The data base we've been using has a purely American heritage program and an International one to supplement that - from which Americans using it derive whatever can be obtained by access to all the records, LDS being one which is included from time to time, available to it.
Interestingly, birth, marriage, death and probate records from various parts of Great Britain and Europe are abundantly provided, along with Peerage and Royal Families-related information and something called the "Millenium File Record."
For certain levels, one might say, of Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish family history where the individual was or married into the aristocracy then about 25% of the time we find stories or more detailed narratives about their lives. Those, of course, are fascinating to an American for whom any tradition lasting 200 years is practically ancient, and rare by definition.
In my personal case, I too still live in the town and region where the maternal line has lived since the early 1800s - which is a big help in that the graves are here within 100 miles or so, and several family members are still around to ask questions of.
Looking back upon my one foray into England, with a side trip north to Leiston for the purpose of visiting A.S. Neill at his Summerhill school, my self-guided tour of Westminster Abbey pretty much cemented a requisite cultural humility most of my fellow countrymen have not experienced, evidently. So, living within close proximity to truly ancient relatives must be quite something.
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Originally Posted by Polwarth
I have no views on Ancestry.com 
All I would say is that many Americans use the LDS records and quote them as 'gospel'. They aren't! Anyone can claim anyone else as an ancestor - and then it makes it difficult to actually work out what or who are 'real'....
I'm lucky - most of my family have been buried no more than a couple of hundred miles from my home. I really do sympathise with foreigners trying to work out their ancestry!
Good luck with your research. |