Star Reviews wanted to take a look at Genealogy Today in order to determine if they’d be feature-filled and even fun for those of you seeking to build your family tree. We thought their website interface was simple enough, yet still enticed us to dig deeper. Continue on to see how they stacked up against other genealogy services.
What’s New?
- GenToday-L and Family Tree Digest-all things genealogy newsletters
- Audio podcasts and Internet radio shows
Star Reviews Favorite Feature:
Adoption Articles - While many ancestry-seekers take the knowledge of their parents’ names and birth dates for granted, things aren’t so simple for folks who were adopted. Addressing the adoption issue is definitely not common for genealogy web sites and Genealogy Today recognizes this struggle.
Genealogy Today Features
- Free membership (you still have limited access to much of the site)
- Ability to superficially browse subscription-based databases (you need to subscribe to actually find information)
- Surname tracker-find possible family matches
- WWII ration book index
- Criminal records
- Funeral cards
Navigating the Genealogy Today website:
We thought their website, while not groundbreaking in its design, was very self explanatory. Tabs like ‘Getting Started’ and ‘Research Tools’ are clearly marked for your convenience. Online guides, About us, Additional features, News and Links and more are neatly arranged under their own headers. Finding what you need here isn’t terribly difficult. One thing, we did notice however, was the necessity of navigating through several pages just to find out pricing information. This left us a little frustrated, as this information should be made readily available for visitors.
Finding family on Genealogy Today:
If you’re ready to get in on the action and find some family members, Genealogy Today makes it easy. You can begin using Genealogy Today by entering the last name of your ancestor and searching all of the available databases. In the top of your results list, you’ll see the number of matches available in the free databases, include the war ration index and the funeral card index.
Other articles include links to other tools and resources which will be useful as you start putting together your family tree. For example, Bruckner’s Birthday Calculator can help you determine the year of birth for a deceased ancestor. However, many of the links are no longer available and the articles don’t mention which services have fees.
Unfortunately, the results for these databases were very limited even for a very common surname. Most of the results you’d probably be interested in are only available with paid subscription databases. For these, you can click on the link and be taken to a page where you’ll be told you need to pay for full access. Prices vary considerably depending on the product you are interested in. We couldn’t be too displeased with this, as most genealogy services charge for most information they offer.
Signing up on Genealogy Today:
Genealogy Today’s membership includes several benefits. You can create bookmarks within the web site for easy access to different parts. As a member, you can also volunteer to help with the site, become an affiliate of the site, write articles for the site, and even post events on the Genealogy Calendar. When signing up for one of their various membership subscriptions, you will be asked basic information like your name, email and address. The signup process can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes and it was very self explanatory.
Pricing:
Genealogy Today does not charge for its membership. However, many of the databases linked with the site do. The prices for many of these items seem to range from around $10 for a report to $29.95 for a yearly subscription. Many of their links to products and services are priced by other big players in genealogy services, like Ancestry. One of the site’s main products is their Climbing Your Family Tree CD-Rom from 2004 which provides instructions about how to put together your family tree. This product costs $24.95.
Customer Support:
Genealogy Today provides very limited customer support. Only eight FAQ’s are answered on the site, and these include questions such as when the family tree service site began and what type of traffic it generates. Most users won’t find this feature useful if they have genealogy questions.
The site also offers phone support. The number is not toll-free. When we called the number, we ended up getting a recorded message asking us to leave a message so their customer service support could get back to us. Instead, we contacted them by email and received a response in less than one hour. That was an impressive response time even for email. We did, however, like the plethora of resources, articles and links made available on their website. This can aid anyone with their family searches.
Upside:
Fast response time via email. Podcasts and Internet radio programs provide interesting information. Fun features like war ration indexes.
Downside:
Poor support via phone or FAQ’s. Limited results. The site is very dedicated to selling products for their affiliates, with less emphasis on the customer.
Summary:
We thought that the Genealogy Today online genealogy service was pretty good. We weren’t blown away by their offerings, but we did like some things like their audio podcasts, war ration indexes, funeral cards and criminal records. Many of their services are sponsored and provided by other family tree sites, like Ancestry, so pricing relies on outside sources. Essentially, membership is free, but we didn’t find as much information as we’d like to when conducting some free searches. Overall, we didn’t have too much trouble navigating the site, as it was pretty straightforward. However, finding pricing and contact information wasn’t the easiest, and customer support was just mediocre. Email support was great, but we were disappointed in their telephone line and FAQs database. We think they’re a good choice to build your family tree on if you’re not looking for anything fancy.