Mattel Joke of the Day Little Girl: Mommy, I want a Barbie and a G.I. Joe." Mom: "Barbie comes with Ken, dear, not G.I. Joe." Little Girl: "No, Mom, Barbie fakes it with Ken; she comes with G.I. Joe." ----- Original Message ----- From: "Carolyn McDaniel" <cmacdee@centurytel.net> To: <AMXROADS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2002 4:46 PM Subject: [AMXROADS] Ancestry et al > Dear Beej, Marilyn, Jim and Cousins, > Well, first I have to stop laughing so I can type! How does one show that > via e-mail??!! > The problem with Ancestry is that it's become too successful. Will > success spoil internet genealogical subscription services? You bet it > will! When they first were offering their services they were interested in > gaining customer approval. They vowed that -- unlike Broderbund's Family > Treemaker -- any gedcom lineages submitted to Ancestry World Tree would > always remain free and available, and that still applies. It was in > keeping with what genealogy users have traditionally done, which is to > share information. They offered their databases free for the initial ten > days they were put up, which was a good deal. I don't know if they still > do that. If so they don't advertise it anymore. > But I really agree about the misleading information. I was told when I > subscribed to the census images when they were first offered, that they > would have all of them online "by March." I think that would have been > about six months. Well, they still aren't complete! BUT, as I said in my > other posting, the census images are about the best thing going at > Ancestry. I could use the AIS index to lookup many of the listings I > wanted and then browse the images until I found it. But they've sort of > hidden the AIS index. Why, I don't know. And the other day I found that > the 1870 AIS for Indiana is missing completely. Most states go through > 1870 and a couple have 1880 too. > BUT, the biggest gripe I have are those "I may be related" and "comments," > boxes which means you can't copy and paste database information > anymore. AND I agree the customer service is crummy. My account got > mixed up and after writing and writing and writing and calling and calling > and calling, I was told that if I didn't like it, I didn't have to > subscribe! I asked to speak to the accounts department supervisor, and the > guy said he WAS the department supervisor! BUT again, I finally got hold > of the Customer Service Manager, who straightened the whole thing out. (My > account was in one name and my credit card in another.) I doubt if the > accounts manager ever got straight, though. > This is where technology has taken us folks! > This is the problem with our society. The term we're groping for is > institutionalized. The tail wags the dog. A perfectly good service > becomes governed by something other than the service it seeks to > provide. The schools no longer teach children how to think, they provide a > place that hires teachers and administrators and pay them obscene > wages. The education of our children gets lost in the process, along with > the children. Doctors and health care are businesess. If you get > healed by a brush with the business, it is a minor miracle. If you're > Ford Motors, you make a Thunderbird and a Mustang and and then turn them > into hog Cadillacs. The church, well, let's just say the headlines speak > for themselves. So it should come as no surprise that genealogy and > history organizations are run for the benefit of the organization not the > subscribers. This is true of Ancestry as well as some of our formerly > well founded surname organizations. > I have a suspicion that at Ancestry the services are governed by persons > who want to make a buck, have unleashed technicians on the services and > have forgotten the genealogical considerations. Genealogy and history do > not wag, but how to squeeze another dollar. High inaccuracy, > inaccessibility, unfathomable formatting, and loss of usability > result. Too bad. Institutionalization. > On the other hand, Broderbund's World Family Tree and Family Treemaker > has reformed, literally. Now owned by Mattel, which includes The Learning > Company and A & E, they are Genealogy.com, still a subscription service > to view all those gedcoms and CD's, but they do have the GenForum, which is > free and provides a great service for Surname and locality postings. AND, > Ancestry also provides their own surname boards free, and as owners of > Rootsweb, Long May It Wave!!, provides a whole array of free genealogy, > subsidized by Ancestry's commercial side. So it goes. I suppose Jim is > going to tell us now that Scott Peck owns Mattel. > > Love, Your Cousin, Carolyn > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >