Perhaps my experience will sound familiar to you. I have been interested in learning more about my family genealogy since I was a young man. I have had the best of intentions and have collected hundreds of bits and pieces of information about my family over the years. Every time one of them passed away I realized that another resource was gone. My wife started working on her family history several years ago and produced a beautiful publication that she has passed along to her children. Recently I came into the possession of some more old photographs and documents and she encouraged me to get started again.
She had used an online program called Ancestry.com to help her with her family history. Based on her experience, I started researching online programs myself. I discovered that Ancestry.com
was at the top of most product reviews for family tree software. Then I discovered that ancestry.com was offering a 14 day free trial, which I signed up for.
The first thing I noticed was that the family genealogy program is completely online. There is no software to download or install. I like that because I know that I’m not going to run into space problems on my computer or installation problems. Also, I know that I will always have the latest versions of the program and the latest information available to me.
The second thing I looked for were resources for assistance in learning how to use the program and engage in genealogical research. I discovered lots of well organized video tutorials and looked at a couple of them. They were very clear and you can go back to any point and begin there. Then I decided to just jump right in to see how much I could do without reading any more instructional material. I haven’t looked at the tutorial videos since.
I started by entering my mother and father’s names and birthplaces. The program immediately searched the Internet, found information about them and showed it to me. I was hooked.
Again, a 14-day free trial is available. If you don’t choose to subscribe to a program after that time, your family tree will continue to be available to you on the Ancestry.com site. You will just lose the research capabilities. If you do choose to subscribe, there are several pricing options available to you.
The U.S. Membership gives you access to only the United States genealogy databases, while the World Membership adds access to records from the United Kingdom, Ireland and other locations around the globe. To see a more detailed comparison between the two membership options, visit the site. There is no obligation for visiting the site and you will not be asked for your credit card to get the free trial.
If you would like to learn more about family genealogy, or register for the 14-day free trial, please click on any of the links to Ancestry.com on this page. I think you will be glad you did. Please let us know what you think about it!