Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Ancestry.com Delays Retirement

Ancestry.com is retiring myfamily.com, mycanvas, genealogy.com, and mundia.Due to the recent Denial of Service attack, Ancestry.com has delayed retirement of several of their services. (See “Ancestry.com Announces Retirement of Several Websites.”)

Said Ancestry.com spokesperson, Heather Erickson, “Due to recent site issues, we will be extending the period that MyFamily, MyCanvas, Genealogy.com, Mundia and the Y-DNA and mtDNA websites will be available. These sites will not retire until September 30, 2014.” The shutdown was previously scheduled for 5 September 2014.

Many users have expressed disappointment that Ancestry.com is discontinuing these services. Janice commented:

We have used (and my Dad has paid for) myfamily.com just about since its inception. My family consists of 28+ members now and we are spread out around the country in 8 states and over 11 cities. At times, some members were overseas. We have used the site to update support, and navigate each other through cancer, major illnesses, surgeries, adoption, marriage, birthdays, holidays, travel, college and other milestones, and up to and including death. We use the site to reminisce and remember people who are now gone. I am really sorry it's not going to be there for us. I know there are postings on the site I need to print. I wish they would reconsider.

My article was very critical of Ancestry.com’s decision to retire Y-DNA and mt-DNA testing. Within hours Ancestry.com contacted me to discuss the situation. I sent them a couple of examples where Y-DNA testing proved crucial. One disproved a theorized relationship. The other added additional evidence to an indirect proof. I look forward to their response.

3 comments:

  1. I am extremely upset about them getting rid of the DNA. We paid for that testing in good faith. It never occurred to me that they would not keep it on the tree--in fact, I feel they made an implied commitment to doing so in perpetuity. I think they should offer a FREE kit to anyone who submitted DNA.

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  2. I believe that if Ancestry.com management heard from enough people they would reconsider or at the very least, find another company to partner with to do provide these services. Extending the deadline 30 days is not acceptable. Many of us have promised projects to family, friends and clients.

    I have yet to hear a valid reason for this decision, especially given that their Mission statement includes the sentence, "To help every person discover, preserve and share their family history."

    So they are happy to have us continue building our trees but we have no way now of sharing them, except on a screen.

    We need to generate phone calls and emails to them about discontinuing these services. I have written and spoken to someone who works there and was told that they are forwarding all correspondence about it on to management. They are currently functioning as normal – no irreversible decisions or actions taken.

    I have asked clients and family members to contact MyCanvas and even in a brief sentence, share why they think this service must continue. Here's the link: http://www.mycanvas.com/Support/Contact.aspx

    Who else do we need to contact there? I'm so disappointed with the company.

    Thank you for your work and great information.

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  3. Huh. Their MyCanvas site was down for a while following their initial announcement. Then it was back... for a few days. Now it's gone again:

    "Sorry, there has been a problem.

    "We're sorry but our site is temporarily unavailable. We are undergoing routine maintenance or we may be experiencing unexpected technical problems. We apologize for the inconvenience and ask for your patience as we work to correct the situation. Check back with us shortly."

    "Shortly"? As in "See you in September"?

    ReplyDelete

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