Family Tree Reseach

cristol

Hi all
If anyone has a Genes Reunited subscription can they tell me how much they pay ? I paid £15 a year and have just had a renewal reminder -again for £15. But friends of mine only pay £9.95 and one has also this week had a renewal reminder - for £9.95 ! Don't know why the discrepancy and being a determined money saver I don't like being fleeced for no reason.
To the original poster - have you tried googling some of your family names - there are loads of family websites out there and most are really helpful in providing and sharing information - you might have to go forward quite a few results pages but perseverence often brings results.

Victors_Bruvver

I have considered using Genes Reunited but something is ticking in the back of my head saying ‘DO NOT GO THERE!’

I am not completely happy that a website such as this is in effect gathering all your personal information. It may even claim it is 100% secure but I think there is a danger that some unscrupulous individual will still come along a use it for criminal purposes. Consider this; most financial institutions ask for security questions and answers from you when setting up an account. What do they ask? Date of Birth, Place of Birth, and Mother’s maiden name. Then we have Friends Reunited listing another favourite security question, what was your first school. Who has access to that?

Okay, both websites may give an absolute guarantee that it is secure and old gits like me have nothing to worry about because you are always in control of who can see the information. But what about that member of your extended family, nephews, cousins and in-laws etc, that have you & your parents names and dates of birth on it?

Don’t forget, even Government departments and their agencies cannot keep the data secure. Do you really want to give it out for free so that a commercial enterprise can make money out and with no fault of them, you will find that sometime in the future you have become a victim of fraud? Think seriously about, everyone is saying that you should be protecting your identity and here we are GIVING IT AWAY!!

Browntoa

it does not display birth dates for living people, if you are really concerned then put exact dates on a PC software version of your tree and just year on Genereunited. I never share my trees data until I have confirmed I have the right person by asking relevant details about their family to be confirmed

it is a very useful site and it is only via there that I have now got copies of photo's of my Great-Great-Great Grandparents and useful snippets about family history

deedums

If you're taking out an Ancestry subscription don't forget Quidco!

hardpressed

If you can take the Ancestry 14 day free when you've got a quiet couple of weeks or even a couple of weeks off work it's surprising how much you can do in that time, just make a list of everything you want to know and go through it methodically. I did it a couple of years ago over the Christmas break and managed to gets lots of info, census returns etc.

LadyMorticia

According to the sites listed I was never born.lol.
Mind you it also says my great nana was never born and never died.

I do have a very uncommon surname though so that may be why.
I've used genes reunited in the past and ancestry but I really can't afford to pay at the moment. Maybe I'll carry on with my family tree when I have more money.

xx

willowthecat

Hi

I've been doing my family tree for so long now that when I started the only information available online was the 1901 census and Familysearch.org!

Have to agree with the other posts that starting with your local archives office is the cheapest way to start, obviously if you have local ancestors, but to be honest you need some time during the day on a weekday, otherwise you may find that the office is closed or too busy at the weekend.

If you're thinking of using Ancestry.com, then although £80 initial outlay seems expensive, what you have to remember is that sometimes, you have to scan a number of records to find the one you need. It's not too much of a problem if your ancestors came from one particular village, because historically they didn't move around a lot, so it's pretty straightforward to find them, but if they came from a large city then you could be looking at many records to find them. And of course with pay-per-view you'll be paying to view that record regardless of whether it's the correct one for you or not.

Apart from the other sites mentioned here, I also tend to use genuki.org.uk, which gives tons of information on different registration districts (useful when you're trying to find a certificate), and it publishes excerpts from various trade directories so that you get a feel of what the town/village that your ancestor came from, was like when they were alive.

FreeBMD is a superb site, especially if you want to try and find the maiden name of a woman, without resorting to buying the marriage certificate. This works as FreeBMD shows you the names of all persons who got married on one particular page of the index, so if you know the first name of the woman, and know the man's full name and roughly when they were married, you can often figure out what her maiden name was.

If you find ancestors that died in World War 1 then the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website is superb! I had two great great uncles who died in the war and I was able to visit their graves in Northern France a couple of years ago.

The 14 day trial with Ancestry is a superb idea, but don't be surprised if you find yourself on it all day, every day

As for identity theft, I never use my Mum's real maiden name anyway, because as you will find out for yourself, its not exactly difficult to get this information from the Birth, Marriages and Deaths indices. :think:

Have fun and as the other posts have said, it is addictive!