Ancestry Review

Tuesday, January 21st

2025 Genealogy Service Reviews

Ancestry

• $16.50/month - $34.99/month depending on membership
• 40 billion records
• 100 million family trees
• 14-day free trial
• Can connect with relatives via DNA testing
• "A+” Better Business Bureau rating

Ancestry is on a mission to empower journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives. Founded in 1990, they are the largest for-profit genealogy company in the world and are based out of Lehi, Utah. The company offers DNA kits for customers as well as access to billions of records through their website. Over the years they've acquired other small companies like Know Your Pet DNA, Find a Grave, Fold3, Rootsweb, Newspapers, Geneanet, Forces War Records UK, and others.

Comprehensive records

Ancestry has one of the most comprehensive, easy-to-use platforms for genealogy work that you'll find. They've been around the block and know how to provide a great experience for their users. Whether you're working on your computer or through their app to build out your family tree, you'll be connected with a staggering amount of information within minutes. Ancestry hosts 40 billion records and over 100 million family trees on their site.

3 membership tiers

To get a taste of what Ancestry offers, you should take advantage of their 14-day free trial. After this, if you want to continue, there are three packages available. Ancestry charges through subscription fees, which you can cancel at any time as long as it's at least 2 days before your renewal date.

• The U.S. Discovery package is $19.99/month or $16.50 a month if you pay 6 months upfront. With this package you'll get access to all U.S. records.
• The most popular option is the World Explorer package that's $34.99/month or $24.83/month if you pay 6 months upfront. This allows you to browse all U.S. and international records.
• The third option is an All Access package where you can browse all records on Ancestry, Fold3, and Newspapers. This is $54.99/month or $39.83/month if you pay for 6 months upfront.

Simple to get started

There are four main steps for getting started at Ancestry. Once you've created a profile, you can add names of your parents, grandparents, and any details you know about them. As you search through records, a leaf icon might appear, indicating that the site has found records or photos that might match someone in your tree. You can browse through census collections, military listings, immigration and marriage records, and more. You can easily save ancestors, stories, records, and photos to grow your family tree. You choose who you want to share your tree with, so if you want others to be able to view your work and add to it, this is a great way to get helpful information.

Try a DNA kit

An extremely popular product offered by Ancestry is their DNA kits. For between $99 and $199 depending on the amount of information you want, you can order a kit, send in a saliva sample, and get results in 6-8 weeks that tell you the regions of the world you and your ancestors came from, information about your DNA and traits, your ethnicities, and get connected with living relatives. A DNA kit makes for a fun self-discovery journey or a great gift for a loved one. You don't have to be a super-sleuth to figure out how you might be related to your DNA matches, either: Ancestry has an amazing tool called ThruLines that takes what you enter on your tree and matches it up with others', telling you the way your lineage connects you.

Well-liked and connected

The Better Business Bureau gives Ancestry an "A+” rating. On top of this, they have fantastic reviews from customers about how efficient the process is with the company. Many people's lives have been changed because of the things they've learned through Ancestry. It's one of the biggest networks of genealogical information, so not only will you get access to innumerable records, but also find a lot of people who are likely working on the same family tree as you. Customers have found it easy to browse for information and continually build their family trees.

Excellent recommendation

We are big fans of Ancestry. Over the years they've thought of everything someone might need to build a family tree and easily gain access to information they've never seen before. It's one of the most popular options for genealogy work, so you really can't go wrong here. Some people wish it were a little cheaper and they didn't get so much marketing push for them to buy other Ancestry products, but other than that we see no reason not to start your free trial right away.