Genealogy Chat

I have a Findmypast membership, would it be beneficial for me to also sign up for Ancestry as I seem to have exhausted the info on Findmypast. Am I likely to find anything else on Ancestry that is not on Findmypast?

Views please.

Thanks in advance.

Nicki

It depends on which area of the country you are interested in. If London then Ancestry is good for parish records and electoral rolls but I don't know how they compare apart from that.#

As for census and BMD information, it is good to have a second opinion on some of the transcriptions.

You could sign up for the 2 week Ancestry free trial and see how you get on.

Andy

Look at Ancestry's home page.....see what's on offer!

No need to have a second opinion on censuses.............look at the images. Don't rely on transcribed info

Yes that's very true Reggie. What I meant was that when searching for someone, one site may find them when the other site has mistranscribed.

Ancestry also good for Liverpool and 'new' Manchester records.

I am a Londoner with ancestors from Liverpool and Ancestry has been fantastic for my research into both.

I have subs to both Ancestry & Findmypast - if I cannot find someone on one they will often turn up on the other due to mistranscriptions. Also I do not like the printout on Ancestry but like the Findmypast prinouts. So I will swap between the 2. I could not imagine being without either. :-)

Do a 14 day free trial with Ancestry and see if what they have on offer is of any use to you.

I found it a bit expensive to belong to both so I went into the computer section of my local library a few times to have free hourly use of their Ancestry. It might be worth trying it out that way before you decide which one to join?.

Peter

Thats a great idea Peter.

One thing to remember about using computers in libraries you often have to book your time and it is usually 1 hour and if it is a busy library someone will be waiting for your hour to be up. So if you have more than one library in your area with computer access it might be worthwhile seeing which is the least busy and using that one.

Thank you all for your views


Nicki

If your family tree is spread all over outside the UK then Ancestry is a very good choice. It also has a wider variety of databases than anything else including the BT phone book, wills and probate up to the 1960s, marriages and banns, Dr Williams Library, England and Wales electoral rolls, mostly London, ship voyages. It onl;y has transcripts for Scotland, no census images etc. It fairly expensive, about £ 18 / month full options.

For UK only the Society of Genealogists is best bet especially if you want to gp back before 1837.

I like the interface of FindMyPast better than anything else. I t has some shared back end stuff with GRU. The main downer is lack of databases outside the UK.

Watch out for "free" trees. GRU is ok but some eg Genie do not allow tree export (!) and others are basically adware platforms.

If you are using Ancestry at the library the easiest way is to go with a USB data key and a mobile version of a browser eg Firefox.

good luck

Thanks Rollo, It is British in India I am trying to track.

Nicki

I think Parish Records could really help me. I don't need to look outside the UK for records (yet!!) So which one is best for me?

Depends which parishes Neil .....

Do you ever look on FamilySearch? https://familysearch.org

And don't forget freereg for parish records and check out whether the areas you are interested in have online parish clerks. The Lancashire one is particulary good and its Links page has a list of others:

http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Look at...............

http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/online_parish_clerk

FMP and Ancestry both have some PR's............look at their home pages to find out which