Member of the church or not, I have worked on family history for over 50 years simply because I enjoyed it. This year I learned that ancestry was raising it's charges significantly with the top level going from $300 to $400 for a year. Not only am I on a limited income but I'm outraged that there are very few avenues anymore that people can access freely. Then to make matters worse I find out that all of their records are available to members of the church for free.

Yes I did leave the church. I left for a lot of reasons that were a response to ignorant and demeaning behavior by members.
I don't care what the church believes. I want nothing to do with the downright hatred I see and hear spewing forth every time some one feels moved upon by something that bears little or no resemblance to Christlike behavior, unconditional love, kindness,mercy or charity. All I see now are people who don't give a s**t how their behavior along with their evil pronouncements, affect the millions of people out there who are silently bearing burdens that would gag a maggot.

As far as family history goes. I'm DONE. I'm taking care of the living.

Here here!

Thank you for your response.it has been a week of reflection on the really mean things that have bee directed at me since I left the church and when I realized I had to close my family history account it was overwhelming.

Your response gave me a smile, so thank you

They just have to provide their membership number

I find it quite odd that they go out of their way to disassociate themselves as being mormon friendly and then provide their paid services for free to mormons.

What I understand is that they struck a deal with the Mormon church to gain access to a lot of their information they, in turn would provide free access to members. The part that is unfortunate part is now when I go to find just about anything, such as obituaries I'm immediately redirected to "ancestry" with the invitation to enjoy s "free trial"

Seriously, church members get it for free? Do they have to be tithe paying?

Is this a barter or something they should be paying taxes on?

How about www.geni.com ? It's what I use.

I got all my genealogy from Roots Web World Connect. It was free.
They have joined up with Ancestry but they were still free last year. Hopefully it still is.

Speak with a librarian at your public library. Sometimes, Ancestry is one of the databases you can access for free with your library card.

Hope this helps...

librarykim2

Not to be a contrarian but $300-400 isn't an unreasonable price for such a service, nor is it unreasonable for it to be free for people whose tithes help pay for it. If you're upset at how much it costs just think of how much money you've saved on tithing :)

I have absolutely no argument with you. You are right on all counts. i have used ancestry for a long time without a complaint

When I left the church, my marriage ended after 44 years and I am living without any financial help now. I was a dutiful Mormon wife and stayed at home and now I'm scrambling to take care of basics. I'm having to figure out how to take care of myself. I'm sure you understand why, like it or not, family history had to go

Check with your local library. Many offer an ancestry thru online searches or in the library for free. That's what I have been doing for years

Wow - hadn't heard it will be going up! Guess it will just show up as a lovely credit card renewalentry. Three points to consider.
Yes, most libraries offer it for free, but there is such a thing as the ancestry library edition, which does not offer as much as the individual memberships. I don't know exactly what the difference is. Maybe a librarian can tell you.
I have on occasion let trusted friends to use my computer after I've signed into my account to research their families.
Third, do local church history centers let you use their ancestry accounts? In my experience though, the volunteers usually want to spend time with you discussing their family history.

/silly

Had you had the forethought to be born to Latin American parents, you would have had, tops, five generations to track and then after that, they're all lost in the jungle/desert/mountains/whatever.

/silly

I dumped ancestry because it's embarassing when your family tree is nothing but thieves, drunks, crazies, whores, and idiots.

ignorance is bliss...

Add polygamists to the list.

Good advice to "take care of the living", which includes yourself.

My Mormon husband abandoned me and our children without any financial help. He said that he didn't care what happened to us, and then he ran off with another woman. I felt as though my ex-husband had killed me and our children.

The last thing I ever thought about was finding names of dead ancestors. It was pretty clear what God wanted me to do--save my children, support them, help them through the divorce, emotionally.

The only thing the Mormon cult did for me was make things worse! They disrespected me because I was a divorced woman. They marginalized me because I was a working mother. They kept bothering me and giving me orders to accompany people on the piano, to clean the building, to take dinner to someone who didn't really need it, and countless other things that would have taken me away from my children and my career.

There are a thousand better uses for your valuable time! Even just relaxing and having fun would raise your spirits and make your life better. Genealogy is just another made-up Mormon useless reason for them to control you, and to heap more guilt on you if you don't do it.

44 Years. I wish you all the blessings in the world. You will get through this! It really will help to shave off all the negative, exhausting, distracting nonsense in your life. You will learn to appreciate freedom and solitude and independence.

Studies show that single women are happier than married women, and I can completely understand why.

Thank you so much for your support. The minute I filed for divorce,(My children are grown) after a lifetime of service in every organization including the family history center, I became a non entity, an enemy to the church. I was harassed and terrorized. I was quietly threatened and shunned. I finally decided to leave officially. Since I was shoved out in every way possible I figured I might as well make it official.

As far as family history goes, I come from a long line of Mormons on both sides. I discovered that instead of one polygamist, there were five. LOL.

I've been out for five years. I do love the challenge of discovery and finding the details about the lives of these people and some of the challenges they faced. A lot of them did leave the church.

I am sorry to hear of the struggles you and your children have had to deal with. I guess the only direction for us to go is up. All my best to youc

Beyond public and university libraries, you can also access Ancestry.com and other fee-based data bases for free through The U.S. National Archives in certain major cities, including Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dayton, Denver, Fort Worth, Philadelphia, New York, Riverside, CA, San Francisco, and others.

http://www.archives.gov/locations/

Here is a list of National Archives Data Bases:

http://www.archives.gov/research/databases/

And here is a list of some other free resources. I didn't know about a few of them:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-10-free-genealogy-websites-to-find-ancestors/

Thank you, Summer and the others who have dispensed information about this. I will certainly explore all of the ideas expressed here.

I really found ancestry extremely helpful. While I'm not looking for a free ride.(but if I can access it using these resources, so much the better) An increase of $100 dollars in one year, is a
30% increase to what I paid last year. I find it excessive in contrast to members allowed total access for free.

Yes the members supposedly pay tithing but that is not required to join. Also, I might add, I have served willingly in the church all my life, I've helped children on missions, sent children to BYU, and dutifully supported a husband for many years while he served in the bishopric, and Stake Presidency.

After the dust has cleared, however, I'm "just-a-woman" to church
leaders and apparently that simply translates to "put up or shut up".

I understand. It's a lot of money if you are of modest means. Not too long ago, I canceled my subscription to my community newspaper, which was approaching $400 a year. I have always been a big supporter of community newspapers, but I could no longer justify the cost.

If my local library doesn't have access to Ancestry.com, I'll plan a trip to U.S. National Archives site over spring or summer break. Fortunately, I live within easy driving distance of a site.

I understand your frustration about all you have given to the Mormon church, and you no longer have access to one of the few church benefits. It sounds like it was a straight business transaction between Ancestry and the Mormon church. LDS, Inc. is not going to give something up without getting something tangible back.

According to the information you posted, Summer, I do see drivable options.