[or-roots] Discontinued Ancestry.com Access to the Family History Centers

[Darlene Casteel]

I think all this muddled discussion about the possible and/or perceived link of Ancestry to the Family History Library is comprised of personal opinions, with little proof of the allegations.  I have spent many $$ traveling to distant locations, hiring professional researchers to dig into local records, etc.  Even if I had unlimited financial resources, I don't have the time to travel the world searching out the records still to be found.  Ancestry has given me access to many, many records that I would most certainly not be able to find otherwise.  

The letter from Tim Sullivan of Ancestry gives the other side of the story.

It costs money to locate and digitize records, no matter who is doing it.  Ancestry is not a non-profit organization.  I gladly pay the annual prescription fee for access to their wonderful records.

Darlene
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Robert Gust 
  To: or-roots at www.sos.state.or.us ; or-roots at www.sos.state.or.us 
  Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2007 8:35 AM
  Subject: Re: [or-roots] Discontinued Ancestry.com Access to the Family History Centers


  I believe it is all one and the same. At one time I tracked all the name changes at the Family History Library which used to be the Latter Day Saints in Provo Utah. They changed to the Family History Library with the same logo. Then they changed the home page a little. The next thing they did was create the my family.com name. They had genealogy.com already. I believe that because all the CDs they sold were created from the family history centers. Next Ancestry.com acquired genealogy.com and took over all of their data which they have in books, family trees etc. However you cannot find the submitters name because those were linked to a paid subscription on Genealogy.com. Next the myfamily.com changed to The Generation network.
  All that free information available at the family history library was no longer available. So the small get smaller and the big get bigger and in the end it is going to cost.

  I may not have the timing quite right but I think this is what has happen. Mainly because I once subscribed to genealogy.com and Ancestry.com and noticed the genealogy.com was no longer posting any new information!

  And I wonder if Pro Quest is also in the mix somewhere.

  Susie
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Paulette 
    To: or-roots at www.sos.state.or.us 
    Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2007 1:39 AM
    Subject: Re: [or-roots] Discontinued Ancestry.com Access to the Family History Centers


    I have always wondered about the ancestry.com services - while they are fascinating,and the full access is pretty amazing as far as what I have seen of it, it all seems so expensive, so I use my public library for access. Isn't ancestry.com part of the LDS Church? I know they put a lot of money into digitizing all those public records around the USA and the world, but do they get federal tax breaks for being a church? It seems a little bit confusing to me if that is so, that they can then charge so much to allow people to view data from public records. Perhaps I just do not understand the whole story behind ancestry.com.

    Paulette



      -----Original Message----- 
      From: Robert Gust 
      Sent: Mar 17, 2007 12:14 PM 
      To: or-roots at www.sos.state.or.us, or-roots at www.sos.state.or.us 
      Subject: Re: [or-roots] Discontinued Ancestry.com Access to the Family History Centers 


      Discontinued Ancestry.com Access to the Family History Centers
      By Leland Meitzler 
      I think the notice says it all… To: Family History Center Directors in English Language Areas From: Worldwide Support Date: March 16, 2007 Re: Discontinued Access to Ancestry.com Databases For many years, Ancestry.com has provided ...
      Genealogy Blog - http://genealogyblog.com 
       This takes place on April 1 2007.

      If I lose the link just Google it.


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