Now, more than ever, people want to know so much more about who they are and where they come from.
Ancestry plans and DNA testing are the best way to gain that knowledge.
The digital age provides the opportunity to be up close and personal with our past generations.
Ancestry can expose us to a wide range of data from where your family originates, to what health issues and strengths you may have.
Yes, Ancestry can provide a multitude of data that will tell you where your family originated up to at least five generations.
You can take the data from the Ancestry site and find out where the family that you know right now branched off beyond the typical five generations.
Sometimes you can find more from other sources, but you may have to question the validity of the information past a certain point.
If you wish to go further, it helps to research and pay a company that does the deeper digging.
Most people find that the Ancestry site has enough information to satisfy their needs.
Is Ancestry Worth It? (10 Reasons Why It Is)
1. It’s Incredibly Thorough
Contrary to the small amount of information the commercials give you, Ancestry provides you more than just a way to look at old pictures of generations past.
It can tell you the nutrient and fitness levels that may be inherited, the regions of the world where your ancestry originates from, and your matches with any family members who are still alive that you can connect with if you choose.
Ancestry takes a deeper dive than just the surface-level traits.
It provides the innermost details that you wouldn’t know unless you knew your family and they could tell you.
Most people get skewed or subjective information from family conversations.
Maybe your parents are divorced, or the family was displaced.
The chances of you finding out the truth about your heritage may not be possible by oral information only.
Ancestry can help you to locate important documents from one of the largest databases of global recorded information.
Did you know that a lot of people who came to America and some other Western countries didn’t use their full surnames?
You may have a truncated last name, and it may be possible to discover the true, full name.
Why is this important?
It opens a whole new world and gets you closer to finding the deepest roots of your family tree.
Some people have documented the city they came from when they landed in their new country as where they embarked on the journey rather than the birth city.
This may have been done to expedite the situation because no one really spoke English, or whatever the language of the landing point was.
For example, Italians who came to New York Harbor may have listed Naples as their city of origin.
However, this is where a lot of the ships to America pulled out with Italian immigrants aboard.
Your Italian ancestors may or may not have originated in Naples.
Ancestry allows you to trace back past the records that they kept stateside.
2. It’s Cost-Effective
When you look at what you get for the price, you couldn’t get it cheaper if you took each service provided and did it separately.
It could run you more than three times the amount with the DNA test.
It could be even more than that because you would be using several different companies.
Ancestry gives you the whole package for a very reasonable price, and you can cancel at any time.
That means you can satisfy your curiosity in a short time, or you can keep it going and allow the family to join in with you.
That can be a really fun exercise and a great way to bond.
Imagine if you met a relative that you didn’t even know you had.
What an experience that could be.
Add another Ancestry leaf to the collection and learn all about their side of the family. If you hit it off, you could plan a reunion.
You see, for the price, it’s invaluable if it provides great memories and a new extended family!
Do Ancestry Monthly Plans Include The Ancestry DNA?
Only the World Explorer plan is included in the Ancestry DNA + Family Tree Bundle.
The other monthly ancestry plans and the annual plans only include the various search databases that each plan is associated with.
There are separate prices for DNA testing.
Here’s what the cost of all of it is.
There are three different monthly database search plans:
1. U.S. Discovery
This plan runs $24.99 per month and allows you into all the U.S. records.
It is on auto-renewal and can be canceled at any time.
You can save $50 and pay for six months upfront at the reduced rate of $16.50 per month.
2. World Explorer
The World Explorer monthly plan allows you into international and US records.
It’s $39.99 per month, or you can pay in full for six months at $24.83 a month for a savings of $90.
3. All Access:
This is the ultimate plan that gives you full membership to Ancestry.com, Fold3.com, and Newspapers.com Basic.
The monthly cost for this plan is $49.99 per month, or you can save $100 and pay $33.16 per month for six months, paid in full upfront.
Important Note:
On all of the six-month plans, you will still pay a reduced rate each month.
However, understand that you are committed to a contract for six months.
If you cancel before the six-month period expires, you may be charged a $25 cancellation fee.
How Much Is Ancestry DNA?
Ancestry DNA has three plans.
1. Ancestry DNA
This plan is $99 and gives you the basic DNA test to confirm where your family is from.
2. DNA And Family Tree Bundle
This plan is $100 and includes a DNA kit and World Explorer membership.
If you are already a member, you may not use this offer to renew or extend an existing membership.
3. Ancestry DNA Traits.
This plan is $119 and will include everything AncestryDNA offers along with the genetic traits that may influence you.
3. You Get A Two-Week Free Trial
You can use Ancestry for two weeks free and cancel if you find it’s not what you thought it was.
In two weeks, you may be able to look up all you are interested in if you work at it.
You may find you are addicted to the fascinating information you are learning about your ancestry and keep the membership.
If you’re unsure how much time or access you need, there are ways to get the most out of the right membership for you.
It takes a bit of organization, but it can be done.
The first thing to do is have a why.
Why are you looking up your ancestry?
If you are just curious and don’t have the interest in looking for the information any further than a couple of generations then the free trial will work for you.
However, if you get hooked on all the information that Ancestry can give you or you’re searching for information that has far more depth, then a basic membership may work to start.
If you are looking to build a giant family tree and share it with family members as well as find other possible family members, then a higher membership would work.
If you are looking for any hidden traits, or if you are mixed with other unknown nationalities, then a World Explorer and DNA package will do perfectly.
Once you know what you want to accomplish with Ancestry, you can choose the plan that is most cost-effective for you.
Some countries allow you citizenship by descent.
Each country has different rules, and those rules are subject to change at any time.
For example, Ireland allows you to move there and go through the citizenship process if you have any immediate relatives that are Irish.
For them, at least at the time of this writing, if one of your grandparents was born in Ireland and neither of your parents was born there, you may still claim Irish citizenship.
Right now, it’s one of the easiest citizenships by descent.
The rules could change at any time with people trying to leave the U.S. and other countries.
Once you have your membership, you will be able to look this up for yourself.
In other countries, it’s much harder.
In Italy, for example, if one of your grandparents was born in Italy, and they arrived in the U.S. and became a citizen before your mother or father was born, you are not entitled to Italian citizenship.
Citizenship by descent is called Jurus Sanguines.
The truth is that there are millions of more searches for citizenship of other countries with the world issues happening now.
People are on Ancestry more than ever to find out what other citizenship options they may have.
Some just want a second or even third passport to invest money or run if things get bad wherever they are.
Citizenship by descent is never 100% guaranteed, but the process requires original or certified documents.
Ancestry can help you locate some of the pertinent information as to where you can find the documents you need.
It can also provide images of documents so you can get the correct names and spellings and dates you may need.
It’s a precise process and can be voided with any mistake.
Ancestry can give you a head start, and you can secure a good immigration attorney to take it further.
5. Have The Best Chance Of Finding Nomadic Ancestors
Many people have nomadic ancestors.
Europe has many borders and our ancestors often crossed them.
Those border crossings, up to a certain time period are recorded via traveling papers and passports.
With the World Explorer or All Access membership, Ancestry will give you access to three billion public records that cover birth and death, church, military, and marriage.
This makes it easier to find their origin and citizenship status as well as that of their children, which can be helpful for many of the things listed here.
6. A Gold Mine For The Ancestry Enthusiast
Ancestry enthusiasts who love to just study what things were like in a certain time period typically love old documents.
Today, the digital signature provides convenience and speed, but something is lost as well.
There’s something about looking at a handwritten document on a birth, death, or marriage record, even records for the sale of a home.
Ancestry is a great source of nostalgia and to appease your inner historian.
If you loved the war eras and wanted to see the service and medals won as well as death records and accolades of your historical family, you have the best chance to find pictures and news articles about them, too.
With the All-Access membership, you get access to Newspapers.com and Fold3.
7. Be A Part Of An International Community
There is an extensive international community on Ancestry that is available with all memberships at no charge.
This is a perk you can use to meet others of like mind around the subject of ancestry.
You can freely ask questions and get tips from seasoned Ancestry clients.
Some will be invited to Facebook groups and will make friends with those in other cultures.
You will certainly meet people from your home country who may be from your background, too.
That creates a bond that can be shared by the descendants of your mother country.
8. Complete Customization Of Your Family Tree
With all memberships, you have access to a plethora of interesting elements you can use to build your family tree online.
You can upload images and organize the information so it can be accessed by anyone you want to share it with or just for yourself.
It doesn’t matter.
You can personalize it, so it looks like you and not some generic family tree design.
9. Access To African American And Jewish Heritages
Ancestry is devoted to those who want to see the long-lost history of African American and Jewish heritage.
They have made it available at all price points and plans.
Maybe you just want to look up a few names or find the origin of a special tribe that is attached to those names, or you want to go all out and find out the DNA origins, too.
You would be surprised at what you find using both the ancestry look-up and the DNA packages.
There were some tribes that never intermarried and those that have.
There are ways to find out if there were descendants to royalty and much more.
Find out how your ancestors contributed to their tribes, how they lived, what the hierarchy was, and if they owned land.
10. Pinpoint Travel Interests
If you indulge in the All-Access membership and DNA packages you may want to look people up that you are related to.
Cousins are the most common type of relative that you find generations down the line, and you may just want to contact them.
If they’re as excited as you are, you may get an invitation or extend one to them.
Europe is like the US in that people can travel to and from different cultures very easily.
They can also intermarry, and you may find an even more fascinating part of your family has been there without your knowledge.
The information you gain from Ancestry will allow you to pinpoint spots on the map where you could plan a trip to see your new relatives or just go through and see the places they lived.
You can imagine what it was like and maybe even see the actual house they were raised in.
Places in Europe are more likely to have the homes of others listed and protected as historical.
You may get lucky enough to walk through one.
Ancestry allows you to be an adventurer, whether it is just behind the screen or out there discovering who you are and where you came from on a deeper level.
How Do I Use Ancestry DNA?
Your Ancestry DNA package is easy to use.
The instructions come with it, but let’s run through what it is and what you can expect with the Ancestry DNA.
The ethnicity estimates from Ancestry DNA are a lot better than before.
According to them, because DNA science is constantly evolving, they are now able to break down large regions of Europe, Asia, and Africa into smaller cities and towns, so you can get a much less broad and more intimate view.
They have made impressive regional additions in all parts of the world.
In Europe alone, they’ve added 837 new regions.
In the Americas, they added 133 new regions; Africa, 110; Asia 63; Oceania, 12; and West Asia has five new regions.
They’ve also added Cypress as its own region.
With the technology and algorithm improvements, they were able to break up Italy, the UK and Ireland, Japan, Philippines, Eastern Block, and Southern Africa into smaller regions for you to get a better snapshot into your genetic structure regarding ancestry.
You get a finer mix, whereas before, you only knew about what showed up the most.
It could be exciting to find out that a little-known region of the map holds a tiny piece of who you are.
This makes self-discovery more enchanting.
For example, you could learn that you aren’t just Irish, but Munster Irish or from the Cork Headlands.
That’s very specific.
If you have ever thought of looking up relatives or going on a trip there to find things yourself like the hall of records or look up a house, then knowing the region is best.
It also helps when you want to contact a relative and discuss or ask about health possibilities.
For this, you would need the Ancestry DNA Traits version.
What Do I Do Once I Receive My Ancestry DNA Kit?
It’s as easy as 1-2-3.
First, the DNA is derived from your saliva, so there is no blood sampling or any invasive or uncomfortable testing to be done.
You can’t go wrong.
There will be a sample tube that you will collect saliva in by following the directions on the kit.
When you get your kit, you should immediately activate it on the website with the code that’s on the package.
This is an important first step as it will be what links you to your specific DNA test.
Then you can proceed with the saliva collection.
Once you’ve collected the specified amount of saliva, make sure it’s properly sealed as per the instructions and placed in the enclosed mailer.
The postage is already paid, so you don’t have to worry about that.
After they receive it and process it, you’ll get an email telling you to go onto your Ancestry portal and follow the information they have discovered for you.
Now, you can indulge in all the excitement that has been a part of you since before you were born.
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