Ancestorii vs Ancestry: records and trees, or stories and voices?

Finding ancestors in records. Ancestry's company facts page lists 71 billion records from 80+ countries of origin, over 150 million family trees, more than 3 million paying subscribers and over 30 million people in its DNA network, with AncestryDNA available in more than 119 markets. Those are Ancestry's own figures, checked in October 2026.

You build a tree person by person, and Ancestry suggests records that may match as hints, shown as leaves. Each person in your tree has a profile where you can add photos and stories, and Ancestry's Memories tools let you make slideshow stories and albums and record or upload audio of relatives telling family stories. Ancestry says some of those tools are only in its app for now.

A tree can be public, which Ancestry says makes it visible to anyone with an Ancestry membership and people you invite, or private, visible only to you and people you invite. Details about living people are kept private even in public trees. You can invite relatives as a guest, contributor or editor, and each needs an Ancestry account, which can be a free one.

Ancestry is one door into records that also exist elsewhere, sometimes for free. For England and Wales, these are the main ones:

• Censuses, 1841 to 1921. The National Archives says all are online. Ancestry and Findmypast hold images and indexes for the full range, and searching is free but viewing needs payment. FamilySearch has free indexes up to 1911, and The National Archives at Kew offers 1841 to 1921 free on site. The 1921 Census is also free to view at Manchester Central Library and the National Library of Wales. The 1931 census was destroyed by fire in 1942, no census was taken in 1941, and later censuses stay closed for 100 years.
• The 1939 Register. Taken on 29 September 1939, it records the civilian population of England and Wales. The National Archives says it is on Findmypast and Ancestry as paid services and free to view at Kew, and the record of anyone born less than 100 years ago stays closed unless they are known to have died.
• Births, marriages and deaths. Civil registration began in 1837. FreeBMD, a charity run by volunteers, transcribes the index for free, though not every year is done yet. On GOV.UK, a General Register Office certificate costs £12.50, plus £3.50 if you do not have its index reference.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate services: the National Records of Scotland and nidirect. For a step-by-step start, see our guide to researching your family history.

The things records never hold: what your grandmother sounded like, why a photo mattered, the story behind a recipe. Ancestorii is a private library for the family you know, not a research tool, so there is no family tree and no record search.

• Loved Ones pages hold a person's photo, relationship, birth and death dates and life story in four chapters: Early years, Important moments, Special memories and Who they are. The Free plan includes 1; Premium includes as many as you like.
• Timelines put a life in date order, with photos, video, comments and voice notes on each moment.
• Voice notes can be recorded or uploaded on memories, album photos, timeline moments and capsules.
• Questions, 46 of them in 10 chapters, are sent from the app and help the older generation tell their own stories. Their answers land in the family feed.
• Memory Books turn your photos and words into an A4 hardcover of 24, 36 or 48 printed pages, from £44.99 plus delivery.

Only people invited into your family space can see it, and there is no limit on how many relatives can join.

They fit together because one looks back through records and the other keeps what living memory still holds. A simple order to work in:

1. Research the generations nobody alive remembers on Ancestry, or through the free routes above.
2. For the people you knew, make a Loved Ones page and a family timeline, adding the dates you found and the photos the family already has.
3. Ask the oldest relatives what records cannot say: how they met, what home was like, what they want remembered. Our questions to ask your parents about their life are a good start.
4. Record their answers as voice notes, so the family keeps the voice as well as the facts.