I don’t know if I’m just doing something wrong but I built my family tree and the website seems to have barely any information about my family at all. I found out more just checking out our national archives then what I found on this website. It’s maybe worth noting that I’m not in the US and it does appear to be somewhat US-centric.
The best it could find was a couple of enrollment records for voting and a single immigrant notification in an old newspaper. It didn’t find these either by itself, I had to manually go though the search system to find it. The OCR didn’t even get the spelling of the name correct.
I’m not sure what I expected but it was definitely better than this, especially for all the pay walls they throw up.
You just have to keep giving them more and more private information about yourself and your unwitting family, then something magic happens.
I’m on 23 and me and some of my long lost cousins from the south keep trying to hook up with me.
I mean, I guess that’s a complement in a way at least.
Clearly, you aren’t a super white American. My family tree got filled up easily up until the 1600s because I have a bunch of family members with nothing better to do than catalog our family tree. Apparently one half of my family came from Scotland in the 16th century so I can claim that I’m Scottish-American now.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Source: actual Scot
I think its so funny hearing people are American (whatever country their grandpappy came from) 😂
It’s because American doesn’t tell you anything about where your ancestry is from. You could be from anywhere in the world and be American. Scottish is a pretty specific things, as is just about any other nationality.
I still only say I’m American even though my family is largely from Scotland. WV Appalachian (I think Appalachian in general) has a large percentage of Scottish ancestry, and it also shares the same mountain range interestingly enough.
Definitely US-centric. You have to pay extra to get records from some countries. Works very well for people in the US
It’s maintained by The Church of the Latter Day Saints aka LDS or Mormons which is why it is so US focused.
Edit: this is incorrect as Blackstone is the majority owner as of 2020
Source?
Edit: okay, he downvoted me and the diverted the conversation. I just wanted a source, which he seems unable to provide. Just want this to serve as a reminder to people that you shouldn’t trust everything you read online, even in Lemmy comments
Interestingly, I did find links to the Singapore govt, through GIC
Looks like that is no longer the case and the Blackstone group is the majority owner now. If you look into Ancestry’s history it was started by LDS members as a project for the cult. There was investment at one point but they no longer own it.
I’m not seeing any evidence that this was church-run at any point in time. Again, do you have a source for that claim?
Just because a business was founded by a member of a certain religion, that doesn’t mean the business is owned by the church. For example, many Catholics own businesses. Does that mean the pope or their local archdiocese controls those businesses?
I’m not trying to make this into a big argument, I’m just asking for your source that explains the church’s involvement. I do see that the owner made a deal with the church for discounted memberships, but any corporation could’ve struck a contract out in a similar fashion. Yes, the LDS church seems to have a weird interest in ancestry (thus the contract and the fact that one of their members made a business out of ancestry stuff)
Owned not run. The LDS has never run Ancestry directly. The service LDS runs is a competing free service.
I can find multiple sources that state a 30% stake at certain points but I can’t say I trust them as they are blogs. I’ll keep looking.
As an aside LDS and HRCC are very different in terms of how they view money and investment.
I use familysearch.org. It’s free! I’m not sure what country you’re in, but I’ve found a lot of info on European, Italian, and some African ancestors through there.
“It’s free!” Is alarming and inappropriately cheerful.
These sites are sociopathic data harvesters, and if your relatives have any sense they’ll give you shit for exposing them to it as well. If it’s free, it’s probably even worse.
.
Bless your little heart you’re confused about how these services work.
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Take your rudeness over to r/exmormon or have a chat with anyone who’s got personal security concerns (I mean, don’t actually because you seem like a bit of a dick).
You are 100% exposing your family. It’s great for you that you don’t care about them, but don’t pretend otherwise.
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It looks like this is sponsored by the Mormon Church. They haven’t spammed you have they?
They own all of them. They have a large stake in Ancestry too. Also, the Mormon church has investment funds that own a ton of things. It was a big deal recently because they lied to the SEC to hide the size of it from their members.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensign_Peak_Advisors
Would you give 10% of your income to someone who has $124 billion already?
Beyond this, they will use the data in their fucked up rituals to “Baptize the dead”. They will take your ancestors names, and retroactively baptize them into their church without consent from the deceased or family.
That’s good to know. I knew there had to be some sort of catch, but I wasn’t expecting that
Latter-day Saints believe that the deceased may choose to accept or reject baptisms for the dead. There is no “forcing dead people to join the church” going on.
What they believe is irrelevant. It’s disrespectful to the beliefs of the deceased and their loved ones. Do you realize how insulting this would be to a Jewish person? It’s spitting in the face of their own beliefs.
I was raised LDS, though I had the good fortune to spot the BS as a teenager and haven’t set foot in a church in almost 20 years. I did however, participate in the baptisms for the dead when I was like 16. The theology is bafflingly stupid and cheerfully inconsiderate (a lot like Mormons, LOL, amiright? I’ll be here all week!).
At least when I did it, the notion is that everyone who died without a chance to honestly consider Mormon teachings is in a kind of low-intensity purgatory rather than straight-up Hell. In this place, they will still be pestered by missionaries, but for some reason it’s critical that_ someone’s_ body be physically baptized in their name. Mormons are taught that they should chug along collecting their relatives names so a random teenager in Boise who lied about whether they jerk off can get dunked in an industrial bathtub perched on top of mediocre statues of oxen. This checks the appropriate box on the deceased’s spiritual resume, so if they accept the teachings in the afterlife, the pre-reqs to be fully Mormonized will have been met. The current rules are only to do [edit: submit] names of your actual relatives, but yeah… Familysearch says we’re all related to “Thor Odinson” and Noah.
Of course, if it turned out the Mormons were right, there are some weird knock-on effects. First, why would Earthly missionary efforts be desirable at all? You’re just giving people the chance to potentially doom themselves while they are still subject to bad influences. Second, why is there no accommodation for people whose names are not recorded? Fuck them, right? Third, what on God’s green Kolob is the point of pretending there is a “choice.” I have likely fucked myself, being a dirty quitter (My wife once overheard her parents’ Mormon neighbors describe me as an “apostate”), but if it turns out the Mormons are right, I am gonna feel pretty fuckin’ dumb, and similarly, barring some “The Good Place” shenanigans, literally 100% of the people who are given the chance to accept the “Gospel” after they’re already dead will accept.
Personally, I think the LDS emphasis on genealogy was mostly a way to collect intel to assert control, inflate membership in the early days, create a shared sense of history and connection in Utah where literally none of the members had deep family roots and so many had abandoned their own families for this weird culty church. Then, finally, it gives nosy grandmas a way to do God’s work while pursuing their hobbies. Like so many things in religion generally and Mormonism specifically, it kind of got out of hand.
The current rules are only to do names of your actual relatives
Huh, that wasn’t the case the one time I was forced by my parents to do it. I didn’t have any names so they just assigned me random names. But I wouldn’t know how it is now.
literally 100% of the people who are given the chance to accept the “Gospel” after they’re already dead will accept
Lol I literally had the same exact thought when all of this was explained to me. It makes no sense. But that’s par for the course for the entire religion sooooo……
What I meant was they are only supposed to put their own relatives into the system. By the time you get to the assembly line, I agree it’s still 99% going to be randos.
Oh, gotcha. That makes a lot more sense.
