Genealogy Chat

Hello Maureen
if you would like to have a go at Ancestry it is free at your local library

Maureen, when you get records don't forget to save them to your PC and back them up regularly. Otherwise when your subscription runs out you won't be able to access them.

Ken

Wow - thanks for all your advice It certainly has helped and has made me feel a lot more confident. I think I will do as you say and walk before I run! I am a platinum member of GR but everyone seemed to be getting more detailed info than me- no doubt that comes with experience.
I will save my money for now and not subscribe to other sites just yet.
Thanks again for your help.

GR is the cheapest way of getting census records, although their search facility used to be poor - I've not checked it recently. I would stick with just your GR sub, which seems to have some level of free (to you) access, until it comes up for renewal. I'ld then drop to basic GR,as I find the help given, and the tree sharing useful, and get a FindMyPast or Ancestry sub to access records. Even without the sub, you can do a free search on their sites, and find some useful info even if you can't see it all without a sub.

Incidentally, the (unindexed) Durham bishop's transcript images are at:
https://www.familysearch.org/s/collection/list#page=1®ion=EUROPE

Hi Maureen,

It will come with time, believe me, we were all beginners once.

As you are a complete beginner, I would suggest you use the free sites first, to get used to them and used to what they can do for you. I know it's tempting to want to run before you can walk, and pay a sub for sites, but that could get expensive, and lets face it, our ancestors aren't going anywhere are they!! Plenty of time, they'll still be there! :-)

Use GR for reading advice, asking questions etc, it's a great help, I learned most of what I know about genealogy from these boards. It's amazing the knowledge some GR folk have!

freebmd.org.uk is a good site, and as it says, it is free.
Rootsweb and Genforum.genealogy are also good forums to use, where there's more breakdown of county/names/subject.
Ancestry has a fair bit for free, so before you part with any money, why not get used to the free bits first.
Cyndi's list is a good one to bookmark too.
Then there's rootsireland.ie
And cwgc.org and twgpp.org for your war people.
And there's always good old Google!


Don't be afraid to ask anything on GR!!

All the best,
K

Maureen I joined Genes and I've never regretted it with so many people willing to help each other. In the beginning I just stayed quiet, reading threads and learning from all the advice on there and when I became a bit more confident I started to join in. I'm still gaining info on my tree from what I can get on here and for that I don't need to go anywhere else yet.

Eventually I am going to subscribe to Ancestry too to add (thinking November-time as long winter evenings to be coped with) to the info I already have and to (hopefully) answer a few questions and add meat to the bones or should it be leaves onto the twigs and twigs onto the branches.

I won't be giving up my sub to GR though. I began building my tree on here using FreeBMD, FamilySearch and the 'free' access on here and then took out a Platinum when it was on offer. You can't put a price on the kindness, experience and advice you get on GR.

Maureen,
Now you know why we all benefit from this site, many many people so willing to help. I am on both sites and have found it useful, but the tree on here is the most thoroughly researched and accurate.
I trust that you will enjoy your research and from experience I know that one day you will think, " I know the answer to that question and then you would be helping others.
Good luck with your research

Bridget

You might find it helpful to explore and post in this part of rootschat, about Durham - http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/board,12.0.html - it is free.

Thanks for your help.
I am researching England and Wales and eventually Ireland. One of my relatives was in Durham prison in the 1911 census and I am keen to discover why. Also I can find no record of his death. I think I need to join additional sites.

The answer will depend on where you are researching - England & Wales, or Scotland or oversea - and what type of information you are looking for

For births, marriages and deaths registrations, free BMD is often used - http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/ - and people tend to subscribe to ancestry or / find my past for census and military records among other things.

I have recently become involved with tracing my family history and am now totally addicted!! I am a member of genes and have found it very useful. However I would like advice as to whether I need to join other sites and what benefit they would be to me?
Am intrigued at the amount of information members on this site can find for others, some of the 'look ups' seem to have more info than I can access and they seem to find this info so quickly. Is this because I am not looking in the right places or because I need to join other groups or do you think I am just not using the records properly?
Thanks in advance for your help