Ancestry.co.uk Reviews 

I have been a member for many years - researching as and when time permitted. Now retired, I am endeavouring to complete my research, when out of the blue, about a month ago, came many more hints about my paternal line, with information going back to the Norman Conquest and the role some of my ancestors played!!! Unbelievable I know. Now I am busier than ever researching their lives and history. Will I ever be able to stop??? Enjoy your search.....

Hints can be useful. But, you have to be very careful what you accept and save to your tree. There are many incidents where it has been a wrong path, and then it is a pain re-filtering the information and correcting where it has led me on false or incorrect information.

Found my family in Australia on my Dad's side, actually my Dad's sister that I didn't know he had. Have spent 2 holidays with them in Australia now. 15 of us went on days out and having meals together. Sadly when my Mum and Dad split up I wasn't allowed any contact with his family. My first connection when to Brisbane to a daughter of one of my half brothers who had emigrated there and married an Australia lady.

I have been with you many years and its been My hobby for more than 20 years. Ancestry has helped me not have to go to every place to find information. New things come up all the time, sometimes at my age takes me a while to get use to them. My beef is all the add ons can start to make it very dear. DNA has helped and also very interesting.

Easy to follow at finding information it’s really helped build my family tree thank you

Ancestry DNA revealed the most unexpected of results and has lead to all new family history discoveries that simply would not have been expected and certainly not possible without those results and corresponding matches.

My mother always thought there was something “funny” about her mother’s family and thought it might be connected to Ireland. My grandmother was a strong Catholic, it turns out she did have Irish roots, her mother was Irish although she was living in London. All my grandmothers siblings were strong catholics too, her younger brother was the Catholic Bishop of Nottingham and I remember him well. It turns out their father was born Jewish, but because their surname was Ellis, none of us had a clue, Granny never let on, when she met and subsequently married my grandfather, both her parents were already dead. I doubt my grandfather knew his dead father in law was born Jewish, it was bad enough she was a Catholic and his parents were Congregationalists, as was he! My great grandfather Abraham Ellis was given a Christian burial, but on one census there was a person from his family visiting them, so he obviously kept in touch with them. I found the revelation absolutely fascinating and without the Ancestry DNA test I’d never have found out.

I'm on a mission to go as far back with my surname as possible trying to confirm, or de-bunk, a long held potential family connection. I haven't made it far enough yet, but so much more has been revealed via Ancestry's detailed and fascinating "Hints". These must not be automatically accepted, but are VERY helpful. The DNA coding, which has been 'shaped' by revisions over time as more ancestors are logged, has been most illuminating.
For me, the subscription has been very worthwhile.

I began researching my family in the 1970's using microfiche at the library. I came to a holt because records had been destroyed in a fire at the church. Later I joined Ancestry and they have made some amazing discoveries. My 4th ggf was a gardener for the George family at their Bryanston home. There he met and married their daughter Susanna. Her mother Elizabeth was a Seymour so I am directly related to the Dukes of Somerset. My ancestry goes back via them, Lady Catherine Grey and the Brandon family to King Henry V11 who is my 12th ggf. My earliest record so far King Henry 1V 1366.
I have also discovered through Ancestry that for the past 52 years I have been living a couple of miles away from Berry Pomeroy Castle. Once owned by my ancestors. Lord Edward Seymour 1529/1593 and his family have their tombs in the Seymour Chapel in the local church.
All these discoveries have been with the amazing help of Ancestry.

The addition of AI has made searching for ancestors much quicker and easier. You still have to check that the matches suggested are correct, but it saves a lot of time at the outset.

Very good way to discover your family tree, and history. I have used it for many years, and it is an excellent tool.

Having gathered information for 15 years I now understand where we came from. Not necessarily the most exciting but more than interesting

My paternal grandmother died when I was 8 years old, I vaguely remember seeing her but she was very frail so I have few memories and I never knew my paternal grandfather. I constructed my paternal grandmothers tree but when I asked about my paternal grandfather, my mum said that my father never knew who his father was, I asked about his birth certificate but there was no father listed. My parents wedding certificate showed a John Thomas Walton (deceased) but John Thomas was killed in a tragic railway accident in 1926, 5 years before my father was born, so he clearly wasn’t my grandfather. I carried on with my family tree hoping that I would come across my missing grandfather and then I took and Ancestry DNA test, on receiving the results there was only one name I recognised, one of my first cousins. About a week after I received the results I was contacted by a lady from London who said that she saw that we were 3rd - 4th cousins but couldn't see how we were connected. From the shared DNA she saw that I was related to her great grandfather who was from Durham, whereas my paternal great grandmother was from Pontefract, she was born, lived and died there. Using traditional geneaology, and DNA testing I did trace someone who ghad moved from Durham to Pontefract and I had a potnetial candidate for my maternal grandfather. I seemed to have hit a brisk wall but I put a request on the Pontefract Facebook group asking if anyone had any photographs of the person I had indentified and his grandaughter replied. She subsequnetly too kand Ancestry DNA test which confirmed that we were first cousins. Using Ancestry I had found my paternal grandfather, unfortunately my father had passed away 3 years ealrlier as he would have been delighted to find out that he had another 9 half siblings.

THANK YOU ANCESTRY FOR AN EASY TO USE GUIDE TO OUR FAMILY TREE. THE HINTS ARE INVALUABLE WHEN GOING BACK TO TO 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES. FOR SOMEONE OLD AND NOT COMPUTOR SAVY ITS GREAT WAY TO SPEND YOUR TIME .JOHN SHORT

I have done my family tree and my employers, he was a member of the Royal Family and both he and I found both a great deal of interest.
Easy to use and fascinating to find all the cross references.
Plus found a daughter I never knew I had. Love it.

The very annoying thing it does continually, is link a relative to me by the wrong relationship.
EG. My paternal aunts comes up with a listing as my sister under her name. I do not have a sister, and she is my father's sister.
I do not seem to be able to alter this on their profile etc.

NEW FORMAT IS AWFUL FOR CONFIRMING HINTS AS YOU HAVE TO SWITCH BACK AND FORTH FROM HINTS TO PROFILE. BE VERY CAREFULL WHEN TRYING TO CANCEL ACCOUNT, NOT AS SIMPLE AS IT SHOULD BE. ALSO BE AWARE YOU NOW HAVE TO PAY A FEE JUST TO LOOK AT YOUR TREE, EVEN AFTER PAYING £100'S OVER THE YEARS

I discovered that I am related to both William Shakespeare and Percy Bysse Shelley, husband of Mary Shelley.

TO FIND FAMILY AND THE CONNECTION HAS BEEN GREAT.THE PHOTOS HELP A LOT , AND THE HINTS ARE A GOOD GUIDE TO FINDING OUT MORE INFO

Ancestry pulls disproportionally American punters. The latter are generally less rigorous in research and ignorant of European geography. Nevertheless the company is valuable due to its database size. I am able to evaluate new offerings and occasionally confirm or refute prejudicies.