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When doing family research, you will find dozens of websites and resources available for purchase. But which ones do you trust? Which ones do you use? For today’s A to Z Challenge, I wanted to share about the questionable “GenealogyBank” subscription site.
GenealogyBank: Claim to Exclusiveness
GenealogyBank is a leading online genealogical resource from NewsBank, inc. Featuring a wealth of exclusive material-including modern obituaries and historical newspapers, books, pamphlets, military records, government documents and more-GenealogyBank helps you discover fascinating information about your family history.
GenealogyBank’s 13,000+ historical newspapers include letters, speeches, opinion pieces, advertisements, hometown news, photographs, illustrations and more. [Website]
GenealogyBank: An Honest Review
In short – Do not waste money. Do not waste time. Skip past GenealogyBank. Do not collect £200. Go straight away.
NEGATIVE: Unrelated Search Results
When you do a search on GenealogyBank there is no rhyme or reason for what results you will get from from their server. And if you are like me – you’ll be lucky to find 10% of the results you are given turn out to be positive for the correct ancestor.
And the results you find are nothing new.
NEGATIVE: Nothing New
When I first tried GenealogyBank, I was specifically looking for one ancestor but I found nothing on their site that I couldn’t find elsewhere (ancestry.com for instance).
I found 2 census records that I had already found on ancestry.com.
No obituaries.
No newspaper articles.
In fact, on the FREE NYS Historic Newspapers website (that I will cover for “N“) I found more then I did on GenealogyBank.
In the name of honesty – I did find several family obituaries from The Oregonian Newspaper. But those same obituaries I later was able to confirm and find for FREE from the library’s NewsBank account.
NEGATIVE: Cancellation Troubles
If you research GenealogyBank you’ll find most complaints are about the cancellation process.
Currently – they allow you to cancel on the website so you will not having to call their toll free number. That is a plus because in the past I have had to speak to some very pushy customer service representatives when trying to cancel my memberships.
However, what’s lousy is that if you want to cancel a free trial – you have to cancel on the exact last date possible if you want to get the full use of your free trial. Otherwise, your free trial will be cancelled effective immediately. (Pretty petty of them).
So what resources do you recommend?
Thanks for this information I was going to use that. But you know what ?now I’m not
heck . it might work for you. but i would recommend trying other sites first. good luck with your search!
Good to know, especially when setting up a research budget. Thanks for this illuminating post.
my pleasure. i am so glad it was a helpful review.
Sorry that it was not a more helpful site for you. Hopefully, you’ll have better luck with the next one that you try. Weekends In Maine
Thanks Karen. You win with some. You lose with some. I just hate to think others might lose their money too.
Always avoid companies that make leaving work very difficult, thanks for the heads up
precisely, Stepnen. At least you can cancel online but still they have a long way to go before i’d even recommend a free trial.
How very interesting. I haven’t heard of Genealogy Bank, and now I certainly won’t be using their services. Thanks for the heads up.
I love your honest review on it. I won’t consider it in the future. I’ll read other related companies that offers the same service.
Yikes… I generally stay away from any site that has a frustrating cancellation policy. Glad to see your review before I start a trial on their site.
Wow this is interesting information. I have never used this genealogy service but will certainly keep this in mind when researching my family tree.
It’s annoying when people try to bully you into keeping a membership (or anything else). I try to understand that they are trying to make a living, but yeah, it’s annoying.
I haven’t heard about this before, but I can say that this post is really helpful and will save a lot of people. Thanks for the review! 🙂
Oh! This is interesting to know. I’m so happy I read your review. My brother had spoken to be about the Genealogy Bank.
This was an interesting read. I never had that subscription and I wasn’t planning to have it either.
i totally get it. if there isn’t anything new then what would be the point of keeping it. i had a similar sub with another company and did the same thing.
don’t these kinds of subscriptions drive you nuts?
I’ve never even heard of this service. I’m glad to know this.
glad i could help you, amber. it’s definitely a site i’d recommend as a last alternative.