If you’ve been looking for a way to research your family history, Ancestry.com is the perfect place to start. This ancestry website can help you find out about the people who have come before you and make connections to your own family tree.
The site has over 20 billion documents available from more than 50 countries and over 15 million members worldwide, which means there are plenty of records on file for you to search through.
But how much does it really cost? How accurate are the results? And is it worth paying that much money? This article will discuss how much does ancestry cost, and answer further important questions. Let’s get started!
The High Cost Of Searching For Your Ancestors
There are some really amazing features on the site, including:
- DNA Testing: The ability to connect with nearly 700,000 people across the globe who share your DNA profile.
- Family Tree Builder: Make discoveries and start connecting with long-lost cousins.
- Connect with Confidential Findings: Learn what your ancestors did for a living and how they lived their lives.
- Historical Documents: Find out what events took place in your ancestors’ lives.
- Find My Family: Help you track down relatives.
How Much It Costs to Research Your Family Tree
Researching family history can cost you anywhere from “Free” to “The sky’s the limit”. What we meant by this is the normal cost of a subscription if any, to what else may be involved. Let’s take a look at the real costs of finding out where you came from.
1. Genealogy sites
There are plenty of alternative websites where you can research your ancestors besides Ancestry.com. There’s familysearch.com, which is a totally free site.
You can research your ancestors by selecting an ancestor, like a parent, father, or mother, and searching the desired continent of their origin.
Myheritage.com – The site will tell you what countries that ancestor was actually from and then you can look up documents that describe their life and any important events that took place in their life. But of course the experience sometimes won’t be as exciting if you don’t live in the same country that your ancestors were from. Subscriptions start at just under $12.00 per month.
Archives.com also contains around 11.6 billion documents and photos for researching your family tree. Though not as sophisticated as Ancestry, it still offers something for everyone. Subscriptions start at around $9.99 per month.
2. AncestryDNA Kit – $99
How it Works: This service will analyze your DNA to find out where your ancestors came from. AncestryDNA is a popular DNA testing service available online and only requires a swab of the inside of your mouth.
The test also determines how likely your DNA is to match with other DNA in the database, which is used to create family trees that you can share with others online. For a basic ancestry kit, the price is set at $99.95.
However, there are a few more options that will give you an even more in-depth test. A DNA Ancestry Insider Bundle can cost you $199.90, which includes a few extra tests, such as a Y-DNA test.
If you’re serious about getting to know your ancestry, the $249 YouYouth.com DNA Ancestry Complete Test will give you much more data about your lineage. The cost jumps to $349 depending on which goodies you might want.
3. AncestryDNA + Traits Kit – $119
At only $119, AncestryDNA + Traits Kit is one of the most affordable genealogy options out there. This option will not only help you discover your family history, but also find relatives based on features in your DNA.
Because this is one of the few sources that focuses strictly on DNA, the results can be extremely accurate. And when you compare the price to other popular ancestry sites, it’s a bit more reasonable.
In fact, most AncestryDNA tests will provide you with a detailed report based on your DNA and all your relatives’ DNA.
In addition, it will also provide you with health and wellness insights, health risk assessment, and tips on maintaining your health.
4. DNA + Family Tree Bundle – $100 (An All Access Introductory Offer) – $100
The DNA + Family Tree Bundle may seem like a lot of money, but you’ll get over $500 of online resources for the price of $100. You get unlimited lifetime access to their exclusive Ancestry Family Tree app, which is one of the most powerful genealogy apps on the market.
The Ancestry Tree app can help you learn about and share your family tree with others. You can download the app right now for free for iPhone or Android and get an additional three months free.
Plus, the DNA + Family Tree Bundle also (sometimes) includes coupons or gift cards during special promotions, so you can put the extra money to work in your DNA-testing future. Or, if you’re not really sure about all of this, you can cancel the order without being charged.
5. Genealogy DNA testing services
There are lots of different options when it comes to testing your DNA. There are many well-known companies like 23andMe and MyHeritage that will send you a kit to test your genes for free.
This is basically just a snapshot of your DNA, so it won’t tell you too much about your ancestry or link you to anything. One of the better ways to discover more about your family’s heritage and history is to go the next step and have the genealogical DNA testing done.
This is when you send off your saliva sample and wait for the company to analyze it to figure out the region and languages your DNA traces back to. The first is probably the easiest to find out about.
The website will provide you with a basic map of the DNA that matches your genetic type.
6. Traveling
What if you want to truly live the full experience of researching your ancestry? That probably includes traveling. The cost of course varies depending on where your final destination will be.
But let’s just use the example of a person who lives in Los Angeles and wants to visit Denmark to see long lost relatives. The cheapest economy seat for a direct flight we could find at the time of writing this article is around $1133.00 round trip.
Once you factor in things such as hotel stay, car hire, food, touring, etc., you’ll see your costs easily spiral beyond the $5000 mark. It’ll only go up from there since this is just an estimate.
There’s nothing wrong with the price of traveling at all. We just wanted to mention that. It’s not everyday that people get to jaunt around the world to fulfill a dream.
7. Miscellaneous costs
While some options will take just a few minutes, others can take a little more time, but will offer more reliable results. You can pay a subscription fee to take advantage of the complete family tree that the site offers.
This will allow you to access every record available from thousands of different family trees for a flat monthly rate. To get access to a majority of the information you can search on the site, there is also the option of having a monthly or annual subscription.
Upselling is just a part of business, and Ancestry wants to make sure you don’t miss out on their offerings. They do this courtesy of “Gift Subscriptions”. These consist of three packages such as U.S. Discovery ($189), World Explorer ($299) and All Access ($389) annual subscriptions.
8. Time
The time required to track down your ancestry depends on how extensive the search you want to do is. For example, if you have a family tree that’s relatively small in size, you can work on it in under an hour.
If, however, you’re looking into finding out more information about your ancestors, you’ll want to be spending more time working on it. The cost of using Ancestry.com varies based on the program and expert you work with, but expect to be spending around six hours over two days to complete your search.
Because most people use Ancestry.com to research their family tree, the cost to use the site can vary depending on the type of membership you opt for. If you opt for the Ancestry Standard Membership, then you’ll pay about $59.95 per year.
9. The Cost of Hiring a Professional Genealogist
This is where it starts to get a bit pricey. If you have no clue what to look for, how can you find it? You may want to hire a professional genealogist or genealogist-certified company. What you’ll pay depends on the number of questions you have and how complex your family tree is.
These kinds of companies are only willing to work with people they’ve personally researched, which means you’ll likely be spending money to hire a company that specializes in your specific history.
These experts use a process known as “hacking” to create family trees for individuals. To be considered a professional genealogist, a person must be a member of the International Genealogical Society (IGS).
The basic package to book a professional genealogist on Ancestry.com is going to start at $2700. This gets you 20 hours of their time to devote to you personally.
Conclusion
Thanks for sticking with us through the end of our article about “How Much Does Ancestry Cost?” The bottom line is that researching your ancestry can cost as little or as much as you want.
Is Ancestry.com worth it? We would have to agree that it is if you have the budget. This is based on the vast resources it can offer people.
Nothing currently comes close to the size of the Ancestry.com profile and database. If you are going to spend money researching your family history, you might as well get your money’s worth!