feel like, even when I manually search some of their non-indexed and more 'obscure' data sets , I still struggle to uncover new and/or helpful documents pertaining to our families. So now, I don't feel as if the subscription cost is justified, especially when I can use the money I save to order other state and government documents that will be of more help. I know that Ancestry is constantly adding and expanding document sets, but none of their recent additions have been helpful to my family. That could change in the future, so our relationship is really just 'on a break' right now.
I've also found Ancestry to be a bit of a time sink for me; I wander randomly through different branches of our trees, searching for anything new to add. After doing family history research for several years, I now know of so many other ways in which to obtain documents - other websites, genealogy libraries, government agencies - and I have a backlog of non-Ancestry leads to pursue that I feel like I may never get to if I keep 'putzing around' on Ancestry too much.
Of course, I have electronic and paper copies of all the records I've found on Ancestry, and I maintain my own family history websites where they are located as well, so I don't feel like I'm losing anything by not having access to the documents through Ancestry. I also will still continue to use my Family Tree Maker program on my desktop computer.
I feel like this will be a 'liberating' experience for me - being away from Ancestry for a bit. What about you fellow family history researchers? Do you ever take a break from Ancestry for awhile?
©2013, copyright Emil Kowalski Schroeder
I've also found Ancestry to be a bit of a time sink for me; I wander randomly through different branches of our trees, searching for anything new to add. After doing family history research for several years, I now know of so many other ways in which to obtain documents - other websites, genealogy libraries, government agencies - and I have a backlog of non-Ancestry leads to pursue that I feel like I may never get to if I keep 'putzing around' on Ancestry too much.
Of course, I have electronic and paper copies of all the records I've found on Ancestry, and I maintain my own family history websites where they are located as well, so I don't feel like I'm losing anything by not having access to the documents through Ancestry. I also will still continue to use my Family Tree Maker program on my desktop computer.
I feel like this will be a 'liberating' experience for me - being away from Ancestry for a bit. What about you fellow family history researchers? Do you ever take a break from Ancestry for awhile?
©2013, copyright Emil Kowalski Schroeder
