Ancestry.com...worth it?

[OC Richard]

I don't know if you have an LDS genealogical library there in Alaska.

Even here in California, having one closeby, is of limited use.

Everyone tells me you need to go to the main one in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I've talked to a number of people who have had their big breakthrough there.

As I've been told, it's not just the records there, it's the people who work there. (Or volunteer, I don't know if they're paid or not.)

One story is typical: Somebody told me that they always hit a wall with a certain ancestor, never able to go back any further. They finally decided to make the trip to Salt Lake. They discussed their problem with a worker at the Library there, and the worker looked at a few places with no result. Then the worker said "wait a minute, I just had a thought... let's try looking here" and there it was! It was the experience, the knowledge, and the intuition of the worker there that lead to the breakthrough.

(BTW I'm Catholic, not LDS, but we Catholics don't have a cool library like that!)

About being related to famous people, go back far enough and we all are. It's because if you go back enough generations, anyone who had children and whose children had children is the direct ancestor of everyone alive today.

My wife and I did the Ancestry.com DNA thing and it was fascinating. Our results were pretty much as expected, but with some zingers!

Since mine is purely British and Irish I don't require anything beyond that... well I thought it was, but Ancestry.com says I'm around 10% Scandinavian... who knew?