The Mormons need money?

Ancestry.com is awesome if you're interested in that stuff. I don't know that it's $100 million great, but it's definitely great.

/and if you happen to have any information about by great granny Harriett Otis, b. 1866, d. 1897 in Tuskaloosa Alabama, EIP.

Ancestry.com is a rip off. All they do is provide a blank template for you to fill in, so you become part of a information pyramid.

Then the next person who joins with your last name can benefit from it. ect. ect.

I'm using geni.com (only because some other family member started it out on it). Why is Ancestry.com better?

My father just contacted old towns and churches in France to get information. He's got the entire family history dating back to the year 1300-something now.

He's also compiled all the information into a 4 volume book set, including pictures of church records, newspaper clippings, draft cards, etc. Not to sell, just to have it and for future generations to enjoy.

/He telecommutes and has far too much free time on his hands.
//Cool story, bro.

Godscrack: Ancestry.com is a rip off. All they do is provide a blank template for you to fill in, so you become part of a information pyramid.

Then the next person who joins with your last name can benefit from it. ect. ect.

Well, sort of. I mean- you have to put the work into it to make sure its accurate, you can't just trust their hints.

I really dig Ancestry.com.

The other benefit is their massive database of information- census, passenger lists, all sorts of stuff.

I guess YMMV, but I was amazed and what I was able to find and confirm to be accurate.

Honestly, I could give a rat's ass about my lineage. Not that there's anything wrong with being into genealogy more than there's anything wrong with being into video games.

I have noticed a number of internet IPO's lately. I wonder if we can return to the relatively harmless tech bubble.

That was a fun time.

Maybe my shares of eSocks will be worth something again.

UNC_Samurai: The Mormons need money?

That's not ancestry.com. The Mormon database is familysearch.org.

Both have their benefits. Ancestry is stronger for late-19th Century and forward, while the Mormon database can have more for further back.

The one thing I don't like about the Familysearch database is that it periodically guesses, instead of doing like Ancestry and just saying "No matches". I once spent an hour tracing a line out until I realized the crucial first one was only an estimate, no certainty.

tweekster: Maybe my shares of eSocks will be worth something again.

Oooooh. That sounds like a vibrant company well positioned to benefit when all those blacks, gays, liberals, mexican'ts and other poor people pick themselves up by their bootstraps.

Buy 500,000 shares Randolph!!

Like I'll know if they're telling the truth; I can't tell one Italian peasant's name from another. I know about as far back as 1890something and I'm OK with that being all I'll ever know.

As crazy as it sounds, this may be a hit in reality. I know several people who literally buy up virtually anything related to their family lines on ancestry.com, and they're all over 40 so the financial base is there..

And so, potential investors, I hope you'll think our I.P.O. isn't an I.P.U! hehhehheh

NuclearPenguins: My father just contacted old towns and churches in France to get information. He's got the entire family history dating back to the year 1300-something now.

a couple years ago I posted on a few bulletin boards that I would be travelling to Europe, and was looking for old churches and town halls that would have historical records that are not yet on-line. I was very clear that I had done lots and lots of genealogical research, both online and at the Mormon genealogical library in Salt Lake, and had reached a dead-end with the information that was available online.

Long story short, after explaining my situation, my requests were phrased like, "If you know any genealogists or historians in (various city/country) that could point me to old churches or town halls with old records, please put them in touch with me. I have done all the research that is available online, and would like to continue my family research the next time I am in Europe."

The only response I got said, "You should try doing your family research online. It's fun!"

For a long time I wondered why anybody would take the time to write such anything so incredibly stupid, but then I discovered Fark.

sidenote: I have seen with my own eyes my family's "seven generation charts" on the shelves of the Salt Lake genealogical library (paper, analog version), but when I look for them online, on the Mormon webpage, no results are found. Yeah, online research is fun and all, and you can do it in your underwear, but nothing beats browsing by hand in the Salt Lake library - and it is only a half a mile away from two great brewpubs (Squatters and Red Rocks) and an amazing "import" beer-bar, (The BeerHive)

Some yahoos on ancestry.com insist my relatives descended from them. I have published sources that describe names and wills and to put it bluntly, my family was too poor to be the same people. Additionally, the wives are different people, the kids are different, etc.

Yeah, the names are the same, the time lines are about the same, but the people aren't. It was just as possible for two William Bryants to live in Virginia then as it is now. But nooo, can't convince 'em and they're farking up every other potential relative who uses ancestry.

Its really sad though, they're able to trace their William's lineage back to scotland, france, and italy 1200 or so.

LegalizeThoughtCrime: Yeah, online research is fun and all, and you can do it in your underwear, but nothing beats browsing by hand in the Salt Lake library - and it is only a half a mile away from two great brewpubs (Squatters and Red Rocks) and an amazing "import" beer-bar, (The BeerHive)

Cool story bro.

Really though, you run a brewery in logan and have free beer for Farkers? How about at least UT Farkers. Next time I take the bike for a spin I'll have to stop by.

/beer in logan, who knew?

Um somebody needs to let them know the Clinton IT Bubble of Farktastic Intarwebz is over.

Ancestry.com rocks. Using just what was available there, I got one side of my family back to the 1300s. Just don't think this is a "spend an hour and do it." I easily spent over 200 hours compiling all the information and thoroughly sourcing and documenting it.

The other side of the family, unfortunately, we can't get back much past 1870. Turns out back in the day they didn't have computers or Facebook, and when the courthouse with the records burns down and everyone in the family dies, you're just left guessing.

/on the "Guessing" side, I have managed to make it where I'm related to every famous King and Queen ever. Wee.

Lt. Cheese Weasel: Um somebody needs to let them know the Clinton IT Bubble of Farktastic Intarwebz is over.

You know, when I saw .com and IPO in the same sentence, I had the same thought...

So their business plan of "Let's pretend to have the information you want even though the records were lost in WWII but you have to pay $60/year to find that out" isn't going well enough and they need investors?

I used it for a bit. I tested it, let it fill in the blanks asmuch as possible for things I knew. It got about 1/2 the guesses right. Might work better for other families, my ancestor trail goes cold pretty fast.

I put in everything back to my great grandparents... got nada... zip.. zilch

/So keep in mind YMMV

Ancestry.com is a total joke. If you aren't an East Coast WASP, they have no records for your family.

UNC_Samurai: The Mormons need money?

Beat me to it.