Genealogy Chat

Thank you all, some good ideas here and I will follow the advice.. I should add that like many others, I have indeed tried loads of alernative search methods - very brave of me when the brick wall is one Henry Brown living in Paddington for which there is no 41 census. I only have him as the father on his son's marriage cert in 1854- so no age, no birthplace I have his marriage in 1830 and on a few of his children's baptisms but as I can't find him on any census with his wife, I can't trace through her either. Children - yikes, the son from whom I am descended had left home by the 51 and the others that I have found all died young, well, except for one older sibling - Ann Brown 1832 who also produces far too many results. For some reason though, I just can't seem to let go the search...
Thanks again though.

Given your interest in London, I would definitely recommend Ancestry (premium) over FMP. I do think FMP's transcriptions are more accurate, but I wouldn't take out an FMP sub in your case - use the savings for extra BMD certs - and if you need something that FMP has and Ancestry doesn't (like minor GRO indices, or early army pensions,) then ask for help on these boards.

If you're not finding, say, John Smith b 1898 in 1901, then (as Jonesey suggests), you should change your search strategy, and maybe search for his bro Walter b 1896, son of John & Mary with no last name specified, and look at who you get - a Walter Lmith would be a likely candidate.

I have the same as you - I do Pay-per-vierw for the 1911 census, and credits for that can be used for Find My Past. I have had a few breakthroughs there with the new marriage records identifying the maiden name of a marry-in - I think a full membership of FMP and of Ancestry would be expensive duplication.

Thank you

I have found Ancestry fine, especially for London records, and I believe there are more LMA records to go on there, so I'll have to renew then !

I can only speak about what I have experience of. I subscribe to the same sites as yourself and have found that to be the most useful combination unless you are looking for some more obscure records. Whilst Ancestry are often criticised for mistranscription of census records I have not personally seen evidence that any of the other popular sites are any better or worse.

With regards to "Brick walls" these can sometimes be broken down or surmounted by using things such as wildcards to find records of someone who is not appearing where we think that they ought to be. No one site can claim that their records are perfect so its a case of paying your money and taking your chance.

I subscribe to genes, Ancestry and have the 1911 package on Find My Past. This last one is coming up for renewal.
I have mostly found what I need on the 1911 and could now just use pay to view for the odd one that I need.
I have a brick wall on Ancestors in the London area and think that I read somewhere that one of the sites had a better census index than Ancestry, I can't remember which.
Should I subsribe take out a full subscription to Find My Past, or perhaps something like the Society of Genealogists to get different information or does anyone have any advice?
Very grateful for any tips
Sylvie