Ancestry.com is one of the largest and best commercial databases for genealogy research.  I have subscribed to it for many years, and have found it very useful and convenient.  I like not having to drive somewhere to look at census images, and I also like being able to do so at any time of the day or night (yes, I've found ancestors in my underwear at midnight -- what they were doing in my underwear, I'll never know).  Many Family History Centers (including the Dorian FHC in Boise) also subscribe, so this page of examples will help you whether you are a paid subscriber or not.  If, after investigating Ancestry.com, you do decide to subscribe for yourself, I encourage you to do so by following this link (I get a kickback):

TK Ancestry.com link will go here ***

Ancestry.com advertises itself as "The No. 1 Source for Family History Online", and they deserve this title.  Years ago, before computers and the Internet, there was a company called "Ancestry, Inc." which published a variety of genealogical materials.  Now that company is called "MyFamily.com" and also runs a variety of Internet sites, including Ancestry.com.  From Ancestry.com's home page, you can search a variety of databases (including online census images), look at family trees that other researchers have uploaded, leave queries on a number of geographical and surname message boards, learn the best techniques to research your family tree, and purchase a variety of books, videos, and CD-ROM databases.

Let's look at some of the things that Ancestry.com has to offer, using my ancestor, Isaleen CRIST:

At Ancestry.com's home page, I enter her name in the search box:

When I click the "Search>>" button (and after expanding the "+" sign), here's what I get:

The "Ancestry World Tree" consists of user-uploaded family trees.  They are free and offered "as-is".  Remember that undocumented genealogy is just a good story, that might give you clues or hints to finding your ancestors, but please be very careful before incorporating others' work into your own database -- much more will be said on this topic in a later lecture.

Isaleen seems not to have a current phone or address listing, which is not surprising, since her married name was CONNAWAY and she has been dead for over 50 years.

It appears, then, that all we have found is a single marriage record.  Am I complaining?  Not at all:

(By the way, this looks different from the record as it is first displayed.  I used the "Printer Friendly" button to get a display that is better not only for printing but also better for this web page.)

If you pop back up a screen or so, you'll see that I had Isaleen's marriage date as 8 Apr 1868, which I found in Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana, which I photocopied on a research trip to the Genealogy Department of the Allen County (Indiana) Public Library.  This database, a transcription of Ruth Slevin's valuable work, gives the marriage date as 22 Apr 1868.  Which is correct? It could be a transcription error by Ancestry.com when creating the database, or a transcription error by Ruth Slevin when she was compiling Indiana records, but my money is on a forgetful informant when the county history was compiled in 1899.  In any case, I'll update the PAF notes I have for Isaleen and try to find an original document later.

By now, you're probably champing at the bit, wondering where those wonderful census images are, and hey, why doesn't Isaleen have any?  Have patience, we're getting there.  Ancestry.com has census images for all of the U.S. Federal Censuses, from 1790 to 1930.  The images for 1790-1850 and 1920 are indexed by head of household, the images for 1860 are partially indexed by head of household, and the 1930 images are indexed by each individual.

Isaleen CRIST isn't listed in any of Ancestry.com's census indexes because she was not the head of household in 1850 and in 1920 and 1930 her name was Isaleen CONNAWAY.  Let's try the 1920 census and see what we can find:

Results in:

This doesn't seem to be too promising.  What's the problem?  The problem is that we're being too specific in our search screen.  Since we know from Isaleen's death certificate that she lived in Union County, Indiana in 1930, let's try just her last name in that location:

This gives us better results, six different images including this one:

This is our Isaleen, very close to her expected age -- the reason we didn't find her before was because her name was misspelled.  Now comes the fun part, clicking on "View Image Online".  But before we do that, let me give you a tip.  I guarantee that you will want to come back to this page and get the details on year, roll, page, ED, and so on.  The easy way to do this is not to just click on "View Image Online", but to right-click, choosing "Open in New Window" from the drop-down menu:

This automatically gives us a new window, and we can easily bounce back and forth between the windows using "Alt+Tab" as needed.  Here's part of what the new window looks like:

Obviously, this is way too small to read, so our next step is to click on the "View Full Screen" tab, which automatically opens another new window (see how helpful "Alt+Tab" is becoming?).  The image is still too small to read the details, but even so, skimming over it we can spot Isaleen about 10 lines down the page.  Clicking there zooms in for us:

and we can use the MrSID viewer (a free plug-in from Ancestry.com that automatically runs in your browser's window) to scroll around and see whatever details we want.  Note, by the way, that Isaleen's name was spelled correctly on the census, and the misspelling that confused us earlier was a transcription error by Ancestry.com.  This is more common than one would like (Isaleen's son, Garfield A. CONNAWAY, is listed as "Isabell" in the index), but usually doesn't prevent one from finding the desired record.

Even better, we can save or print out the census image for our files.  To print, right-click anywhere on the image and choose "Print Image..." from the drop-down menu.  Make sure that you choose high quality and the entire image:

and you're off and running.  Depending on your printer and the census image, you will probably want to also choose landscape orientation.  Now that your printing is done, you need to "Alt+Tab" back to your original search results window (that's why we opened a new window) and copy the source data onto your printed image.  This will save you lots of headaches in the future when you transcribe the census into your PAF database.

Obviously, there's a lot more to say about census images, but I think you'll be able to figure everything out.  If not, call me (this offer only for Boise PAF Users Group members!).

Besides census images, Ancestry.com provides many other very useful databases.  I chose Isaleen for this lecture precisely because, as a female in American society, she would have fewer records compiled about her life, and thus the scope of this lecture was limited.  When I search for other relatives, I find links not only to census records but also to birth, marriage, and death records; biography and history; community and message boards; military records; reference and finding aids; periodicals and newspapers; court, land, and probate records; and directories and membership lists.  Perhaps if pressed I'll discuss how to use some of those other records at a later date.