Ancestry.com Reviews

(based on 22 reviews)

42 of 71 people found this review helpful

I did the DNA test and then 1 year of membership. At that point I spent $424 but was still happy.
THEN I accidentally let it auto-renew for 6 months of "all access" (the most expensive). I called them 3 weeks after my $211 PREPAID 6 months and explained my situation and asked for a refund. Nope. I asked for at least prorated refund (like 3 weeks out of 6 months). Downgrade my prepaid amount to the $99 membership and refund the difference? Nothing, no help, did not care. The agent just kept repeating "we're sorry sir, the process won't allow a refund". I asked to speak to his supervisor. Same answer. Their Customer Service won't even help me a little bit. I'm so bummed and now feel cheated and taken advantage of. I wanted to like Ancestry but they act like a massive organization that won't work with me. They just want my money! Upset!

In summary, I would recommend Ancestry.com to a friend.

46 of 103 people found this review helpful

Though ancestry.com does have "free trials", they can lead to ongoing charges which can be confusing and difficult to cancel. They are charging hundreds of dollars for information created by **other people**....

The estimated market value of Ancestry.com in 2017 was more than $3 billion. They have $850 million in revenue each year.

The Family-Tree branch of Ancestry (I'm not addressing the DNA branch, which I have never used and am not in a position to judge) offers two things: (1) family trees contributed by various individuals over the years and (2) public records (census records, death records, etc.).

They justify their (exorbitant) fees by saying that they have gathered more records and have better tools for accessing them than other services.

But I would suggest that there's at least one organization which offers almost as many records and comparable tools for free!! : FamilySearch (familysearch.com) . Despite being completely free, I've found their support and their tools to be excellent.

In summary, I would not recommend Ancestry.com to a friend.

72 of 125 people found this review helpful

Initial order was never received because they entered an incorrect address (I had to find this through the post office. Not due to any help from the company). We reordered. We collected the sample and sent it in. We never received any data. Finally we called and they asked for the code/number on the sample box. We don't have it. They are unable to to retrieve the data by name, birth date/contact info/nothing other than that number. We spoke with 3 different people, no one willing to go past sorry. DO NOT USE this service!

In summary, I would not recommend Ancestry.com to a friend.

69 of 145 people found this review helpful

Lack of pertinent information without incurring additional charges.
Connectivity issues, glitches in programming
Difficult site navigation; limited connections
Redundant & irrelevant hints
Frequent service failure issues.


ANCESTRY.COM FB POST this June, Apologizing for Poor service!

We wanted to reach out to our customers and reinforce our commitment to you and the safeguarding of your important work on family discoveries. We highly value every customer and regret that a small portion of our customers are experiencing issues as we complete our migration to a more powerful computing environment that will enable us to serve you better. We are committed to providing more content, more connections, enhanced hints, and streamlined search to make your discovery process even more enjoyable. Please know that your data is safe and secure at all times. For example, if you have any data loading issues, please be reassured that all of your work on your trees remains intact and will return. Our dedicated technical teams are working 24/7 to ensure that any remaining issues are resolved as quickly as possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate reach out to our customer service specialists.

In summary, I would not recommend Ancestry.com to a friend.

70 of 154 people found this review helpful

I too, am finding that the DNA connection circles are changing often. I have even lost a MRCA who is my 3 GGM.
At one time I had 9 DNA matches with this ancestor. Now, I have none.
On the other DNA circles my DNA matches pop on and then pop off. (Is the science this unpredictable that it will not post). I will go outside ancestry and post this message.

Not only this....but I seem to get very many errors on this site. I have used several different search engines and they all end up with the same result. I think it is time to try another product. (Including this message.)

Plus there Help service is pretty much non-existent.

In summary, I would recommend Ancestry.com to a friend.

83 of 159 people found this review helpful

While Ancestry.com is a bit on the pricey side, I feel it is worth the money spent.

Trees can be public or private. Living persons are not visible to anyone but the owner of the tree and those who the owner has shared full read/write access to. Persons with membership can build one or many trees. Trees can be easily deleted if they are no longer needed.

The great advantage is the very extensive hinting and search system. In building a personal tree, a patron can either manually enter a starting name and go from there, or upload a GEDCOM file and use the results.

Once basic information has been entered about a person (name, birth or death date and place), after a few moments, hints start appearing. In addition, a Search feature can be implemented to search the entire record collection. As new collections are added, new hints will appear for persons in the tree. As historic records are added to a person, a citation is formed. In addition, each collection has a very well-written description and sample citation.

Searches of the historic collections can be performed from within the tree or with no connection to any tree. While Boolean searches are not... (Read the full review)

In summary, I would recommend Ancestry.com to a friend.

264 of 416 people found this review helpful

This is pricey. I tried Geni.com (free with no privacy & no reliability:"curators" rewrite your family tree) and am happy with the move to Ancestry.com. Ancestry gives you privacy without meddling but with an ability to share and collaborate if you so choose.

Data bank is good & improving, but could be better--how about more obits, more NYC birth & death records: I could go on. Links to FindAGrave are very helpful & that kind of resource could also be expanded.

Geography is not a strong point, with the place names or with the maps in LifeStory.

Search algorithms could be better, particularly with surnames capable of many (mis)spelllings.

The website takes some getting used to and navigating back & forth can be difficult. The iPhone app lacks some functions and is even more difficult to use.

Overall, though, a very good site.

In summary, I would recommend Ancestry.com to a friend.

184 of 368 people found this review helpful

There are so many features to praise... their Census database is a huge plus, their "green leaf" feature has fantastic power for finding tidbits faster than you could possibly do on your own, the power to choose public or private tree-making is another plus, the DNA project is another one.

In summary, I would recommend Ancestry.com to a friend.

206 of 390 people found this review helpful

This is insane, I signed up for the 14-day free trail not knowing that every month after the free trial they charge you $16.50, it took me 3 months to discover the funds being leaked out of my Paypal account. I sent ancestry.com a email asking them for a refund explaining my situation. Of course, they denied me a refund so I canceled my subscription with them only to be charged a $10 early cancellation fee. By this time I'm about to go insane, I sever all ties they had to my Paypal hoping that I wont lose any more money. The total loss: $59.50 Just thrown in the trash, thanks ancestry.com. (I don't want to give them a star, far too overrating)

In summary, I would not recommend Ancestry.com to a friend.

196 of 360 people found this review helpful

Well I really don't have any bad points. I have been using this site for awhile now. Just recently I did the dna testing for one reason and was blessed with something extra. I did not know that your dna results were compared to others that has also taken the test. To make a long story short ancestry .com has found my father. This is a question I have been wanting the answer to for my 36 years of living.

In summary, I would recommend Ancestry.com to a friend.