which is best value family history site?

Happy_Daddy

Hello, we bought my in-laws a 3 month Ancestry trial which is nearly over. Now they have caught the bug they want to continue their research but Ancestry seems to be one of the more expensive sites. Is that because you get access to more records? How do other sites compare for price and the info that is available? At the moment they are mainly looking for census, BMD and parish register info. As with most things the choice seems bewlidering for the uninitiated!

Many thanks for your help

Mojisola

There are free sites like https://www.freebmd.org.uk/ and https://www.familysearch.org/ where you can get a certain amount of knowledge.

I put off paying for a site like Ancestry for a long time but wished I'd done it sooner. It's really a choice between Ancestry or Find My Past for a good range of records. Some libraries have Ancestry available.

SailorSam

Check in your local library, you can probably use Ancestry there for free. And the staff there can point you towards all the local records that they keep and may not be on the Internet, from local churches etc.

Happy_Daddy

Thanks both for the Ancestry in library tip, I'll certainly pass that on. We'd had a quick look at Find my past, but couldn't really work out what was different, if anything. We found a site called thegenealogist.co.uk which had lots of positive customer feedback, but hadn't come across anyone else we knew that had tried it.

Mojisola

https://www.rootschat.co.uk is a brilliant free site full of really helpful people. There are some discussions on there about which paid-for sites are preferred. It can depend on the areas of the world your family come from.

If your parents-in-law get really keen, it's worth going to the areas the family grew up in and trawling through the records at the local family history centre. It's such a thrill when you look through the handwritten records - even if they are on microfiche - and see your ancestors' signatures on their marriage certificates!

barbarawright

Ancestry and Find My Past both have the BMD records and censuses (though FYP has the nice feature that you can search by address, useful if you're looking at house history). Apart from that, they have different datasets so FYP has merchant navy records, for example, which wouldn't be useful to everyone. Watch out for a free trial

cheapskate101

The problem with Ancestry is that if you have a complaint... Someone has put erroneous information about you family on the site, no one will help.

The American end will not let you speak to anyone in the Uk. And says the phone number is confidential.


Here it is anyway:
Ancestry Co UK
Waterfront Building
Hammersmith Embankment
Chancellors Road
London
W6 9RW tel [URL="tel:0208%20846%203620"]0208 846 3620[/URL]
[EMAIL="Support@ancestry.co.uk"]Support@ancestry.co.uk[/EMAIL]


Even when you get through to the British phone number, the same person answers more than one option. And the line goes inexplicably dead.


Ask to speak to the legal person - Helen Giddings, she may not be at her desk and apparently does not ring back.


The director is Jonathan Samuel Saverimuttu, who lives in SE10. His address is available on the Internet. If no one from the UK office will help you, you could try sending a registered letter to his home address to see if this produces any sort of response.

spidersandsprinkles

If you think your family is from the local area, use the local history library. My dad has been doing this for years, scrolling through parish records. It can be tricky as a lot can be missing, mis-spelt surnames etc but my dad has managed to trace our family back 1000 years!
Another way he's filled in gaps is by asking on free genealogy forums, a lot of people have helped him out and hes found quite a lot of distant relatives this way.
I imagine using the websites is a lot easier and less time consuming but I believe you find out a lot more information if you do it yourself (provided you can access the libraries where your ancestors lived).
If you go in with a 'lead' the name of a family member, ie a great great grandparent, the staff are really helpful and will point you in the right direction.

Grumpelstiltskin

spidersandsprinkles wrote: »

If you think your family is from the local area, use the local history library. My dad has been doing this for years, scrolling through parish records. It can be tricky as a lot can be missing, mis-spelt surnames etc but my dad has managed to trace our family back 1000 years!
Another way he's filled in gaps is by asking on free genealogy forums, a lot of people have helped him out and hes found quite a lot of distant relatives this way.
I imagine using the websites is a lot easier and less time consuming but I believe you find out a lot more information if you do it yourself (provided you can access the libraries where your ancestors lived).
If you go in with a 'lead' the name of a family member, ie a great great grandparent, the staff are really helpful and will point you in the right direction.

You are very lucky to trace your family that far back with proof.
Parish records only date from the 1500s, any some churches much later.
Before that time surviving records only tend to be for the rich and landowners, not the big majority of ordinary people.

pauletruth

being brought up with the traditional method of reseach it took a while for me to join ancestry. ive found thousands of relatives via them. its also quite easy to trace forwards as well. i would recommend the basic package and see how they do. dont forget the familyseach it may help you locate parish registers. ancestry are starting to do the parish registers. the london ones are very useful.

pimento

cheapskate101 wrote: »

The problem with Ancestry is that if you have a complaint... Someone has put erroneous information about you family on the site, no one will help.

What type of help are you expecting?

I've seen trees with whom I share ancestors that have the most howling errors in them. So what? My ancestors don't belong to me, they're in the public domain and you can't libel a dead man.

Take a chill pill. If their tree is wrong, it's their loss, not yours.