In 2022 I took advantage of the free trial time to try out the website My Heritage and Ancestry. I opted for My Heritage and proceeded to work on my tree. A steep learning curve as it is very easy to accept all the matches and find yourself overwhelmed with same names, different birthdates. Etc. It does take time and diligence to ‘fact check’ with public records as supposedly they are a more reliable source of information. Recently I attended a family get together and found out some family members use Ancestry.com. I thought I would look closely at what each provider offers and didn’t get past the first query, mainly, a price list. I wanted to know cost, what does the subscription offer and options for payment. It took me a long time to find my personal subs details on My Heritage and found “I am active”, I have a “complete subscription” (as opposed to what else?) and when the next billing cycle starts. I went to chat and asked for a price list and apparently someone (from US) will ring me! What… I am paying quite a bit, can’t I see the price somewhere? I then went on Ancestory.com, wondering whether to bite the bullet and make a change, there was a subscription page with different levels but again, I feel in order to choose one site over another the details are hidden and unclear. I tried various user rating sites, both sites seem to have many issues. I’m really wondering if anyone out there has done the hard work and found some details that can lead to an informed decision and does anyone have an easy way to find the cost of My Heritage.
You can use FamilySearch from the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS for free. Many of the other sites gather much of their information from the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS Family History records and share some of their data with the Church’s FamilySearch records. You do not need to be a member of the Church nor is there any unsolicited contact about Church membership, it is strictly for researching family histories. If you visit a Family History centre, you can access many of the paid sites for free, again there is no push about Church membership, plus access to help to undertake research is freely given. To find a centre that may be near you, you can use the following webpage to conduct a search Find a FamilySearch Location. Many libraries and Genealogical societies also provide affiliate access, no visit to a Church site is required.
The privacy policy can be read at
Subscription costs in AU dollars for MyHeritage and Ancestry
There also is Findmypast
Was a time, My Heritage was cheaper than Ancestry for all records and data, and FindmyPast was free. Ahh, changes. I take a month or 6 of Ancestry when I have a particular need, otherwise I cancel subscription which leaves tree intact but which allows tree and message viewing. I have not ever seriously looked into the LDS offering although I am certain its pretty good.
On the footer of the main page is the Price List
One thing to consider before signing up is future access to your tree. It is possible to invest a great deal of time in building a tree which you do not want to lose. You need to find out about access once you unsubscribe and whether the tree is in a format that you can download and save that other software may read and display.
Ancestry gives you access to your tree(s) when you are no longer paying. You will be able to read it all but many of the search and link new data functions only work while subscribed.
I haven’t looked but I will be most surprised if nowhere there are reviews that compares the major services. For example google the following:
compare “ancestry” “my heritage”
Ancestry has different levels of access, the more records you want to search the more you pay. They also have different deals on subs. I have found that after an initial burst of activity interest wanes and it may be cheaper the buy a monthly sub a couple of times a year than the annual one and only use it now and then. When you resubscribe your data will be waiting for you as it was when you left.
Wiki Tree is free, it isn’t a listing of records, but each entry in the world wide tree has a source.
Everytime I accessed the Price List from the main page it took me to my membership. I realise the only way I can view the page as a ‘newbie’ is to delete cookies or use a different browser.
I did google comparing the 2 sites but the results that came from an unbiased source was limited hence my visit to this page. Future access to my tree is something I need to look at.
A tip: if you open the site in a new ‘private’ window it won’t access the stored cookies.
The best for you will depend on your needs. Do you want to focus on DNA matches or historical records, or do both? Do the tools and search facilities suit you?
As you have done the free trial with My Heritage you could do the same with Ancestry. I don’t suggest you put a lot of effort into either but it will give you some idea, especially about the records available and the interface. Apparently you can upload your DNA results from one to the other if you like.
Your problems with false matches, confusion of the same name, missing or illegible data, name changes and people blithely copying results to their own tree without verification are universal. There are a lot of trees out there that are full of rubbish that cause a great deal of puzzlement as sooner or latter they end up with anomalies that cannot be resolved without much backtracking and hard work.
If you like playing detective, or sorting fly specks from pepper, you can have fun and there are insights into family history that are not found any other way.
Choice in the past has provided useful information in relation to family history searches. Many of the paid services use the same searches which are often available online for free:
Early on, I decided to keep access to my family tree by using my own program on my computer. My mother was also doing it, so we got one that was compatible with Apple/Windows and periodically updated each other. That option has ceased.
I was using PAF (Personal Ancestral File) which was free, but bought Ancestral Quest (same developer) when PAF ceased. Ancestral Quest does data matching and hints to Family Search, although I have not used that feature.
The downside of having your family privately on your computer is that others can’t find it. I use the bones of my research to publish on WikiTree. If anyone is interested they can contact me as the person’s profile manager.
The local library has a subscription to Ancestry etc. At $2/hr on their computer I can look up anything I want. My Family History Group has on-line access to My Heritage for free to members. They have Ancestry, but I have to go to their library in Brisbane.
My parents used the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS for their research and found it #1 free, and #2 easy to use. They garnered a lot of information. Many public libraries run family history sessions, and will assist you with finding the right databases to search. You don’t have to spend a fortune to research your family history. You do, however, need to be discerning on the value of the information you come across.
Hi Khitchen, welcome to the never-ending research on your family tree. I have found it a fascinating journey. There are many Facebook sites dedicated to Genealogy and also Ancestry.com specific which I suggest you look at as I have found them an excellent source to find answers to questions like yours. I can log in to both Ancestry.com and My Heritage for free at my local library. They are generic logins and not specific to my family research but still a good place to start. My library also runs free family research sessions where I can sit with a more experienced person and get assistance. If you are really keen there is a on-line course run by the University of Glasgow here on https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/genealogy). Good Luck
Hi there, I too have both: a full MyHeritage subscription and a basic Ancestry one generated after I loaded my DNA result from MyHeritage into Ancestry. I get regular matches from Ancestry which include their DNA results too-useful if you are chasing a particular line where DNA is key (e.g First Fleeters whose story began as enslaved persons of African/Caribbean origin coopted by the British in the US War of Independence).
MyHeritage has recently stopped providing DNA results for any other match apart from my own citing what sounds like a bogus “problem with 2 stage authentication” as a reason why I am no longer getting what I am paying for. Google “review MyHeritage” and you can see more reviews.
If it’s records that interest you, other have suggested LDS (fabulous): I will add Scotlands People for all Scottish records, most available Australian records are free online via State and Commonwealth websites (Births, Deaths and Marriages, immigration, war and military records, divorce-you name it you can see most Australian records for free!). Frankly if you are interested in family trees, a simple google search will allow you to access a great many family trees without paying for them.
If you are looking for a lost family member (like me) and hold out hope they will one day do their own DNA and start looking for relatives, then I suggest hanging onto one of the subscriptions you have. In my view that should be Ancestry as MyHeritage’s service has seriously declined and is really only a glorified family tree maker. They are very hard to contact and responses you might receive back weeks later are anodyne and unhelpful. You can supplement your subscription with records available free online. Good luck!
With DNA results, you can only upload Ancestry results to other places. You cannot upload other results to Ancestry.
Which is why most genealogical sites will suggest you do your DNA with Ancestry, as they can be downloaded to your computer, and uploaded elsewhere, but the reverse is not the case.
The usual answer to this problem is to use GEDmatch, which has a free option, and has tools for doing various things with your DNA results; the basic ones are free, and there are more advanced ones which require a subscription. They accept results from Ancestry, MyHeritage, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, and a coupe of others.
Unfortunately not all WikiTree entries have reliable sources, and anyone can change it.
I have a chronic problem with a particular family in WkikTree where someone has confused two families from the same place, with many same and similar names, and I correct the entries from time to time, and go back a few weeks later, and find the confused person has changed them back again.
I have just about given up, and am slowly removing my stuff from WikiTree, as the ability for anyone to change anything leads to even more fiction, mistakes, rubbish etc than the big paid services, and anything taken from WikiTree needs verifying from original records elsewhere. And then there’s no guarantee that someone else won’t change it again anyway!
FamilySearch [the LDS service] is very useful, as they are gradually making their records which were only available on microfilm at LDS libraries or Genealogical Societies which were repositories for their microfilms, available on their own site. They also have lots of European and other records which are only available on other specialist sites not included in Ancestry, MH, or FindMyPast.
Once you get past 3 or 4 generations back, you will generally need specific databases, depending on where your ancestors and relatives were at the time, and which are in one or other of the Big services, or none at all. One sub is not going to answer all your questions, and wide searching of different databases and records is generally required, depending on what information they provide, over what time period, and in what detail, ie, just indexes, or whether they have full records.
It is worth contacting WikiTree through the attached G2G forum. They can then put a stop to changes and properly source to reliable records. You need the Sorcerers. They have people passionate about accuracy, and One Name, and location specific groups.
I have corrected some “misconceptions” where people assume they are directly related to an ancestor with the same surname as ours. People get lazy - you must have a source before you list a person. People put useless stuff like: From memory, Family Bible, Gran told me, newspapers (where, when?)
Most Australian BMD records which are available for free are only the indexes, not the original records. You generally have to buy the full certificate to get all the information, and one needs to remember that most of the BDM indexes only tell you where the event was registered, not where it actually took place.
Example: the Vic BDM index gives place of birth of a relative as “Ringwood”, which was a bit of a mystery, as there was no evidence of the family being anywhere near that side of Melbourne at the time. On purchase of the full certificate, the place of birth turns out to be a property called “Ringwood Farm”, in the area where the family were at the time, which was near Essendon! You cannot rely on the indexes alone for full information, and if you are Victorian, or searching Victorian information, you will be well aware that the Marriages index gives no further information as regards to place of marriage than “Victoria”, so you need to either buy the full cert, or rely on such things as newspaper notices, if any, & some of which are available free and some are not, and some are available for free only via a [free] membership of your State Library or [paid] membership of a Genealogical or Family History Society, which may provide access to paid databases for free via your membership of the Institution, or Society.
Qld BDM’s only give you Brisbane or Country as their place of registration (in the indexes). Helps if you have an unusual name and almost all related - as I have. I have found some Deaths registered a lot later - have a relative killed in France WWI who is registered 2 years later in Qld.
TROVE is helpful once you know roughly where the birth, marriage, death took place. Birth notices are unhelpful in the early days “Mrs M Smith, a daughter” using her husband’s christian name. I love the challenge and the minutiae of life laid out in country newspapers.
Thanks, yes, I know that, but with several trees with several thousand people in each {I’ve been doing this for nearly 30 years], and still chasing people from the C18 in Ireland, who were not RC, and also Swedish records [lots in MH, but I am still struggling with Swedish genealogical language], plus dealing with dodgy indexing and transcriptions in numerous places, I just don’t have time to go round checking and correcting others mistakes elsewhere. I am concentrating on getting MY information as correct as I can, checking out ‘Hints’ from the major services, buying certs and data from different places, and talking to other rellies so we can swap information amongst ourselves, so we don’t all buy the same Certs, but can each concentrate on particular lines, and swap amongst ourselves, rather than each of us re-inventing assorted wheels, and inadvertently duplicating effort and expenditure!
