Monday, December 8, 2008

Give Ancestry for Christmas

My Ancestry US Deluxe subscription expires soon, so I went looking for a deal that would give me a discount Ancestry subscription plus some genealogy software that would permit me to gift earlier versions to someone else in my society.

Here is what I found at http://www.nothingbutsoftware.com/:

* Family Tree Maker 16 Essentials (includes 3-month Ancestry US Deluxe subscription) - $24.49 plus S&H

* Family Tree Maker 16 Standard (includes 6-month Ancestry US Deluxe subscription) - $32.49 plus S&H

* Family Tree Maker 2008 Essentials (includes 1-month Ancestry US Deluxe subscription) - $19.95 plus S&H

* Family Tree Maker 2008 Deluxe (includes 3-month Ancestry US Deluxe subscription) - $29.95 plus S&H

* Family Tree Maker 2008 Platinum (includes 6-month Ancestry US Deluxe subscription) - $79.95 plus S&H

* Family Tree Maker 2009 Essentials (includes 1-month Ancestry US Deluxe subscription) - $29.95 plus S&H

* Family Tree Maker 2009 Deluxe (includes 3-month Ancestry US Deluxe subscription) - $64.49 plus S&H

These Ancestry subscriptions all require that the buyer install the Family Tree Maker software and then create their Trial subscription through a link in the software. If the buyer already has a subscription, the buyer has to cancel their existing subscription and then sign up for the new Trial subscription.

I've had great luck dealing with www.NothingButSoftware.com so far - it comes quickly, is complete and the software installs easily.

Check the above discounts with the Ancestry Store which offers no Ancestry subscription with the software.

The retail Ancestry subscriptions are:

* 1-month US Deluxe - $19.95 per month
* 1-month World Deluxe - $29.95 per month

* 3-month US Deluxe - $50.85 (3 months)
* 3-month World Deluxe - 83.85 (3 months)

* 12-month US Deluxe - $155.40 per year
* 12-month World Deluxe - $299.40 per year

I just obtained a 6-month Ancestry subscription with Family Tree Maker 16 for $32.49 plus $6.95 shipping and handling ($39.44 total). I already have FTM 16, and will donate my earlier copy of it after uninstalling it from my computer, but I just saved $62.26 for a 6-month Ancestry subscription, relative to retail (two 3-month subscriptions). I'll have to renew, or find another deal, in six months but it's worth the minimal effort to me.

If you want to give your favorite genealogist a subscription to Ancestry, you should look into these deals. Of course, you do get Family Tree Maker as part of the bargain.

I'm sure that there are other discount software companies out there, but I didn't look for them. What have you found?

7 comments:

Charley "Apple" Grabowski said...

Great reminder. Thanks! My subscription is up next month.

theKiwi said...

I'm nearly to the end of a 1 year World Deluxe Ancestry subscription I got when I bought a copy of FTM 16 on Ebay for $32 or thereabouts a year ago. When I started the subscription I got the US for a year, but I called Ancestry and explained that the box said it had access to the US and UK Census records, and after explaining that if they switched me to a UK account I then wouldn't have the US, they gave me the world for a year :-)

I guess this year I'll have to pay for it, but I sure hope a discount comes about in the next week or 2 so that I don't have to pay the full $300.

Roger

Anonymous said...

Just read this on the RootsMagic blog: Our Biggest Holiday Offer Ever;
RootsMagic is offering gift copies of RootsMagic 3 for $19.95, with a free upgrade to version 4.

Details are here: RootsMagic Holiday Offer

davidrheins said...

This is a great wrap up.

I'm the CMO of Familybuilder, and I wanted to remind everyone that we offer FREE Family Tree software for web and social networks (www.familybuilder.com). And, just in time for Xmas, we are announcing the release this week of our low-cost genealogy DNA test.

Familybuilder DNA enables consumers to discover their DNA with the most affordable kit worldwide, announcing today, the release of its line of popularly-priced home genealogy DNA tests. For more information, please visit: https://dna.familybuilder.com

theKiwi said...

I found this today on a Google search for ancestry world subscription discount

http://www.genealogylinks.net/usa/save-in-economic-downturn.htm

which is indicating if live in the US and join Ancestry.co.uk World you can save $110 by paying in £ rather than paying in the US in $.

But I'm unclear how to implement this when I already have an account in the US. Hmmmmmm.

Unknown said...

I would like to save on my soon to expire Ancestry subscription and this appears to be a sizable discount. Once you sign up for the free subscription do you need to keep using FTM? I am on a Mac and they do not offer FTM for Mac any longer. I am interested in signing up and then continuing to use my current software.

Also, since I would need to cancel my current subscription, or maybe wait a few days for it to expire, will I lose all of my data in my shoebox?

theKiwi said...

You can just keep on using your Macintosh software for your genealogy after you have activated the Ancestry membership from within the Family Tree Maker that I had running under Parallels at that time.

When that year was nearly up recently I called Ancestry and said I wanted to cancel the account rather than renew it as I was going to renew through ancestry.co.uk. That was happily accepted at their end and she marked my account for cancellation. The day after it cancelled I went to ancestry.co.uk and signed up there. The total charge to me after conversion from £ to $ was $211.47 - quite a savings over $299.40.

I was able to keep my same account, so my tree and shoebox remained intact (not that I use it for very much). I don't know if the same would apply if you're trying to set up a free account from a Family Tree Maker purchase - it didn't for me when I joined up with my free one over a year ago - I had to create a new username I seem to recall at that time.

Roger