Genealogy Chat

Well then.... I think I will use vouchers from now on ..... shame really it's more convenient to buy online.... they would probably have got more money out of me that way.... never mind - their loss ........ G x

There is a mechanism for corrections on the 1901 site, and the website that gives the corrections made is http://www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk/changes_index. We reported some errors, including SCAN instead of DEAN and RODEN instead of VODEN and, after a while, the corrections were made. As I have said before, I do not blame the transcribers, most of them in Sri Lanka, but Qinetic. Joy

Like many others I have found some appallingly bad transcriptions on the 1901 Census-Pinner spelt as Plumer, thank God for the wild card entry but there is a limit how far you can go with that. But more to the point, what do the administrators of that site intend to do to correct the errors? As far as I can see, and I have to say because of my initial disillusionment I haven't used the site very much, there is no mechanism for corrections. Much the same as the Mormons reluctance to correct errors on their site, I suppose it takes a big admission and probably more money to admit you're wrong and put things right! It's probably better for those people to believe that everything in their world is fine and ignore reality!

I lost money on 1901 more than once with time outs, iamges not loading and disconnection. Now that I'm with ancestry I'll never bother with it again. At least with Ancestry you can look at an infinite number of images for one price. On 1901 I had a few families who were enumerated on more than one page, so had to pay double to get the whole family each time. Also, the transcription errors on 1901 are diabolical! I've had to really use my initiative to find some people, which are clearly eumerated under their correct surname, but indexed under something totally different. Worst I ever found was a whole family indexed with the previous family. Thankfully these two families were related, so I was looking for both of them anyway, but if they'd not been connected I would never have found them. Cazza

Hi Gaynor, I too would recommend a subscription to Ancestry. While you're paying £5 a time to 1901, and possibly losing some of it, you may as well have a year on Ancestry for £70 which is less than £6 a month. They usually have a 14-day free trial running as well. Obviously worth checking to see if the counties you want are available, as they're not all on there yet, but I've definitely had my money's worth already. And I never get timed out!! Mandy :)

What rotten luck. We used the site online to pay first of all. Later we bought a voucher from our local library. You can work out who you want to look for and spread it over the six months. Joy

I find the 48 hour time-limit ridiculous and the quality of the transcription is something else! It's true that the basic index is free, but it doesn't always give enough detail to see if you have the right relative before you have to pay for the image. I used the (free) microfiche version at the Family Record Centre when I was there - much easier to do an address search and not nearly as frustrating! nell

Honestly, I think that site is a real catch. You would be much better signing up for a 2 week trial with ancestry. It only cost about £7 a month anyway. But you could check out a lot in 2 weeks. Plus you get to see so many other records on it. 1901 is a waste of money as far as I could see.

I thought the on-line payment system looked risky from the start (for those kind of reasons), so I went for the pre-paid vouchers. I don't recall having any problem with vouchers - they last for 6 months. All you'd lose on an un-suspended crash is any un-saved/printed images, you'd still have whatever's left of the voucher. If you're in this country, they're generally available via the public library system. I recall seeing a "where to get" page on the 1901 site. Christine

1901 stinks, I have lost money on it due to timed-out sessions etc. Obviously designed by a committee on a bad day, I now try to avoid using the paid part unless desperate.

Hi....... Yes they have the session numbers etc. but they haven't offered any assistance yet.... mind you I did say I would spread the word about what has happened....

Hi G, I had a problem a while back with suddenly not being able to see images so, after telling them the session ID no.s or dates and times I was on their site they sent me a £5 voucher.

That must be really frustrating. I am glad it hasn't happened to me - it could have because my connection sometimes drops for no reason at all. I just blame the ISP and never thought about the consequeses of it dropping while on 1901. Anne

I paid for a £5 session the other day,and was disconnected before I was able to suspend, fortunately I only had 25p left, however my husband, John paid £5 and again the connection was dropped while we were looking at it so we didn't even notice the disconnection until we went to move pages. This time he lost £1. Two different sessions both lost before being able to suspend. I have emailed support at 1901 and they have come back explaining about cookies causing problems and how you shouldn't go in from favourites, they also say your anti virus scan should be disabled when you access the sight would you believe........ but still nothing constructive about losing the session and the money, I have emailed again but haven't heard anything back as yet........ It would perhaps be better if you had a user name and log in so that you wouldn't lose money in this way.... we are both now very wary about using the site which is a shame.... it's a good job we only put £5 on at a time! ...... G xxxx