Let's not get confused here. "Ancestry World Tree", the current product that many of us have been taking advantage of will NOT change. "OneWorldTree" is essentially a SEARCH ENGINE that Ancestry has produced to run meta searches on the Ancestry World Tree and other sources it has. THAT is what is being set out as a subscription. Not the trees themselves. None of us have, nor will, upload trees to that site. Yes, the trees you and I have posted on Ancestry World Tree will be included. And, the data from some of them will be "merged," in the sense that common information will be *displayed* together. But the trees themselves will remain as they were submitted by the originators. And, some of them....those long lists of begats without any dates, locations, rhyme nor reason....will NOT be included in the searches by OneWorldTree (thank you Ancestry for not wasting my time with those <G>). In other words, I just ran a search on "Trent" in Tennessee on OneWorldTree. It gave me 233 possibilities, I clicked on "Alexander, 1797" and got one "tree". But, when I clicked on Charity Burton, his spouse, it was noted that the information came from two WFT trees. I clicked there, and it took me to those trees. NOW, I can, if I think I have some good information, contact the submitter of one of those trees. So, one person, probably a Burton researcher, had sent in a tree, while a Trent researcher had sent in another tree. Had I just gone to Ancestry World Tree and put in Trent and Tennessee, I would get 745 entries, that I would have to go through. Nothing wrong with that, but realize that what you are paying for is someone to weed out some of those trees. Yes, I could, in this case, probably have gotten to Alex and Charity in about five clicks. But the difference between 233 possibilities and 745 is significant to start with. Is my time valuable enough to try this out? Yes, because I like to see what the possibilities are. Will I keep it next year if I don't use it? No, just as I cancelled my Newspaper subscription from Ancestry because of the preponderance of false hits. So, again, let's make sure what the differences are. Then, we can have a good conversation, and make good decisions. Just remember, if you "take your tree down" from World Family Tree, just because the data will be used in the meta-search engine that people pay for, you have also taken it from the people you put it up for to begin with. Then you will need to find another place to put it up. Perhaps your own website. Or, seems to me there were other places, but I don't recall where. I'm sure someone does. Pat (in Tucson) -----Original Message----- From: Barb Terhune [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2004 11:11 To: [email protected] Subject: [KYGARRAR] Need to Know! - Important news regarding Ancestry.com - I apologize if some of you get more than one copy, but this is IMPORTANT to know!!! Barb Terhune Forwarded Message Dear friends and list members: Some of you may have already received an e-mail from list-moms or listers regarding ancestry.com's decision to create a new "OneWorldTree" with the information that we all submitted, and then to charge $49.95 to access the information. If you have not received the e-mail and would like more information, you can follow this link http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/trees/owt/ . I did, and found out that the only information available to me (even from my own tree!), was the ancestor's name that I originally entered in the "search" box. Family information was listed, but was "grayed out" with a note stating "Gray text indicates information available to subscribers only." Well, I already have a broad-based subscription to ancestry's services, but apparently THIS subscription is in addition to that one. They have a wonderful discount on this service to those of us who subscribe already...only $39.95! Lucky us. This is just another in a string of problems I have had with Ancestry's services in recent months. I now realize that all of you who dissed ancestry in the past were correct. Shame on me for not listening sooner. Also, when taking all of this into consideration, also consider the fact that many, many of us who submitted trees did so with accidental errors, or unproven facts....so we're essentially being charged for "misinformation"? Tracy Howell Bend, OR P.S. If you wish to delete your submitted information, go to http://ancestry.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ancestry.cfg/php/enduser/st d_adp.php?p_ faqid=1090 for instructions. ==== MADKY Mailing List ==== Stuck on one of your Madison Co. ancestors? Can't get any help if you don't post! Post today! ============================== Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237