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Hi all,
I am thinking of returning to my search for my ancestors and wondered which would be the best site for me apart from this one with all the help from you lovely people.
Which do you prefer... Ancestry or Find My Past.
Which would you recommend please.
Thanks in anticipation. :-)
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To be honest I don't think there is a lot of difference. They both have useful records but neither has everything.
I have Findmypast but others have Ancestry. Why not take up the 14 days free trial that they offer (I think they still offer it anyway), and see which you prefer. Whichever you choose you can always ask for look ups on the other one and someone will be prepared to help.
Kath. x
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Your choice could be influenced by your geographical areas of interest.
For instance, Ancestry hold many Bap, Ma & Bu for the London area, and the same for the London Borough of Bexley which used to be Kent.
On the other hand, FMP has the PR for Hertfordshire (my lot tended to stay in the SE!)
Ancestry has a huge number of records relating to the USA with a lesser amount for Canada & Australia. The last 2 are probably related to the Countries privacy laws.
Can't make a judgement call on FMP overseas records as my sub doesn't cover them.
Follow Kath's advice and take out a free trial on both.
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I agree with both Kath & DET, AnnMarieG especially about the geographical areas of interest.
For instance, my main areas of interest are Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Staffordshire. Ancestry have record images for Derbyshire and FMP for Staffordshire & Leicestershire so I have Subs for both Ancestry & FMP.
Talking of records both sometimes say they have records but they are only transcripts rather than images so another good reason to double check what both offer.
FMP used to have British Newspapers as standard as part of their UK Sub but that is not the case now so you need to check what the Sub includes as you should do with Ancestry as well.
:-D
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There's a FMP free weekend which finishes *tomorrow night. Why not try it out AnnMarie.
*EDITED IN .... It's been very kindly brought to my attention that the FMP FREE WEEKEND ends TOMORROW NIGHT (MONDAY) and not tonight.
"Free access ends on 10 September at 23:59"
I have always used GR and did the bones of my tree with it. I fattened it out with FMP, a little bit of Ancestry and other online free sites.
I have to say I do prefer FMP to Ancestry but what one site has the other doesn't and vice versa.
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Some libraries have free access to both FMP and Ancestry very useful if you can get to a library.
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I now have both Ancestry and FMP ........
.......... I had Ancestry only for many years, and still find that I like its search engine better than FMP, but possibly that is only because I am so used to it.
OH took over paying my subs to genealogy sites some years ago, as birthday, anniversary and Christmas gifts, and offered to pay for FMP Worldwide about 3 years ago.
I now find both invaluable, especially the worldwide and access to newspapers on FMP.
I found that FMP had fuller WW1 records on my maternal grandfather than did Ancestry, including a letter in which he asked for early release after his return from "Mesopotamia" in 1919 because his wife was "not good at handling money and he needed to go back to work.". Included was a letter from his pre-war employer saying that grandfather was welcome back! Neither of those was in the Ancestry file.
I second the advice to try a free 14 day trial in each ........... but do remember that you have to give a credit card number when you sign up for the trial, and that they will take the money right on the 14th day. You MUST email them on about day 10 or 11 if you decide not to continue, and so ensure that there is time for the email to reach them before the "magic hour". Otherwise you will be stuck with the sub.
If you decide to take only a UK sub, remember that you can still search worldwide on both sites. Names but not details will be shown. You can do a scan to see if there is anything of possible/definite interest, and then ask on here for someone to check specific records.
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Dear AnnMarie and All
Hello
I started my computer research on Ancestry.
This site has a lot of London records, baptism, marriage, etc.
I found school records for my grandmother and burials for my ancestors in the 1890's in the East End.
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If you are interested in putting your ancestors in the social context, this book is invaluable:
"TRACING YOUR ANCESTORS' LIVES"
- A GUIDE FOR FAMILY HISTORIANS
BY BARBARA J STARMANS
The contents include:
1. What is social History?
2. People, Family and Society
3. Domestic Affairs
4. Birth, Life and Death
5. Work, wages and Economy
6. Community, Religion and Government
This books goes beyond dates, names and places and helps you understand
the life of your ancestor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"TRACING YOUR ANCESTORS"
A GUIDE FOR FAMILY HISTORIANS
BY SMON FOWLER
This book is crammed with knowledge and tips about the census, details on BMD certificates, military, etc
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope this helps a bit.
Take gentle care
Best wishes
Elizabeth, EOS
xx
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Thank you all for your kind responses.
Very much appreciated.
Cant wait to get started again. <3
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