Position:Home>Genealogy> Who thinks that it is...?

I'm not sure what you mean!. It cost money to travel all over the country to courthouses, libraries, cemeteries etc!. to get the information!.

Now, Ancestry!.Com, has tons of records on their website, but what you pay for is the convenience of not having to travel, spend money on gasoline, eating out and motel expenses, but the ability to get those records from the convenience of your own home!. The website itself had to pay to get those records and put them online!. They are still at courthouses if you want to get them yourself!. Of course the counties will charge you a fee to look up the records and make copies for you!. You will have to hit the highway!.

You might say why don't the counties put all that information online!. Well, you are asking the taxpayer to pay for something to convenience you in your family history!.

Your public library is free and probably has a genealogy section!.

A Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints Mormon Church is free!. They have records on people all over the world, not just Mormons!. In Salt Lake City they have the world's largest genealogical collection!. Their Family History Centers can order microfilm for people at a very nominal fee, but their members and friends had to do the work and spend the money to get those records!. They have had to spend the money to put them on microfilm and store them!.

They won't try to convert you at least they haven't done so to me or anyone else that I know of!.

FamilyTrees are submitted to the websites by the subscribers!. They usually are not documented or they are poorly documented!.
You frequently see different info on the same people from different subscribers!. Then you will see the absolute same info on the same people from different subscribers but a person is foolish if they think that it is accurate!. Too many people are copying without verifying!. Any time you think checking other people's family trees that have been submitted is a way to get your family history,you are very much mistaken!. Other people's family trees are not documentation!.

I just recently found out that me my sister and my brother-in-law are all dead!. No date of death given but we all died in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey!. The only time my sister and I had ever been in New Jersey is when we drove through it coming from New York in 1956!. So we have been dead for 52 years!.

Family on both sides were shown as being married and died in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey!. Since my ancestry is mostly southern American colonial with a few exceptions and those exceptions came in through southern ports I was very surprised!. This was from a person who had 150,000 names in her tree!. A lot of people think it is more important to get a lot of names rather than have a verifiable family tree!.

So you are not being cheated just because you can't copy someone else's family tree!. Actually many people resent being copied!. They feel they have done the work and the research, not you!. If they have a book published on their family history and you want to know what they came up with it is up to you to buy their book!.
However, if a person puts their family tree out there for everyone to see, they have to expect people will copy!. Some people aren't interested in doing the work themselves and don't care how accurate it is!.


The free websites that only have family trees aren't worth a plug nickel!. Unless you plan to verify the information in those trees with documentation and that will cost you!.

Cyndi'sList!.Com is a website with links to many other websites, some free, some you have to pay to subscribe!.

However, it takes time and money to come up with accurate family history!. If your family didn't keep all the information and have all the records available, then you have to do it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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How about the hassle to get your IQ from the schools!. I had my birth certificate for 20 years, and it looked it and now they want them all certified by the state!. You get them from the state, for heavens sake!. I used Yahoo for 15 years and then I didn't use my email for 3 months and they threw everything out, stuff I put on there for security!. Hm!. Here's the trick!. Count your blessing, drop negative words, listen to you intuition and save your money, I think we are going to be needing it anyway!. Just figure you're decended from Ghandi, Martin Luther King, jr!., Aristotle and Adam, that should do it!. Oh, and Jesus is you brother, once removed!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Well, our business is to keep our own family histories of so desired!. If we do not, then someone else is doing it for us at a cost that should be reimbursed!. The people you pay are doing the real research by connecting the family dots so to speak when you make an inquiryWww@QuestionHome@Com

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Because it costs money to provide a service, those records have to be stored and indexed, staff have to care for them and provide access to them!.
Your question is a bit like saying why should you pay for apples, after all the sun and air and water are all free!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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i dont thats like sayin y do women hav to pay for pregnancy tests its there babies lolWww@QuestionHome@Com

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I know! I tried finding info about my real dad and his family and found out that it would be 14!.99! I was like damn, Im not that curiousWww@QuestionHome@Com

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You are free to contribute as much as you want to the Obituaries on your county's US Gen Web page, or to findagrave!.com; to look up things in your county for people who ask for data via the GenForum or Ancestry bulletin boards!. You can transcribe censuses for the Mormons or for Kindred Konnections!.

Not many people do; not enough, anyway!. Ancestry buys data and pays people in India to index it!. Then they sell convenience!. You could fly to Salt Lake City and rent a room in a motel!. There are several within a few blocks of Family History Central!. They run shuttles to it, just like the ones in Anaheim run shuttles to Disneyland!. Dress with respect and don't take your lunch into the main building!. I think they are open 9 - 9, except on Fridays and weekends!. The data inside is free, and they have volunteers who will help you!.

Or, if you want to be like me, subscribe to Ancestry and poke around at 6 in the morning in your sarong, with a cup of coffee and a slice of last night's pizza, from the comfort of your own home, with your faithful cat by your side, hoping for a morsel of cheese!.

There are 400,000 free sites!. You can use them!.

If you go to the county courthouse for a copy of your very own birth certificate, it will cost you $5 to $35, depending on the county!.

Let me know if you want links to sites that will let you contribute to the free genealogy data that is on the Web!. That, or stop complaining!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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