Ancestry.com World Explorer Review & Giveaway Ends 5/20 Ended

I have been researching my family history in my spare time for about fifteen years now. I have a huge box that is filled to the lid with documents, stories and old photos of my ancestors. When I was given the opportunity to review Ancestry.com, I was super excited! Ancestry.com makes finding information on your ancestors extremely easy. Of course, there are still those occasional ancestors that make finding anything about them difficult, but overall, it's really easy. I love how Ancestry.com adds those little green leaves onto people in your family tree giving you hints about that particular person to check out! It has saved me soo much time!

Ancestry.com has spent more than a decade building the world’s largest online family history resource — including historical records, photos, stories, family trees and a collaborative community of millions. Thanks to Ancestry.com, it's really easy to get started building your own family tree. All you have to do is start by searching by name, estimated birth year, their spouse, a place they may have lived or any other family member of theirs like a sibling, child or parent. You don't have to enter all of that information into the search field, but the more information you do enter will generate better results. The information you enter will generate a search through census, birth, marriage, death records and more to help you find the information you have been searching.

I believe that our ancestors have interesting stories to tell us and all the information that is available about them is very intriguing. I love learning what my ancestor's lives were like in the years past. One of my favorite stories so far that I have been able to trace back on my mother's side is the story of my ninth great grandmother, Penelope VAN PRINCIS. Here is a short excerpt from a story that I found on Ancestry.com about her:

"Penelope VAN PRINCIS (1622 - 1732) has the distinction of being our first ancestor to arrive in the “New World”. Her story sounds almost too dramatic to be true, but it has been recounted in many forms over the years. It can be found today in many history books and text books about the early days of New Jersey. There is even a state historical sign that marks the place where she lived and is assumed to be buried.

Penelope, from 1896 book of N.J. stories
Penelope was actually English and her maiden name might have been KENT. She was married to a Dutchman named VAN PRINCIS and was on her way with him to the settlement of New Amsterdam (now New York City) some time in the 1640's when their ship was wrecked on the Jersey shore in the area now known as Sandy Hook. Her husband was either injured or too sick to travel, so Penelope stayed with him while the rest of the ship's company proceeded on foot to New Amsterdam. The couple were then discovered by a band of Indians who attacked them, killing Penelope's husband and leaving her apparently mortally wounded. Penelope managed to crawl off and hide while trying to stay alive. Legend has it that she hid inside a hollow log and took some sustenance from the fungus growing there. A few days later, she was discovered by another Indian and his son who decided to take her in and try to heal her. Penelope recovered from her wounds and was eventually taken to New Amsterdam by her benefactors. Some stories say that she continued to see the old Indian in the years that followed.

New Jersey state historical marker
While in the city, she met and married Richard STOUT (1615 - 1705), who was possibly an English sailor who had taken his discharge while in port there. They moved together to a farm on Long Island, but later returned to the Jersey colony to help found the town of Middletown. Penelope and Richard had 10 children who almost all had large families of their own. When Penelope died in 1732 she was reportedly 110 years old and had over 120 known living descendants. After what she had survived in her younger days, there is little doubt that she could have lived to a very ripe old age.

The above information was taken from a story that was submitted to Ancestry.com by W. D. Gordon, Rochester Hills, Michigan, Copyright © 2009 USA All rights reserved
Thank you, Doug Gordon for giving me permission to include this in my post!

I love that I am able to discover such great stories and ancestry connections from the comfort of my own home! It is too hard to go to public libraries for hours at a time doing research when you have a husband, four kids and a job. But, with Ancestry.com, I am able to log onto the website and do all the research I want after my kids and husband are fast asleep. Although, sometimes I don't get very much sleep when I sit down at night to do a little bit of research and realize hours later just how long I was engrossed in Ancestry.com.

Ancestry.com has generously offered one Sampletrain member a 6 month World Explorer membership! That will give the winner access to 11 billion historical records globally and 44 million family trees to connect with family members. Including:

Thousands of searchable collections of records from around the world…
Census Records & Voter Lists
Birth, Marriage & Death Records
Military Records
Immigration & Emigration Records
Family Trees
Photos and Images
Directories & Member Lists
Newspaper & Periodicals
Stories, Memories & Histories
Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records
Maps, Atlases & Gazettes
Irish Collections
Civil War Records
185 photographs, scanned documents and written stories from users
According to a Harris Interactive survey from March 2012, four in 5 Americans have an interest in learning more about their family history.

Everyone has a chance to win this great prize, enter below:

Mandatory Entries:

1. You must be a Sampletrain member to participate/comment in any
giveaway/forum so hop on board and register here.

Extra Entries:

2. "Like" Sampletrain on Facebook
3. "Like" Ancestry.com on Facebook
4. Follow Sampletrain on Twitter
5. Follow Ancestry.com on Twitter
6. Tell me what you would be interested in learning or reserching on Ancestry.com.
7. Post on your Facebook that you have entered this giveaway on Sampletrain and include the link to your post in your comment.
8. Tweet this once per day (leave separate comment for each .

#Win an Ancestry.com 6 month World Explorer Membership @Sample_Train #Giveaway ends 5/20. Enter at: http://tinyurl.com/cxhymfs

Leave comments below for each entry you perform along with a link to your tweets. Be sure to number them accordingly.

Giveaway Guidelines and Disclosure
Product was provided for review, no monetary compensation was received. My product review is my honest opinion. Due to the new FTC rules, I was under no obligation to review any product if I so choose, Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the FREE product(s) received. The company is providing the prize(s) for this giveaway at no cost to me. Giveaway ends May 20, 2013 at 11:59PM CST. Open to US residents 18 and over. Winner/s will be picked via Random.org. Winner will also be pm'd and will have 48 hours to reply before another winner is chosen.

1. I am a Sampletrain member.
2. "Like" Sampletrain on Facebook
3. "Like" Ancestry.com on Facebook
4. Follow Sampletrain on Twitter
5. Follow Ancestry.com on Twitter
6. I would like to research the history of both sides of my family. There is a distant cousin making requests about my father's side and a cousin making requests about my mother's side. I would really love to do this research.
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25. I am a Sampletrain member.
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27. "Like" Ancestry.com on Facebook
28. Follow Sampletrain on Twitter
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30. I would like to research the history of my moms family..I know little about them.
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