How to choose which genealogy site to use.
There are a lot of options now for which genealogy sites you can base your research from. In this blog post, I'll be sharing three tips to help you decide.
Please note that this blog post is not sponsored or endorsed by any company nor do I recommend any sites or repositories.
1. Security:
Security is the most important factor in choosing a site to host and research your family tree. You are literally uploading and compiling your personal family information on there, so it pays to make sure that the platform is safe and secure. A good trick is checking if the site
Do some research to see if the website has a history of data leaks or security infringements and check out their privacy policies. Also, check if the site holds records in collaboration with the government or with state/county archives.
2. Experiment
Pick some genealogy databases/platforms and try to get a free trial to test whether it is a good fit for your research. I have a blog post all about making the most of free trials here. If a free trial isn't possible, try purchasing a month's subscription as it is much cheaper than a full year.
As you use the sites/platforms, make a list of what you like and dislike about them. Here are some questions that I ask myself:
-What kind of record collections do they hold? Are they relevant to my family?
-What is the search function like? Easy to use? Lots of options?
-How do I like the way ancestor profiles are laid out?
-Is the platform clunky? Am I frustrated while using it?
-How long as the platform been around? Any reviews? What do they say about security?
Once you have finished your free trials, compare your lists and decide what works best for you and your circumstances. For example, I am a professional genealogist, so I need access to a broad range of databases. But say your family history is largely based in Mexico - then you will need a platform that holds a large collection of Mexican records.
But it can be difficult to choose. For example, I love the ancestor profile options on Ancestry, but I find that the search functions are so much better on Find My Past. Ancestry has more Australian records, but it does not have a Jacobite collection like Find My Past, which is a subject I specialise in. Overall, it’s about weighing up the pros and cons with your budget and considering which site you would use the most.
3. Make sure the platform is accessible anywhere, anyplace:
There are many positives in choosing online sites for your research, the main one being in the event that something happened to the device you save your family tree on, you can always log in to the family history website via another device, even at a library computer if need be.
Always make sure that the site you choose has these options, and also that you have the option to download a file (usually called a GEDCOM file) containing your family tree that you can save regularly to your computer or cloud storage as a double backup in the event that something happens to the website as well.
Best wishes,
Liliana