How do ancestry websites work? Is it even possible to link back generations like that?

[ilanore]

[texashorty]

Like what? There is no magic website with all the answers; if that's what you mean. You have to do the work and not expect the work to have already been done for you. I might use 6 or 8 sources in just a few minutes time.

[wendy c]

"link generations back".
Of course. That is exactly what genealogy is...the use of records/ documents, which validate the relationship of persons, generally parent/child but also siblings.
Ancestry websites are not necessarily genealogy...all they are places for posted family "trees" (which frequently have errors), OR original records. A death certificate is one type of original record (even if it can have errors)..same for census records. Tombstones are a "record".
Ancestry sites DO NOT do the "work". You do. There is a key to it, which is the method. Starting with yourself, you PROVE your parents by a record. This makes a foundation to build with. Next, PROVE who each of your grandparents were, not by linking to you..but link your parent to them. Next..prove the parents of your 4 grandparents, using documents. You are not specifically named as their gr grandchild..the linking of the other documents creates the chain. You just keep going, by learning what the different sources of info are.
Genealogy has been around since before computers. I used to personally go to a courthouse, to find a will (those name children and wives). The process is about the records... the computer and internet is just one means of making records acessible. Persons who simply copy other family trees fail to know the WAY to use documents to insure having the right person/record..thus, passing along faulty information. If persons do good research, the trees can be good.
You just have to know the difference between the research process and how the computer can make it easier.

[shortgilly]

Ancestry sites vary greatly in what they offer. None does the work for you. Common things they provide include:
-images of original records
-transcriptions of original records
-databases and indexes to help locate original records
-historical or geographic information
-tutorials
-catalogs of resources or lists of links
-forums for making social connections
-user-submitted trees

Ancestry.com may seem as though it does the work for you because of the leaf thing, but this is really nothing more than a sophisticated search engine giving you possible matches they have on file. User-submitted trees are about as reliable as Facebook. It's just a place to share your own work, and the quality of each person's work varies.

Can you link generations back? YES. That's what genealogists do using records that identify people and their relationships such as birth, marriage, death, census, and court records, etc. The basic process is:
1. Interview your living relatives.
2. Examine your documents and those of relatives that will allow it.
3. Prepare for research by learning about basic genealogy, genealogy specific to your known ancestors.
4. Organize your data. Free & low cost software is available.
5. Research one document at time for one generation at a time for one person at a time.

Ancestry/genealogy websites are just ONE of the tools available to help accomplish steps 3-5.

[Shirley T]

Whatever website or websites you use, be very wary of family trees. They are subscriber submitted and there are tons of errors in them. Even if you see the absolute same information on the same people from many different subscribers that doesn't mean the information is accurate as too many people copy without verifying. So look for records. Don't view family trees as records. Actually if you find wrong information on some of your family in any website, free or fee, those that run the websites will tell you that is between you and the other subscriber. They don't get involved. It would be too costly for them to hire people to verify all the information their subscribers submit. Also don't expect to find information on the living on genealogy websites as that can be an invasion of privacy and can lead to identity theft.

[Good for you!]

No, I tried lots of those websites and every time I searched for one of my family members like 8,000,000 names came up! You pretty much have to know everything about your family members already in order to find them if they are on there which kind of defeats the purpose.

[Maxi]

Many ancestry websites, have databases of records that have been transcribed, collected/harvested data from what people collect or they harvest from what people add to their websites, these are all used so when you put your information you are looking or it is matched to what they have in their database and those are the 'results' you get....................a database doesn't know your ancestry and may of the 'results' are not cited......so 'results' are jut options that you need to verify, the reality is NO they can't link generations together although that is exactly what people using those websites do and end up with a collection of unrelated names by working like that, not checking back to real record, not verifying what 'results' they get and think they have their ancestors.
Some websites have spreadsheets, pdf, word documents of transcribed records, such as lists of baptisms, marriages or burials ( PRs) and you can search these to find your ancestors
Some have scan copies of records, which you can view and print off for your records, these are copies of REAL records.

The internet is just a tool that can be used,although many use it as if it is the only tool in the tool box............in family research the only way to ensure you get YOUR ancestors and the correct information is to get to see all or as many of the records as possible use the to cross reference to get the information about the events in your ancestors life to prove they are YOUR ancestor....and using connecting documents such a birth certs which show child and parents, census returns, which show family groups etc.

So websites are useful but they are not the 'be all and end all' of family research ..........................

[Ted Pack]

There are over 400,000 free sites devoted to genealogy. They work different ways.

GenForum and the query boards at Ancestry.com are query boards. They are free. They work like Y!A, except there is one for every county in the USA, shire in the UK, province in Canada, and country elsewhere; also 10's of thousands devoted to specific surnames. So, if your ancestors came from Monroe County, VA (Now WV), you'd post a query there about them, and someone might answer it. The boards are much smaller than Y!A, much more focused, and don't get as many "wut is my ancestory? pic included" questions.

The US Gen Web has a site for each county. They range in quality. The best have wills, deeds, census transcriptions, maps, tombstone transcriptions, and biographies from those wonderful ole "Biographical History of --- County" books. The worst don't.

Some sites - Roots Web World Connect, GenCircles and the Public Member Trees part of Ancestry have nothing but user-submitted data. Some public trees are well-researched. Some are not. They can be clues. They can also lead you astray, if you trust but don't verify.

Ancestry.com has 30,000+ data bases of genealogical data that subscribers can access 24/7, from home. How those work is you get up before your wife can think of things for you to do, pull up whatever tree you are working on, and start looking for people in, for instance, the US Census from 1930 back to 1850. If the person in question married in Missouri, you look on the data base of Missouri Marriages to see who she married; then you look for her under her married name in the next census (ie, Mary Smith married Hezekiah Kablonski in 1905; you look for her in 1910, to see if her birth place and year match your Mary Smith. If she is living next door to her parents, or with her parents, or her widowed mother is living with her, you can be pretty sure that's the Mary Smith you are after.)

[sillyanswer592]

Ancestry websites work by people, such as yourself, submitting their family tree and by searchers photocopying public records and putting those on the site.

That's it: public records that have been copied and family trees that people upload.

Whether ancestry.com, the Mormons, or whomever, no effort is made to determine the validity of the trees or records.

But, of course, there is no way to determine the validity of the records; which is strange in itself, as people always assume that public records are 100% accurate. They aren't, but what can you do? That is why so many claim that no one can actually trace their ancestry even 200 years; public records are not accurate, and 10% - 20% of births are illegitimate.

As to how generations are linked, it is the same as when you say, "These are my parents". That's it: you know your parents, your parents knew their parents, and so on. Then someone puts in on the web.