Here you have a blog reviewing another blog…it kind of
sounds like one of those movies or plays where actors play the parts of
actors. I want to say up front that I
like 24/7 Family History Circle
which is produced by Ancestry.com. I
guess I like it because it’s free – well, it’s free if you are not a subscriber
to Ancestry. I already get access to most
of the articles by way of my World Annual Deluxe subscription that costs $347.40. Now, I’m not saying this is a bad thing
because most of these articles are very good. It seems, however, that 24/7 Family History Circle is more of a marketing effort to boost
subscriptions rather then to provide a free service or unique content.
They always start off with a listing of new databases and
information at Ancestry.com. These links
will then take you to a page with detailed descriptions of this new
content. Sometimes they take you
straight to Ancestry and you are off and running – if you are a subscriber. One interesting item has a link that says a “Major
Content Addition!” is coming soon, but when you follow it, there’s no explanation
of what that new content is. For the
most part, though, the articles are always very well written and informative.
What I like best about 24/7 Family History Circle is that readers get to comment on the articles. To my knowledge, Ancestry.com doesn’t have this capability on its main site. Since most genealogy addicts are polite, most of these comments are not too critical and usually contain their experiences or requests for Ancestry to acquire specific information they’re seeking. For example, on the “Major New Content Addition” I talked about earlier, there are 103 comments from people wanting Ancestry to provide stuff they are searching for…and people are very detailed about what they want. A couple of weeks ago, however, the blog announced that a New York database will no longer be available, and readers let them have it. There were many angry subscribers that criticized Ancestry for the way they handled the issue. The good thing here is that they don’t edit out negative comments. My point here is that the blog provides a good way to let Ancestry know how you feel about their service through general comments, suggestions, or criticisms.
As a whole, I like 24/7 Family History Circle and it's well worth the time to visit regularly.
Here is a little insight for you who are using Ancestry.com and are wondering why prices have risen recently. They are trying to make up for the time and loss of money they allowed the LDS Family History libraries to use their site for free at the LDS Family History libraries. Ancestry and the LDS church had an agreement as long as Ancestry was formatting most everything the LDS church has for genealogical research to digital format. When a new research aid comes into play through Ancestry it was most likely (95% or more of the documents) came from the LDS Church. Yet the LDS church allows everyone to use their research aids (over billions of records and names) for free or at the most for less than $5.00 to rent for 3 weeks to indefinite time frame at a nearby LDS family history library. Ancestry has limited the LDS family history libraries to a handful titles to research from, while still copying and formatting research aids from the LDS granite vaults to digital format. Seems a little one sided but that’s the just of it. One can decide to use Ancestry.com or just go back to old research way of going to the nearest LDS family history library and rent the research aids for 100% less and save themselves quite a bit of money.
Posted by: K Leigh Reynolds | June 06, 2007 at 09:30 PM