The records they have are accurate inasmuch as the record itself is accurate.

For example, my grandfather's death certificate is available for download, but it has his place of birth wrong. It is not ancestry.com's fault.

Also, many people post family trees on the site, and they make mistakes.

I am a Mayflower descendant, and genealogists are interested in tracking the descendants of the people who arrived on the Mayflower (they weren't all Pilgrims). Therefore, Family Trees of my ancestors are all over ancestry.com (as well as other sites on the internet).

For whatever reason, from the middle 1600s to the middle 1700s, they were all naming their sons James and their daughters Hannah, and many published Family Trees frequently assign the various James' and Hannah's to the wrong parents.

I've even been to Historical Societies in many New England towns with huge Family Trees created on large murals on display that have mistakes.

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".