Ancestry vs. Family Search: a few tips

Last week, we talked about the basics of starting a family tree. Now that you know the basics, what comes next? If you choose to push forward, and make your tree digital, first you need to choose a site to utilize. The main 2 are Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. Each has pros and cons. The Tangled Roots Team uses a combination of sites when doing family tree building. We have a few tips to help you along your journey if you choose to go it alone.

1. The first obvious difference is cost. After a free trial, there is a fee for Ancestry.com, while FamilySearch.org is free.

2. On Ancestry.com, your tree belongs to you. You can feature one person in multiple tree without any issue. Ex. I am present in both my maternal and paternal trees. Family Search has one large family tree. You are simply doing the work of connecting branches to the main tree. If you try to create multiple trees on Family Search, you create duplicate profiles for the people in your tree. This causes issues for other researchers and for you. I am one person and can only exist in the broader family tree once!

3. Information on FamilySearch.org can be modified by other users. Since you are not the owner of your tree, it’s public and can be modified. If someone feels the records or relationship connections you’ve made are inaccurate, they can remove them.

4. Hints are often based on work done by others, and therefore may be skewed. Someone may be less knowledgeable and chose records that do not apply to the ancestor being searched. Accepting inaccurate hints can lead you down the wrong path. 

Hopefully these tips get you started in the right direction. I could say so much more about this, but we will save it for another blog!