This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: Sally_Wilkins Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.dunbar/1176.1.1.4.1.1.1.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hi Mary - One of the strengths of ancestry.com is also a great weakness, which is that the system allows/encourages all us amateur genealogy buffs to upload our family trees, and share them with one another - and in fact, it will send along those little hints when someone in your tree looks like a match up with someone in someone else's tree. I had a huge breakthrough once because of one of those "maybe matches" - opened up an approach I had no previous knowledge of, let me contact another researcher, eventually enabled me to access documentation and confirm a whole lot of relatives - brothers and sisters back in the old country of an immigrant family of which I knew only 2 brothers and a sister - and I was able to fill in for the other researcher what had become of those 3 after they left. BUT - the same system allows people to upload and share and re-share their errors. . . . like the ever-recurring Robert-Ninian link. So far, at least, those uploaded family-trees are not being scan! ned/monitored for errors - and I cannot imagine what kind of algorithm could be developed to do that, even if people wanted it done. The other huge thing that makes the ancestry subscription worth the money is the vast number of scanned documents that are available. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.