Why do 'free' genealogy sites always lead to My Ancestry.com?

Because they think the American public has the brain of a four year old child. They really do. They actually think that there are people who are SO stupid as to sign up with a credit card for a free anything because they're also just as sure that you will never read the fine print that says that they will start charging you the annual fee, which is pretty darn hefty, for a genealogical source membership. On the other hand, Ancestry is a fabulous resource if you're into your genealogy and have exhausted all the truly free resources. My advice to you is to enlist three other households who are also interested in having the info and split the annual fee four ways for the single membership. Make sure the one with the credit card has all the money needed before being charged. Also, make sure that the same person receives it again a year from now when it automatically renews on their card again.

Ancestry.com is not the most ethical of companies. Many of these sites are promotional "come on" sites for Ancestry. Some of them were independent sites which sold, gave, or lost their data to Ancestry.com. In many cases data which were transcribed by unpaid volunteers has disappeared from the web except for pages behind Ancestry's pay wall.

As a general rule, sites which end in .com should be viewed with suspicion. For example archive.org is a great free site with microfilm of the US Census. But archive.com is a pay site which links only to things behind pay walls. Look for .org sites, which usually are free and often have better data than pay sites.

You are either clicking on the adverts made to look like a search facility or those companies have bought the other 'free' websites up and over time they reduce any 'free' information and post everything on their main paid website........... there are still many free websites BUT you can't research your ancestry online only regardless of if it is free or paid, that is impossible ( although many people think you can, but they have lets pretend trees)

This is one free one and they vow it will always remain free http://familytimeline.webs.com/recordsinyourownhom... thats how you begin at home with real records, then if you click on other pages you will find many of the links go to free websites ............ also check out your local records office and National Archives as well as the local LDS centre all free

You ARE AWARE that the internet is used for business/ making money? It is not all free? So, sites entice you to use a subscription service (ancestry.com).

I can't figure why this is surprising to you.

For a number of reasons such as:

Computer algorithms- You start searching for something on the internet, and then the computer algorithms bring up search results based on similar interests, popularity, history of searches done on that computer, etc.

Advertising- Companies often pay webmasters to place ads or links on their websites. It can cost a lot of money to keep a website up and running.

Computer/Internet settings- Don't like the ads you are seeing? You can adjust your settings so particular ads will not be shown. Install a pop-up blocker.

It's an old game called bait & switch.

get over to the public library and enjoy the site free, or use familysearch.org

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