[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] ancestry's canadian passenger lists are online

[Dave Obee]

I recognize that my opinion might sound biased because I helped with the Ancestry.ca launch a couple of years ago. I also co-wrote a book published by Ancestry.

All that said, I generally try to steer people toward the cheapest, simplest sources. That often means Ancestry.

For example, I spent hour after hour going through 12 rolls of microfilm, looking for one name. Found him, eventually. But he popped up right away in the Ancestry search I tried last night. All the money I paid for gas and for parking in that one search would more than cover the cost of a month's subscription to Ancestry.

You can search Ancestry's Ontario birth records by mother's maiden name. I solved two 20-year mysteries that way. And so on. I look back on the time I have spent in archives and libraries, and getting to those archives and libraries, and it's remarkable how much money I have spent on family history research. Ancestry is cheaper than that.

Throw in the fact that there is a 14-day free trial for Ancestry.ca, and I am not sure why anyone would hesitate. Dip in for 14 days, take what you need, and you're done, for free.

I have the most expensive, all-inclusive Ancestry package and plan to keep it until the day I stop doing genealogy, which I would hope will be a long time. My experience with Ancestry has also made me more willing to pay for other subscription services because I have seen the benefits from the first one I tried.

Be warned that Ancestry's Eastern European collection is not very good at all. There is some material for Germany, but that's about it. One of the German sources is a digitized version of Meyers Orts, the basic gazetteer, but everyone who uses the FEEFHS.org website already knows about a free site with the same reference book.

Again, I am not pitching for Ancestry, and there would be no financial benefit to me even if everyone on this list signed up tonight. I am just trying to help people get information quickly and easily.

Dave Obee


----- Original Message -----
From: Delores Stevens <deloresstevens at sasktel.net>
Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 16:08
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] ancestry's canadian passenger lists are online
To: SGGEE <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>

> I have not gotten Ancestry as have wondered if it has been worth 
> the amount 
> for what I would get out of it.  I would like to know if 
> this is a 
> worthwhile expenditure.
> 
>  Thank you
>  Delores
>  Saskatoon
> 
> 
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