Ancestry.com World Explore Review & Giveaway!

Have you ever wondered where your family came from? My Husband has wondered that for years. Things like did your family members fight in any of the major wars. Did they immigrate from another country. What did they do for a living? These are all question that my Husband wanted to know. He new a little bit about his family but really not much beyond his grandfather. 

So when I was given a chance to review the awesome website Ancestry.com you could just imagine that my year had just been made. I was also going to make one Hubby very very happy. So with the information I had I set out to see what I could find out. 

It is real easy to get started. You start with the name of your oldest relative. Which for me would be my Hubby's grandfather. Then click get started. With that one click I was able to find my Husbands grandfather on the 1930 Census in Connecticut. He was a child living with his Father, Mother, Grandfather and Grandmother. So with just that one search I found my Husbands Great Grandfather, Great Grandmother, Great Great Grandfather and Great Great Grandmother. {you should have seen me doing the happy dance} Talk about a rush. 

From that one census I was able to learn were Grandpa was raised. I also learned that Great Grandpa & Great Great Grandpa were farmers and worked on their Great Great Grandpas land. I also learned that Great Great Grandpa and Great Great Grandma immigrated from Denmark in 1880's. I found all that out from just one census. 

I would like for you to meet Great Great Grandpa and Great Great Grandma on my Husbands side of the family. Yes that is a picture of my Husbands great great Grandparents. 

I learned so much from just one little search. With the information in hand I was determined to learn more. So off I went to learn more and more was what I learned. I found cousins, great aunts and uncles. Some good and some not so good. You are really never sure what might be hiding in your family tree, but I am still fascinated at all that we learned about my Husbands history. I can not wait to learn more and I am sure with time I will learn more.


So things that you may not know about Ancestry.com. 

• Ancestry.com is the world’s largest online family history resource with 2.1 million subscribers across its Ancestry.com branded websites. The company has approximately 2.7 million subscribers across all its websites, including Archives.com, Fold3.com and Newspapers.com.
• More than 12 billion records have been added to the site over the past 17 years, and Ancestry.com adds an average of 2 million records to its website each day.
• Ancestry.com hosts the world’s largest online collection of family history records – currently more than 9 billion U.S. records.
• Ancestry.com members have created more than 50 million family trees containing more than 5 billion profiles and have uploaded and attached more than 175 million photographs, scanned documents and written stories to their trees.
• Ancestry.com subscribers have made more than 6 billion connections between their trees and other subscribers’ trees since the feature was added to the site in early 2008.

Now with all that said do you not just want to see what you can learn about your family tree? Well here are 10 tips from Ancestry.com to help with your search. I have to say that they became very handy to know when searching for my Husband ancestors.

1. Begin at the Beginning—If you are new to researching your family history, start with what you know. Once you have entered what you know, talk to parents, grandparents, cousins, etc. to find out more about your family tree. Write down any “family legends” that you hear—those legends often have some strand of truth that can guide you to the correct information.

2. Organize Your Research—Using a software program of your choice, create a pedigree chart that houses all of your family history information. Keep a log of your research so you can return quickly from where you left off. Citing your sources is easier than you think, adds credibility to your research, and will help you remember where you found the information which can give you a starting point for further research.

3. Utilize Search Engines—Enter your ancestor’s name, place of birth, spouse, etc. into an online search engine. You can find newspaper articles, obituaries, journals, county histories, and much more just by entering basic search information. Using the tilde operator (~) can also help focus your search results. Using the tilde operator (~) takes the word immediately following it and searches for that specific word, as well as synonyms for that word. An example would be “John Smith ~genealogy” or “John Smith ~headstone.”

4. Discover Hidden Information—Using Ancestry.com, search the U.S. Civil War Pension Index to see if your ancestor received an Invalid or Widow’s Pension. A treasure trove of information may be found in the many pages of a pension record including birth and marriage dates, names of children, a physical description, a list of injuries, etc. If you happen to be researching an area that doesn’t have 19th century birth records, a pension file is a great secondary source for a vital event.

 5. Connect with Cousins—Online message boards at Ancestry.com are a fantastic way to connect with long-lost cousins to discover new information. A post from several years ago can still lead to that elusive piece of research you’ve been longing to find.

6. Find Military Connections—Wondering if someone in your family tree served during WWI? The 1930 U.S. Census is a great resource for finding out about WWI service. Find your ancestor in the 1930 Census and check the far right column on the record. It will list if they were a veteran of the military! Now you know to look for more records regarding military service and WWI.

7. Search for Siblings—Family often remained together or nearby through history. So when you can’t find an ancestor, search for his or her siblings instead. Search up and down census pages, city directories and more. You may discover you ancestor was living just down the street from a sibling – or even in the same house. Not sure which sibling to search? Try the one with the most unique given name first. That way if you’re missing your own ancestor because of a misspelled or common surname, you may be able to find the family faster through a first name-only search of a uniquely named sibling. Note any sibling obituaries you find, too: they may mention the ancestor you’re seeking as well as his or her city of residence.

8. Investigate Out-of-Print Books—Google has digitized millions of out-of-print books, some of which are available to download and read online. You can search within the digitized book for your ancestors and find not only personal information about their lives but also discover their family history story and the contextual history of the area in which they lived.

9. Map It Out—The Internet is a great resource for finding old maps. Many maps have land boundaries, building locations, occupant listings, etc. that can point you in the right direction for discovering further records and information.

10. Think Outside the Internet Box—Don’t just live online. Many records and information you find online will lead you to a county courthouse, a battlefield, or a family cemetery. Take the time to walk where your ancestors walked and see their world with a new point of view.

Now let me say one thing. Be careful! Yes be careful. When I set out to learn about my Husbands family history I did not realize I was going to learn so much so fast. Which turned in to me wanting to learn more. Which then turned into my looking up and seeing it was 4:00 am in the morning and I had been researching for a very very very long time. Time just got away from me. I learned so much and was so intrigued with the stories that were being put together. The history I was learning and being able to share with my Husband. It was just amazing.

What is even better is they have some great rates for their subscription.You can choose to pay monthly or for 6 months at a time. You can choose from these great 6 month subscriptions.

U.S. Discovery - Access to all the U.S. records on Ancestry.com for $99

World Explorer - Access to the U.S. & International records on Ancestry.com for $149

World Explorer Plus - Access to the U.S. & International records on Ancestry.com as well as Newspapers.com and Fold3.com

With that being said. What is even more amazing is that Ancestry.com is allowing me to giveaway a 6 months World Explore Subscription to one lucky reader. Who is excited to learn about their families ancestors?

To keep up with the latest info make sure you follow them on Twitter and also like them on Facebook.

Good Luck! I hope you win.

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Disclosure: I was given the products featured in this post to facilitate my review. All opinions are 100% mine and not influenced in any way.