Genealogy Chat

I wish Ancestry had been around about 20 years ago when I started! It wasn't and I had to use record offices, libraries, St Catherines and Somerset House. However, once your back beyond census and civil registration, I'm not sure how useful it is for nationwide coverage of earlier records. Jay

Hi Robyne I think Nell might mean familyhistoryonline.net, which is an excellent site and particularly good I find for deaths which are hardly covered by the IGI. But there is lots of other stuff there as well, and it is on a pay-per-view basis (you buy about £5 worth of credits but views are only about 10p each and the credits last ages). Well worth looking at. Tina

Hi what is that familyhistory website. I cant get familyhistory.net to work, is it something else?

Ancestry is definitely a must for family history researchers. You can trace a whole family through the censuses 1841-1901, look at bmds and find some baptisms, marriages in Pallot's index. I also buy units on a regular basis on www.familyhistory.net. This has transcriptions done by local family history societies, but whether or not it is of use depends on where and when your ancestors lived. You can check the databases, which are arranged by county (though it does have some info outside England and Wales too) to see which parishes are covered and for when. Its got quite a lot on Glamorgan (husband's Welsh lot) and for Cambridge (my lot). I was able to get all the information from my Cambridge gt gt grandmother's 2nd marriage for 10p whereas the cert would have cost £7. That has to be a bargain! nell

I use ancestry a lot. It has other useful features like a new personal tree feature where you can add photos and link census records and if you find a census image you can save it or E.mail it. It is free but I also use rootschat a lot. It has boards for each county with lists of resources with links. I am slowly adding to the Somerset board. I also have a tree on tribal pages (free). It gives you your own family tree website and links by date of birth and death so should be more reliable than hotmatches. Yes I am an adict and to think my mother used to say it was such a shame I had wasted my history degree.

It works out more expensive, but I joined Ancestry on a 'pay monthly' basis, if I find after a few months that I lose interest or don't have the time to keep it up I can cancel. It's just over £9.00 each month, so doesn't break the bank.

If your ancestors are from England and/or Wales then Ancestry is a must. If they are from Scotland then you will find the Scotsland People website best.

Yay! And if you need any help figuring out how best to use it the folks here are awesome! Some day I hope to join the ranks of the experienced helpers but right now I'm just an amateur lol. Good Luck! Helen

Thanks everyone ,you have convinced me to join up .

Have to agree with Maggie, for c£70 per year, Ancestry is the best value I've ever had - loads of info! Sam x

Hi, I joined ancestry a couple of months ago and I love it! Total value for money, you can access just about everything english that you need that is available online. Definately worth the investment. And if you think about it it''s only 5 quid a month!

Hi Simon I would have to say Ancestry is a great value, it covers almost everything that is available. A definite MUST!

Hi everyone I have only been into geneology for about 6 months ,something that I wanted to try out.I 'never in a million' expected to be able to find out ,what I have done about my family ancestry in such a short time. I'm now just about 100% addicted to it. The trouble is I have now got to a point where I am going to have to start paying for any further record info.I keep spending a fiver here and there,and it's starting to add up. Am I as well subscribing to ancestry.co.uk ? is it value for money ? has anyone had any problem in the past If they need to unsubscribe etc ? are there any better organisations? Up to yet the free ancestry .co searches have been most useful for me ,so It seems quite appealing. Can anyone please advise. Many thanks Simon