Dear Rachel I agree with all this. It may well be that complaints from US-based customers may have a bigger impact on what Ancestry does strategically, than anything we can say in the UK. We may need to mobilise that a bit. But they must be a bit frightened of FindMyPast and the Genealogist - who have much easier front-ends to use, in my opinion. Let's see if we can get any strategic thinking out from them over the next couple of months. Brian -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: 21 March 2012 23:53 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Dyfed] The Written Word. I agree with what you say. I often think that - at the moment - Ancestry is going for quantity not quality. Quite possibly we the consumers are to blame, always searching for more and varied information.  One can be hopeful that there will come a point where they will pause and make corrections to what they have already made accessible. Although DNA matching has been beneficial to descendants of one branch of my family tree, I wonder if what we now have available in that spectrum will be seen to be pathetically inadequate in the not-too-distant future.  Just think how far the mechanism of the personal computer has developed in the last only 25 years, that allows this field of genealogy for the masses to expand at all. Less than 10 years ago, Ancestry's early offerings took forever to download, everything has become so streamlined now by comparison. So I am hoping that with patience and feedback they will continue to improve. Rachel Boyd CT, USA ________________________________ From: Brian P. Swann <[email protected]> To: Diana Trenchard <[email protected]>; [email protected] Sent: Wed, March 21, 2012 6:53:31 PM Subject: Re: [Dyfed] The Written Word. I still think we are in a transition in family history. This is the communication revolution really starting to exert its power. The Americans and other former British colonies will now soon have access to many of the key building blocks we use to do family history over here. I believe Debbie Kennett's new book - DNA and Social Networking - captures the essence of this change. The questions are how critical will these Groups be of the online information provided, and how good is that online information anyway. Some people who have had to deal with Ancestry in the past are very jaundiced - and believe they will never listen effectively to criticism. But I am at least going to have a go talking to their International Commerce & Business Development Director in the UK - when she gets back from Ancestry.com in the USA talking about the $12+ million they have invested in DNA testing in 2011/2. But the quality of the work they have done on the London and Middlesex parish registers is atrocious.  Within the next 6 weeks I intend to find out what the London Metropolitan Archives really think of their relationship with them - in some ways I think they must be secretly embarrassed - but are they actively involved in any follow-up change process, or have they washed their hands of it? And it may need pressure from the American end to get Ancestry to change - and not from here.  The Americans are a far bigger market for them. Brian ================================ Dyfed list http://home.clara.net/daibevan/DyfedML.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message