Ancestry.com boasts the biggest name recognitions in the family history field. This company, with headquarters in Utah and offices worldwide, has been the leader in delivering cutting-edge products to its subscribers since 1983. The early days of Ancestry were spent as a publishing company specializing in publishing family histories and magazines. In 1996, the digitization and online publishing of records began and Ancestry.com became a leader in digital records available for genealogical purposes.
Ancestry.com is perhaps the biggest name in genealogy work and for good reason. Some highlights include:
Ancestry.com is expensive and their pricing may be out of reach for some. The most comprehensive membership option has a hefty price tag of $199/annually.
Pages can be slow to load, depending on the traffic on the site. Additionally, there are regular late-night upgrades to the service which make the site inaccessible at those times. (The times and dates for updates are published on the site as a bar across the top of pages.)
For those able to afford an Ancestry.com membership, the quantity and quality of what is available surpasses the records by the for-profit competition in the field. Ancestry.com is a solid company with the resources to back up their claims and is constantly looking for new ways to innovate and stay on top of the competition. We recommend Ancestry.com and are confident they will help with your genealogy needs.
When purchasing a membership and setting up an account, setting privacy options can be tricky. One should explore the privacy policies very carefully and determine which settings are appropriate for their needs. Maintaining more private settings make collaboration more challenging (even impossible in some cases), so this information should be carefully considered.
Star Rating
503 Reviews
Review Breakdown
Sentiment Criteria
CoasterRider
Ancestry is my favorite online research site for genealogy research. Fabulous resources and very organized in a user friendly way.
Whitney Wilkins
Ancestry.com makes it so easy and fun to learn all about your family history. It's so cool to look at my genealogy and I love being able to trace my family tree.
Sharon
Lots of information but mostly for beginners. Trying to search land records, wills . Indian, war deeds, and etc. Is more difficult.
Lex
I have an account but I don't use it very often, it is interesting to look at and pretty easy to use, they make it very esay to see your family tree and connect with others in your family
Emma Fairbanks
Ancestory.com is easy to use and it is fun to find old stories and your family and where you come from!
Taylor Hall
Ancestry.com is fabulous! There are features that I didn’t even know I needed. It is like treasure hunting for my family! I would highly recommend it and I’ve never had any issues.
Joannetta Jarman
I like the great way you can lay out the family tree and it pops up suggestions. Found a lot of connections to relatives using their DNA kit too.
Kent Fuge
I love the automation that goes on behind the scenes to help me find information about my progenitors. It's not the only family history site I use but it's what I always use when I am trying to track down an ancestor or a piece of documentation for what I might be currently working on.
Josh Hansen
I love using Ancestry to find lost relatives! Their tools are easy to use and very helpful.
Jason Burt
Ancestry.com has a lot of great records, such as census records that really make family history work great! I have an account with Ancestry and often search these records to identify my ancestors. I have also had a DNA test done, which was great and gave me some very cool information!
Brandon Farrow
Ancestry has been an awesome experience for me not only in learning about my ancestors but also in connecting with family that I haven’t had contact with before from around the country.
Joe Bateman
Very impressive database. Need to be able to do global searches at least for beginners.
applebutteranna Butler
Ancestry is very thorough with their access to historical records. They are also very helpful and will give you notifications with potential family matches.
Rachel Butler
The flow of the site is not particularly intuitive, but I like the records and I appreciate the automatic ways it tries to help you find more.
Mark Troxel
I have used a subscription service for Ancestry, much information was available but I have found that there is some information that requires additional subscriptions fees. I like the hints and the ability to see document and links. I don't like the cost for additional services.
Hailey Burt
Ancestry has awesome records and access to family records. If I can’t find records on family search I usually go to ancestry.
Katrina Breithaupt
Ancestry.com offers a unique interface that displays the family tree in a very personal way, complete with profile pictures of the ancestor and how they are connected to you. It also provides good documents if you're looking for more sources on a specific ancestor.
Valerie Beus
I’ve used Ancestry in connection with Family Search and the two together have been so great in helping me locate my ancestors. Ancestry will often contain information that I couldn’t find on other sites and it is pretty easy to use. You may need to play around the site for a bit to figure it out but it shouldn’t take too long and then you’re good to go!
Hannah McGuire
Ancestry is awesome when is comes to searching for documents! They have the best online library in my opinion of documents. Very easy to use, very accessible, and your account with ancestry can connect with your family search account.
Jake Mecham
At first I thought Ancestry.com was just a company that would help me identify my ancestors. I was very wrong. They have their own TV shows too! I love watching their shows and I also can identify with the feelings of those characters as I have reconnected with my family too.
Mary Alice M.
I have found a lot of helpful information on Ancestry while trying to do my family history. It is good to use as many websites as you can in order to find the most information, but the one thing I really like about Ancestry is it seems like they have a lot of census records that I couldn't find anywhere else.
Brooke Moser
I have used ancestry.com and it has been amazing to feel connected to my ancestors. Easy to use!
Claire Snow
Easy to work with and move through data. So much info available and easy to navigate
Marniwho
I love ancestry.com they make doing family history fun and exciting. I love the hints they send and the emails telling me about my ancestors
N
I was able to find an Aunt and set of family I had no clue that was out there. I also found out I had a cousin who only lived 10 miles away!
Jared
I have used Ancestry.com multiple times as I've searched for information about my ancestors. My searches through Ancestry.com have helped me get valuable information that wasn't available anywhere else. Very happy with their service!
Summer Snow
It was very easy to use and very helpful to see who and where I can from, which is very nice
Chelsea Snow
set up an account with them online in minutes. found out some cool stuff about my family. highly reccomend
Steve Ashby
It ties in with a lot of other apps and once I put in my family mine line is there forever!
Cindy H
I have limited member access to this site and i have used it to search many times but i rarely find additional information that doesn't require more fees (upgraded membership) before i can see it. It is very frustrating and i prefer to use familysearch instead.
Tommy McCarlie
4 stars because the interface is often buggy and not always intuitive but still a great service with tons of historical information.
Mason Allen
An excellent site for family history research. The interface is easy to navigate and the family tree view is a fun way to connect with your family history.
Myah Freeman
What I like best about Ancestry is their ability to help me uncover my ancestors. One difficulty I didn't like much is the uncertainty of not knowing for sure if the connection was correct. Black Ancestry is a different battle because we have no confirmation past the 1870 Census.
Lydia Griffin
I absolutely love genealogy and family history. It's amazing how you can buy a DNA and submit your DNA to see your genetic heritage. It is also awesome that it shows who your closest relatives are.
Leonides Fourteen
I typically use a different family history website but I have a linked account with Ancestry and whenever I am short on information Ancestry has useful and unique resources that help with my research.
Rog
I love ancestry. It is so awesome and so fun to learn about my family. It is so easy to navigate and I love it
Heather Barney
Ancestry has been invaluable to me while researching my family tree. Finding out my background through DNA has bee fun and helpful on my quest.
Jen
I love that you can find your ancestors on ancestry.com. I love that they've made it a great place for anyone to go and search their history and find out more about their relatives. Thanks for all you do!
Dizzy
Ancestry DNA has a large database which helps match me my relatives. I like being able to know what my ethnicity is and comparing DNA percentages with my relatives estimates. It has been helpful to figure out the connection.
Jma55
I love using ancestry.com to do my personal genealogy. I have been using the free trial and will continue to use it when the free trial ends.
Crystal
I love this app. I use it often. My favorite is when they send me an email showing information about an ancestor. I received the WWI registery of my great grandpa who I knew and visited often as a child. I saw the hand writing, it was beautiful. I told my grandmother about it(his daughter) and she told me my great grandma must have filled it out.😜
Katie Elliott
This site has really made searching for my ancestors a lot easier. The site is easy to use.
Nicole Anderson
I love using ancestry to discover things about my ancestors. It is easy to use and very user friendly.
Ashleigh Layer
Ancestry.com is a great website because I always knew I was Hispanic, but I never knew what regions, and with ancestry.com I finally got to find out!
Victoria
I got the ancestry test as a gift from my father for Christmas a few years ago. Not only did I do it, but my whole family did. I really enjoy this because I learned a lot about family members I did not even know I had and I got to reach out to them and learn about what my ancestors are like. If you are thinking about trying this, trust me it is worth it.
Brent Crosbie
Ancestry.com provides an important and amazing service. It is fun to find others who share the same DNA as well as be able to understand the origins of my own.
Ryan Harpenau
I liked being able to trace my heritage back and learn more about where my family is from. It was very informative and I enjoyed reading the attached documents on some of my ancestors. I wish there was a way to ensure that the ancestry is accurate, but I am not sure how this could be accomplished.
cmci
Best place to put a family tree. Downfall is cost to do most follow ups. Finding historic information
Mary
Ancestry has A LOT of information BUT you will pay dearly for it. I had used Ancestry to make my "free family tree" quite a while back. I quickly realized that I couldn't do much more than what I knew of my extended family because I would have to pay for a subscription (no problems!) So i purchased a disk (thats how long ago we talking here) and was able to start the tree. A few years later i wanted to work on tree again...its like $20 a month! WTH! I love the info but that's a lot of money!
STurner
This is the best available company for genealogy I have found. It has millions of records and it’s users friendly. I love that they include links to their source. Very good company. I have free access to it from Family Search by LDS Church. They have a partnership which makes the two a very powerful source for looking up names.