I've never been a huge fan of online family trees. I guess because while I don't mind sharing my research, I like to know who I'm sharing it with. That way I can let them know if I've found new information or something that needs correcting. But after giving Ancestry Member Trees a workout, I found myself pleasantly surprised. It's definitely not as robust as the popular stand-alone software offerings. It is also geared (not surprisingly) toward adding online documents and sources directly from Ancestry.com -- it is a much more tedious process to do this from other online sources. There are a few glitches here and there as well. I can add repositories to my own trees, for example, but when I try to add them to trees for which I'm not the owner I get an error.

All that aside, what Ancestry Member Trees sets out to do, it does very well. It offers an easy and intuitive way for a genealogy novice to add information about their family, including photos and documents. Member Trees also does an excellent job of encouraging proper documentation of research with obvious fields and reminders to add sources. Where it really shines, however, is in its ability to connect families in a research project. Others can be invited to view the tree and upload their own photos or add their family stories. And once your family members see the family tree online, believe me, they'll be excited to add what they know! This alone can be useful for everything from collecting information on living relatives for a family reunion or family history book, to recording and preserving oral accounts and memories of a WWII ancestor.
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