Hi Everyone: Like Corinne, I've been reading all your comments about Ancestry with interest. Perhaps forwarding this collection of astute observations to the company would do some good. It can't be good business practice to ignore such a groundswell of discontent, particularly considering the bad publicity is generates on such a highly-regarded list as ours. When even avid Ancestry supporters are calling for change, making improvements would be what us North Americans call a "no brainer". As for the expense of the service, it rankles us all, especially when you add exchange rates to the bill. Hard to believe we have to pay so dearly for access to what are essentially public records. I know what you think of Ancestry. How do listers rate other data providers out there? Melody Richardson Ontario, Canada -----Original Message----- From: sfhg-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:sfhg-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Corinne Thompson Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2008 7:22 PM To: SFHG-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [SFHG] Ancestry Hello All, Have been letting the discussion re Ancestry continue without me - however this one I can't pass on. I waste hours every week correcting research that people have got from the internet. The internet has a useful purpose for those who are too far from access to original sources, or housebound etc. etc.. But it has spawned a generation of researchers who rely on it and who do not check original sources for themselves. I do have Ancestry.co.uk membership because I forgot to cancel it in time and do sometimes use it to help me when looking for info for others, but it has not helped my own research, which was done before "Ancestry" was available - and on checking, I found that had I had to rely on "Ancestry" I would not have got to where I have because much of what is there is certainly not correct. And from my experience, it is not easy to get them to make corrections. For example, their transcription of the 1841 Census for the Parish of St. Buryan in Cornwall is particularly poor and most of the images that can be viewed are unreadabIe - which they blame on the poor quality of the 1841 Census. I have excellent quality images supplied by Rod Neep of Archive CD Books before he retired and have transcribed the entire Parish which I offered them, but didn't even get a reply. "Ancestry" is a useful (albeit expensive) tool when used to assist research, unfortunately it is often used a the "be all and end all" - and the way that it is marketed does encourage that perception. As Jim say, some of us managed without the "indexes". But we had to spend time on it and put effort into it. If anyone would like to see what can be achieved by people willing to put in time and effort, have a look at what has been achieved for Cornwall http://www.cornwall-opc.org/ The entire 19th. Century Census for Cornwall has been transcribed, rechecked, and is online http:// freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kayhin/ukocp.html And it is all FREE. Now back to trying to help someone who believes that because it is on the internet, it has to be true! Kindest Regards ....... Corinne in Melbourne, Australia. OPC for St. Buryan buryan@bigpond.net.au CFHS Member No. 12368 CAV Member No. 996 GSV Member No.17224 SFHG Member No. 12751 > >> How many of you out there use Ancestry, stop and think how far >> would you >> be >> Without them, >> >> > Me for one. I had most of my lines back to the beginnings of the > 19th c > before there was an internet or an "Ancestry" It was mostly on > film or > fiche, or if not, then you saw the originals. And Ancestry has not > helped > one jot to get me back to 1700. You managed without the "indexes", > used > common sense, got used to the scripts of days past and worked at it. > > Jim Halsey > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SFHG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message