Ancestry wishful thinking

[3sillydogs]

So true 3sd.

Though I have to thank them too. I've never had any rude responses from anyone but have made and met some great people along FH journey.

It also led me to this site, and we all know what a wonderful site this is

I agree with that sentiment, it's full of wonderful helpful folk and you can always be guaranteed a smile on some of the threads.

On my journey I have found two cousins that I didn't know I had all the time I was growing up and the only negative response I had was from my own relatives because I am in contact with one of them, their loss I say

[smudwhisk]

WDYTYA has a lot to answer for in my opinion 

I agree that it has, but more positively it has led to the viability of a lot more records  being digitised and made available online.  Something that would likely not have happened if there wasn't the interest brought about by WDYTYA.

[coombs]

The ad says "type your name and be taken on a journey" and then "Who will you discover"? Well you have to put up with endless "Check back Soon" and "This page is temporarily unavailable" messages, endless mis-transcriptions and research.

[suey]

Oh my!  I say this so often but having looked again today at trees on Ancestry I WILL NEVER LOOK AGAIN !

Someone has purloined my husbands great grandparents, names, places and dates for both are correct, one child in their list is the same as one of ours and that's where it stops.  The rest is a huge family that have nothing whatsoever to do with ours    Is this just the hints being taken as gospel ?

I shan't bother to contact the tree owner...

[Skoyen89]

I've started my FH experience with Ancestry this year and it has been really useful but, as many say, far from as easy as they suggest.  The worst part is the Forum which seems not very well designed. 

Whilst I have had responses on all my postings my attempts at getting in touch with the families on the War memorial has been very mixed with as you say some wonderful, fruitful collaborations and a lot where there is just nothing....not even a 'no, sorry'.

Now I am looking whether I should add or swap to FindMyPast but my initial attempts at using it don't seem that great either

[Guy Etchells]

WDYTYA has a lot to answer for in my opinion 

Yes WDYTYA awakened an interest in genealogy for a huge range of people who had no interest in the subject before it was aired.
As a direct result more records have been digitised and made available online, WDYTYA also sponsored a number of family history fairs giving an outlet and publicity to the many family history societies up and down the country.
Their magazine continues to provide information to thousands of family historians not only in the UK but worldwide.
They have been a shot in the arm to family history, without them it is very possible we would still have to visit record offices and archives to access the bulk of records

However WDYTYA had little or no effect on Ancestry who had been ploughing their furrow for many years before WDYTYA came on the scene.
Errors and false trees are not new they have been around since records began and even the Heralds in the 15th century falsified records to make a lineage fit.

Cheers
Guy

[hurworth]

Yes WDYTYA awakened an interest in genealogy for a huge range of people who had no interest in the subject before it was aired.

I'll raise my hand and admit that it a series of WDYTYA which was on late on a Sunday evening a couple of years ago that piqued my interest.  That lead me to looking up WW1 records of various relatives and I realised how little I knew about them.  The records included where their parents were born (as in which country), and sometimes that was different from what I had assumed.

[smudwhisk]

However WDYTYA had little or no effect on Ancestry who had been ploughing their furrow for many years before WDYTYA came on the scene.

They had, but I think its safe to say that a lot of the different records, such as the Parish Register collections, on there wouldn't have been digitised if it wasn't for the increased interest in Family History research that WDYTYA, among others, brought about.

[3sillydogs]

My mum started in on genealogy before she died many years ago but I must confess I wasn't that interested at the time (now I'm sorry because her research has disappeared and it's that line causing my headaches ) but when my son started working years back and decided he needed the internet the bug really bit and the rest as they say "Is history!!"