The first thing to remember when searching on Ancestry.com (or any genealogy research site, for that matter), is that the search results are only as good as the information that has been transcribed by a human. And humans make mistakes. I have submitted hundreds of corrections to Ancestry.com. For both the (Ancestry.com) World Archives Project as well as for records that are already on Ancestry.com, I not only transcribe records, but I am an arbitrator. I'm always amazed at how some folks submit stuff.

Having said all that, it's also possible that you are putting too much information into the search, especially if you have the little checkmarks in place for "exact match." Often the death record indexes will only have month and year of death, but not the date. They will have the county in which the person died, but not the city/town. And it's much more difficult, in general, to find the burial location.

Some localities are so much better than others when it comes to making information readily available online. My mother's family immigrated from Ireland and settled in Minnesota. Minnesota is an online goldmine when it comes to genealogy research. My father's family immigrated from Italy and settled in Pennsylvania, which is a barren desert when it comes to genealogy. (In fact, for me to even obtain a copy of my grandmother's death certificate via snail mail, I have to PROVE THAT I AM RELATED TO HER. Considering that folks often obtain copies of birth/death certificates to find out whether or not they're related, this is really limiting. And she died in 1981 at the age of 85...)

When doing genealogy research, you start with what you know as a certainty, then you work backwards/outwards from there. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut feelings. The more research you do, the better you'll get at reading those gut feelings, too. :-)

If you want, send me an e-mail through my page, and give me what information you have... Your sister-in-law's first, middle, and last (maiden and married) names, date and place of birth, parents' names, siblings' names, etc. Also date of death and where you think she died. I'll search and see what I come up with.

Lindsey - Thanks. Your suggestions are just what I needed and I didn't even know it.

I'm just starting out and on Saturday I went to an open house run by a local Genealogical Society to attend 2 of their workshops: 'How to begin your family search' and 'Internet Searches'. The person offering the internet workshop got all bogged down answering specific questions for individuals in the audience rather then ever presenting an overall talk on the topic.

Perhaps you can give me advice as to which Family Tree Maker -Ancestry.com I should purchase. My children are giving it to me as an early Christmas present and I have to admit that Ancestry's bookstore web site is a little overwhelming to a novice. I thought that might have been the kind of information I could have gotten at the workshops.

Thanks, Maire

To maire-cate
I will be updating to 2011 version soon, but I had it free for awhile, but felt it was worth it to purchase membership, whick I did and went with the world wide version. No it is not cheap, but with the relatives coming from other countries it was worth it to me.
I wish you the best and wish we had a forum for all of us.
Marie

Maybe we could prevail upon Lindsey to host a Genealogy Forum? (There could be some chocolate it it, Lindsey! LOL)

I started nosing around in my family tree twelve years ago, then we built a house and bought a vacation condo, and I have never gotten ORGANIZED! A few weeks ago, when murraysmom was able to send me photos of a family grave site from Cincinnati I got interested again.

I am bogged down in Ireland, Scotland and France. My most recent immigrant was my maternal grandmother, arriving NYC from Ireland pre-Ellis Island. Earliest ones were pre-Revolutionary War.

I sure agree with Lindsey about the messy information. You have to look very carefully to weed out the mistakes where different families with similar names are grouped as one.

Thanks again Lindsey. that kind of confirms what I had initially thought and it just might make more sense to start off with the 2011 World Wide version.

Maire

Everyone -- Let's not get confused here... the "version of" Family Tree Maker has little, if anything, to do with membership at Ancestry.com; and the membership at Ancestry.com is not contingent upon use of the Family Tree Maker software.

Yes, Ancestry.com is now owned by the Church of the Latter Day Saints (I hope I got that right -- I'm Catholic), and Ancestry.com now owns the company that produces the Family Tree Maker software (it used to be owned by Genealogy.com, when they were separate companies).

BUT, you don't have to have a membership at Ancestry.com to purchase and use the Family Tree Maker software; just as you don't have to have the Family Tree Maker software to have a membership to Ancestry.com.

The software is used to enter all of the information that you gather during your hours/days/months/years of research. It organizes it and allows you to produce charts, reports, etc. Family Tree Maker is only one of several genealogical software programs. Everyone has their preference, but I will say that Family Tree Maker is my preference. It integrates beautifully with Ancestry.com, in that you can be working in the software and then activate a search on Ancestry.com for records pertaining to that person.

You can have a membership at Ancestry.com without owning Family Tree Maker software. You could be using another genealogical software to enter the information that you find on Ancestry.com.

OK, having said all that, there ARE differences in Ancestry.com memberships. There is a World Deluxe membership and there is also a U.S. Deluxe membership. If you opt to subscribe to the U.S. Deluxe membership, you will not have access to any records from outside the United States -- for example, you won't be able to see the Census records from England or Canada. You won't see any records from France, Australia, etc., etc. If you have the World Deluxe membership, you will have access to EVERYTHING.

Also, once you determine whether you want to "stay domestic or go global," you'll need to decide on a subscription period. You can subscribe on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual basis. Yes, if you subscribe to the World Deluxe on an annual basis, you will have to pay $299.40 in one lump sum (yay for credit cards). BUT, that's less than $1 per day (it's 82 cents per day), and it's less than if you paid for 12 months at the monthly rate ($359.40 total). So, start saving your pennies, and tell everyone you know that all you want for Christmas is money towards an Ancestry subscription! :-)

I'm not sure when Ancestry changed it, but there used to be four different memberships -- U.S. Standard, U.S. Deluxe, World Standard, and World Deluxe. I think it's a lot easier now that they've narrowed it down to two.

OH -- for those of you who live in Canada, Australia, Italy, France, etc. -- Ancestry does have websites "in" different countries, and I'm certain the pricing is different there -- for example, Canada would have a Canada-only membership as well as the World Deluxe; Italy has an Italy-only membership, etc. So, if that's all you need, check out those sites:

When you have an Ancestry membership, you can also create a tree on the Ancestry.com web site. You can make it "public," so that anyone else with an Ancestry membership can see it, or you can make it "private," so only you can see it. Either way, you can send (through Ancestry) an e-mail invitation to anyone so that they can view your tree, regardless of whether or not they have a membership. Also, when you have a "public" tree, other folks with Ancestry memberships cannot see details on anyone who is, or may be, still living. All they will see is "Living LastName." They can tell if the person is male or female, but that's it.

If you have genealogical software with information already entered, you export it to Gedcom format (don't worry - you'll see that choice when choosing to export), and then you can upload that Gedcom file to Ancestry.com to create your tree there. The really cool thing about having a tree on Ancestry.com is that the web site is always searching in the background, and when it thinks it has a match, you will see a little green leaf attached to the person's name, and then you can click on that to review the possible matches. If any of them are valid, you can attach them as a reference source to your tree. You'll also get e-mail notices when Ancestry. thinks it has found a match.

I will say, though, that it can be a pain to keep the two trees (online and in the Family Tree Maker software on your computer) in synch!

If you buy the Family Tree Maker software, always, always, always buy the most recent version. They are currently selling the 2011 edition (it was recently released). They come out with an upgrade nearly every year like clockwork, but you don't need to upgrade every year - you only need to upgrade if you think they've added enough new stuff to make it worthwhile. If you are an Ancestry.com member, you will receive a discount on future software upgrades, and possibly even receive a free copy. (I'm currently using the 2006 version, even though sitting here on the shelf are the CDs for every year's version since then, including 2011!)

OH - if you buy the software, one of the "perks" is that you get a free 14-day trial membership at Ancestry.com.

But, don't say I didn't warn you.... genealogy research is extremely addicting!