Approximately 82% of all Americans can trace at least 1 line back to the UK. So why doesn't Ancestry give us more (or any) info for England, Scotland, or Ireland?

Although Ancestry hasn't said so (and never would) I think they actually can't get a lot of new information because the UK has different copyright laws than the US (relating to court records or anything originating from the government). Still, there are THOUSANDS of history books that could be included on the various parishes and people.

Ancestry started in the US and already has a large American customer base -- now they are spending ALL THEIR EFFORTS on Canadian and German and French record sets just to increase their customer base in other countries. And biting the hand that originally fed them.

I'm feeling ripped off with my World subscription. And, I'm so mad I could scream.

Actually, Ancestry does have a lot of UK data. The trick is to know which Ancestry site to subscribe to. I am a Canadian but my research is almost exclusively England. For that reason I subscribed to Ancestry.co.uk. There are a great many English databases there, from the very common (the GRO Registers and all the censuses from 1841 to 1901) to the esoteric (Oxford Alumni and Burke's Family Records.)

What I have against Ancestry is that it is so expensive, and that the site is difficult to navigate.

If you have research in both the USA and the UK, you may wish to call them and find out about converting your subscription to Ancestry.co.uk with a Worldwide Subscription. That would cover all bases that they have. (North American toll free number 1 800 958 9073 from 6 am to 3 pm Mountain time, Monday to Friday.)

Like anything else, Ancestry does not have it all. Other fee-based UK sites are very important and have very good databases, and depending on your needs, you may wish to consider them. Find My Past is the first one that pops to mind. The have the 1911 census. Some others are British Origins and Family Relatives, not to mention the National Archives and their excellent Documents Online service.

But before you start parting with your hard earned cash, if you are unfamiliar with English research I would suggest clicking on to FamilySearch.org. Under the Research Helps tab, click E for England. Then scroll down and select England Research Outline and England Finding your Ancestors. Also check out the England section of Cyndislist.com

You are right about laws being different in different countries. I don't know about American law, but I do know that the privacy laws in the UK are much more lax than here in Canada. For example, birth registrations are not public for 120 years in my province.

Good luck in your research

Penny
in Canada

Calm down. There is tons and tons of UK info on Ancestry, all of which you have access to via a World subscription. Perhaps you aren't searching correctly (it can be a little difficult, especially with the new search engine).

Don't know where "82% of all Americans can trace at least 1 line back to the UK" comes from. That doesn't sound correct.