Ancestry has always been my go-to resource for genealogy research. I think I’ve had a subscription for more than a decade and, for me, the annual subscription fee (currently $189) is well worth it.
When I first subscribed, I explored the courses at Ancestry Academy but wasn’t willing to pay extra to take the classes. But earlier this year I learned that the Ancestry Academy courses are now included in the subscription.
It took me awhile but today, I finally checked it out. I was really impressed with the variety of topics addressed in these video lessons, as well as the variety of lengths. You can watch a five-minute video or take a one-hour video lesson (or something in between).
I’m curious whether any of my readers have tried it and what you thought! If you have any particular classes you thought were great, I’d love to hear about them!
Like you, I didn’t want to pay extra to watch Ancestry Academy videos, mainly because it was hard to tell in advance how substantial they would be. But I watched a few in the last couple months as of the Ancestry subscription. Several covered material that I’d learned elsewhere, some of it fairly basic, but some of the hour-long ones got into subjects in more depth than I have found elsewhere, even in books. Will Ancestry go on making these lessons without the dedicated income from A.Academy subscriptions?
Crista Cowan has made a lot of good, free videos for Ancestry that are on YouTube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMZOw9yNCZ0&list=PL2F65E97B57EF8279) They’ve cut back on her schedule of new videos, and they tend to be videos about new features on Ancestry more than the how-to lessons that she made in the past.
For people who need help with organizing their data and their plans, I recommend the free webinars about Legacy software at FamilyTreeWebinars.com–even though I can’t use Legacy on my Mac. Geoff Rasmussen has a very pleasant way of steering us into better habits of keeping records and planning research, explaining the reasons and not just which button to click.
Thanks for the recommendation, Marian!
I love ancestry academy. I too just learned about it earlier this year. Here’s a blog post I wrote about it.
https://journeythroughgenerationsblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/31/do-you-utilize-ancestry-academy-i-just-started/
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing the link, Trisha.