Has anyone used Ancestry.com?

I did it to research a guy my dad was trying to get info on for a book. It was useful, but they relentlessly sent me emails until I changed addresses.

I've used https://www.fold3.com/ which is part of ancestry.com

Found some census documents filled out by my great grandparents, which was awesome to see. The questionnaire asked cool things like if they owned a radio, how much their rent was, etc. I also helped fill out a page on my grandfather who was in WWII and linked to my grandmother and other family members from his page.

Did all that on a free trial. It's primarily geared towards military I believe, but I found those census documents which had nothing to do with military... It's really cool if you do have any family with military background though.

Oh and I have an aunt who researched my entire family a long while back, I think you can go to the state archives and get a lot of info as well.

Nope, afraid of what I might find.

Will add that there are a lot of family trees posted on the site....may help in your search

I've used it and I find it really useful and interesting. I'm a genealogy nut so it's definitely a great tool to use.

I've traced my mom's side through the Cajuns back to Canada, found a TON on old American families on my dad's side...coming over on the Mayflower, signing the Declaration of Independence, fighting in major wars since (and including) the Revolution. It's amazing what you can find in the actual scans of old records.

I used it to find out a touching story about my paternal great-grandfather. Seems he was seriously injured in an accident at a foundry in Vermont. The family and his co-workers brought him back to his house where he expired after suffering for two days. They buried him in a wooden box several days after that because he started to smell up the house. I'm glad the Internet was invented so I could learn this touching story.

Thanks for reminding me of this story, I love you Paw Paw "Lucky" where ever you are!

I have access to ancestry. My cousin and I have been building our tree for the last 2 years. You might get lucky and find the work that others have done. My cousin has spent countless hours building our tree and I am sure others are doing the same. I know all my ancestors back to at lest 4 generations. Some even further. I have made many home visits and copied countless old pictures to help document. Do it now. When your grandparents die, many of their old photos will be useless. They need to be labeled while they are alive and know who they are.

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We had plantations and stuff

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Racist!!1

Nah. I had an ancestor who fought for the Confederacy (and died of typhoid fever 4 months after enlistment). :X
I have another ancestor who was Union side, so...?

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I guess that happens when one family has ten kids and those ten kids have ten kids of their own, and so on. Pretty soon, you have mistaken info posted on Ancestry, so some more in-depth research may be needed to get it right.

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Yep, there's a lot of double-checking involved. Some people will just throw connections into their family tree without really looking at it, then when you try to use theirs for reference it gets messed up.

Those Cajuns really did churn 'em out. My great-grandfather, a Breaux, was one of 17 kids.