Genealogy Chat

someone recommended that I should subscribe to Ancestry as well as GR, is Ancestry better than GR ?

take the free trial and see if you like it !

it's just that others seem to be able to get information much easier than I can, I wondered if I was doing it wrong, but a friend suggested Ancestry, so I think I will give it a try.
thanks
Betty

could anyone tell me what site I need to go on to see the 1911 census.
thanks
Betty

Ancestry is far more versatile than GR, and most people thing it is well worth a subscription if you can afford it.

The 1911 census can be accessed from only two sites. The first:

http://www.1911census.co.uk/

you can search for free, but to view any records you have to buy credits, and it is not cheap if you have a lot to look for.

The other is Find My Past:

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/home.jsp

where you can either pay per view, or pay for a subscription - worth it if you have a lot of rellies you want to look for.

there are 3 levels of ancestry , you need to find which would suit you, if you choose basic , you can still ask for help from folks on here with upgrades.

Betty

I think most of us would say subscribe to either ancestry OR findmypast


ancestry.co.uk is my personal favourite


The problem with GR is that they do not actually carry the records themselves, they re-direct you to other sites, and are not as easy to use.


For example, if you find a name on a census ........ it is impossible to move either to the previous page or the following page here on GR. You might want to do that to check whether there are other members of the family or to see who the neighbours are.


You can move from page to page very easily on the other 2 sites.


If you do take the free trial on ancestry .........you do have to provide them with credit card details. If you decide NOT to continue, do please make sure that you notify them of that fact well before the 14th daye ............... or they will start charging your credit card.

I would recommend sending the email to say you do not want to continue at least 4 days before the end of the trial, ie on day 9 or 10. No later!



sylvia

Ancestry has all the virtues decribed above - BUT don't leave GR altogether, the back-up help you can get from other members volunteering here is fantastic. I have had some interesting correspondence with Ancestry contacts, but also a lot of blanks. As many of the Ancestry trees are public many of their members just pick up - sometimes recklessly - names and connections, and there isn't the helpful discussion we get on GR

I am an ancestry member and have bben for many years. When I first joined GR I signed up as a gold member which I found was a waste of money.

On Ancestry you can step through the images so if a family is split over two pages, you find everyone in the household. On GR you cannot step through the images so information can be missed.

Hi Betty
I started off with genes about 6 or more years ago, just building my tree from the info I aleady had.
Then things became more involved so I checked out Ancestry too, out of curiosity really.

I now subscribe to Ancestry, but only on a monthly basis. More expensive I know but at the time, more affordable for me. I have found this an absolute boon as I can search so much and have found all sorts.

My Ancestry is only the basic option but I am coming to the rapid conclusion that I am now at the stage where I need the next level. Also, The beauty of Ancestry is that I now have 6 x trees on it - Mums paternal & maternal, Dads Paternal & maternal and also hubbys paternal & maternal.

HOWEVER - I still keep my genes tree, just as a quick working option for both sides of mine and hubbys family. The help on genes is second to none too.

thankyou all for replying, are there 2 Ancestry sites, I've seen Ancestry.Com and also Ancestry.co.uk or are they the same site. I'm grateful for all your advice.
Betty

Betty,

They are the same but Ancestry .co.uk is best as you can ring them..

I've never joined Ancestry, but found Findmypast useful.
Most of my research has been free - using my local records office, and one trip to Suffolk (it was a great holiday) where most of my ancestors on one side came from.

maggie


that is wonderful, just the way to do research



but impossible for those of us that do not live in the UK, or who are unable to travel.



sylvia

I love ancestry and think the info on there is second to none ;;;my membership finishes on 24th June and Im looking to see if anyone knows of any offers going please ;;
I have worldwide at the moment with ancestry Au ;;;

Babs

I joined GR six years ago and started my tree on this site
I could not afford to take out a subscription to Ancestry so used a free trial. after that I followed links and found a lot of free resources on line in some cases I have got lucky finding parish records and other odd lists.

As a large part of my family left england in the 1800's to live in Australia and New Zealand a lot of Ancestry's lists were of no help ,though they now have an Australian site, Ancestry.com.au which has Australian shipping and Convict records among others.
I use Family Search the LDS site for the 1881 census and IGI records as well as freeBMD and I buy credits for Find my Past which I have found very helpful. and reading the threads on Ancestry led me to discovering an Amazing site to research my Dutch Ancestors, www.genlais.nl.
And when all else fails or I need a specific lookup I use the boards here on GR. There are lots of loverly people on this site only to glad to help from when I was a newbie till now, when I feel I have got the hang of it and can occasionally assist others, And of course I have found dozens of people related to me who have trees on this site and we have been able to share our research.
My opinion is that while Ancestry has a lot of stuff it's not the be all to end all.