Bill,
I agree that the cost is definitely prohibitive to some persons. It
seemed like way too much beyond what I was willing to spend initially,
but as I just recently stated, I felt like a kid in a candy store with
an empty bag and opportunity to fill it with just about anything that was
there. I have not yet harvested everything that I would want to. And I
do feel that it is worth what I have to pay.
I have not paid the additional $ to gain international access.
I definitely agree with your comment about their search engine! I think
that it absolutely sucks to get hits for records that do not match any
significant portion of the info I have entered.
Many times I have found that the problem with finding records depends
upon two major things:
1. If the enumerator of a census did not enter the given name or the
surname as we would believe it to be, then there would be no match found.
I have seen initials, misspellings, middle names & nick names written in
the census. For those, I cannot blame Ancestry's search engine.
2. If the transcriber has difficulty reading the scribbled writing of an
original recorder of a record, then the transcription could be incorrect
and not picked up when we search for someone by the name as we would
believe it to be.
But also, I have found that sometimes persons in families have actually
changed the spelling of their name, so in order to find a record, I might
have to search using each of the different variations to get a hit.
I agree with you about all of what is recognized as meaningless results,
but at the same time I would never say that Ancestry doesn't give me any
confidence about anything. The number of little green hint leaves allow
me to check out the possibilities that they have found. I DO find a lot
of info to add to my database as a result of those hints. I also find a
lot of info that I would laugh at because I can see that it obviously is
not valid.
I can select that which has reasonable source documentation, capture for
future review that which MIGHT have value, and ignore or delete that
which I can see definitely is not correct.
All is not perfect. (:<((
But being able to research from home, while sitting at my computer still
beats having to drive everywhere and view records one page at a time. I
could very easily spend more than a year's subscription to Ancestry in
travel expenses in just a couple of days. And, at home, I can start and
stop when I want to, working on MY schedule instead of someone elses. If
I go to a distant Library or Court House I have to leave when they want
to lock the door. If I wanted to spend more time doing research there, I
would have to rent a room & return the next day. My meals at home are
more reasonable too.
I'll stick with Ancestry, sort out what I am able to find, and still be
able to increase my personal database's contents.
Bill Harrison
On Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:38:44 -0500 Bill Davis <wmadavis(a)gmail.com>
writes:
My biggest complaints about Ancestry are:
1. The cost. I grit my teeth every time I see a commercial, knowing
that I'm
paying for it and they are likely to increase the price.
2. The cost. That I'm paying so much and they want me to pay more
for an
International version after telling me there is something
there I would want to see.
3. The search engine, which I find inept, annoying, and
counter-intuitive. It
seems determined to throw lots of results at me
that bear no relation to the search terms I entered, and often misses
things it should have matched. Sometimes I specify that I only want
exact matches, but it still throws a lot of meaningless results at me.
It would be nice to have some certainty, knowing that you searched for
something and it wasn't there. Ancestry doesn't give me any confidence
about anything.
Bill Davis
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