Genealogy Chat

Thanks to all for your comments I think I will stick with the membership I have on GR and look elsewhere.

Thanks again everyone

Regards
Ann

Sue

I agree 100% - there are pros and cons to all the Family History websites I expect - what suits one does not necessarily suit the other - we all have choices and the opportunity to use another site if we wish. I have found GR to be pretty good on the whole if used in conjunction with other resources online.

It was interesting though to work with Jim Soton on his Thomas Renyard and see what results were coming out of different sites.

Also agree there are some fantastic people on the GR Boards who are only too willing to help in searches.

David

hi everyone at the end of the day we get what we pay for.i have only just started to research my family tree'i became a gold member and found it allright 'but also the other free sites are good. i am still learning. the help on genes from other members is wonderful

Hi Jim

GR returned this for THOMAS BENYARD 1871 Census

b 1824 Railway Porter
18 Mount Pleasant Southampton
Born: Beaulieu, Hants

Very poor writing on the actual image but it is Renyard, wife Ann? aged 50 son Thomas age 15

Gr didn't return this as a possibility when I searched under Renyard though.

David

Hi Jim

I searched all records on GR and it only came up with the 1841 Census:

Renyard, Thomas b 1824
Place of birth Hampshire
Location in 1841 New Forest & South Stoneham
Age 17 Labourer

Living with

Frances Renyard age 80
William Renyard aged 58

Guess this is not him then?

David

Hi Jim

Not a good result for GR - no exact matches found. It offered 2 possibilities:

Thomas Renyard b 1865 Boldre Location 1871 Lymington
Thomas Renyard b 1859 Boldre Location 1871 Lymington

Doesn't look good for GR then I guess!

David

Jim & Island

When I look at any of the records there is no evidence I am being diverted to a different site so I am pretty confident the rumours about GR are false.

If you want me to 'test' any records for you as a Gold Member and feedback I will be happy to do so. GR is fine as far as I am concerned.

David

oh dear Julie


Do hope the upgrade works out for you



sylvia

Hi there
I have been a standard member since 2003. Today I decided to upgrade, to help expand my research. Have used Ancestry in the past, for a full12 months, and went as far as I could at that time . But I have to say I wish I hadn't bothered I seem to be having so much trouble with the branch I'm looking into at the moment. Could be because of the spelling but ancestry seemed to deal with that quite well.
Ladyhawk

Joan


great minds think alike


or ....................................................


roflol

Finda


have you renewed as a Standard member or Gold member???



I ahve been a Standard member since 2003, and renewed a couple f months ago, for 12 months.


The £9.95 subscription gives me access to all the community boards, all the trees, all the help from other members etc.

That sounds as if that is the use that you make of this site!




sylvia

Just to be different!!!!!!!!!!
I have just renewed for another 6 months. I agree there are free sites that are invaluable especially for pre 1837 records. I think that all of the sites that you have to pay for have their faults. Perhaps my favoured one to retrieve documents is Find my past. I have renewed with GRU solely for the fantastic help I have had from other members. With their help and generosity in allowing me to view trees I have got back to 1524 on my Fathers paternal side and 1695 on my Father maternal side. I am still digging and still getting assistance from the friends I have made on this site.

£5 for 50 credits, good for 7 days, to compare censuses on here against those available on either ancestry or findmypast?


too rich for me!



Actually, that web address I quoted for the 1901 Census .....


I am now very curious because there is another site www.1901-census.com ...... which is apparently owned by ancestry ...... and which carries the same information. The only difference is 1901census vs 1901-census



yet ancestry carries the 1901 census on its ancestry sites.




velly intelesting!






BTW ......... perhaps the best answer to your question is that GR used to divert people to other sites, at least within the last year and most certainly before that. Therefore, we "older" members are used to referring to this fact, and perhaps should no longer do so ............ at least until someone proves or disproves that it still happens.


That also does not change my belief that this is the worst of the sites for finding information, based on the number of people who come onto the boards saying "I've been searching for hours, days, etc on here and I cannot find Joe Bloggs on the xxxx census". Yet "searchers" do find Joe Bloggs within minutes on other sites ............ very easily, without any thinking outside the box or various tricky methods we've all developed for searching.



sylvia

Sylvia, as I said earlier on. The 1901Census is owned by GR. Other records are not, and I never said they were.

Whether or not a GR Gold Membership is better than an Ancestry one or a Find My Past one, etc, etc the fact is we don't know, unless someone can come on here with a considered comparison between the sites.

So, no, you have not answered my question.

Have I now answered your question Brinsley?




maybe another answer is that those of us who have been members on here for several years (since 2003 in my case) do know that buying credits was the most expensive way to do reasearch. Gold membership has only been available for about a year .............and reports back from other people have been that it has not been worth their while to pay the upgrade.


It was obvious to those who tried the buy credits to view records that one was in fact being diverted from GR


...... and that was the case up until about a year ago.



I am not willing to buy credits to test whether they are re-directing at this time .................. it should be easy enough to tell by the appearance of the census pages!



sylvia

I've just been poking around, trying to see if I could find any information as to the status of the records.



If you go to their question page ...... you are directed to look at FAQs and frequent questions before sending in your own question.

Here is some sampling from those FAQs.

Do you have the 1911 Census? Answer is no, and a redirection to another site where you have to buy credits.

As a standard member I can enter a name, and search all records. A list comes up of every record that that name appears on. I can click on eg, 1851 Census and see that Joe Bloggs age 50 is living in Compton Burnett ............. but I need to buy credits (VERY expensive) or upgrade to see the actual image.


If you click on a question as why "my" name isn't appearing on the bmds even though it is shown as being there, you get this answer
"The BMD data we have on the site is just an index. Due the size of the data, only the first and last names are indexed. So, for example, you'll see names listed like this:

Births from James A to Jones B for Jan/Feb/Mar 1907.

This will include all the names of people who were born in that quarter. If you are searching for Anthony Jones but you are unsure of the exact date of birth, you will have to physically view each index to look for the name. We will just show you each index, but it is up to you verify if the name is listed there or not. Each index you view uses up one credit, unless you have Gold membership where you have unlimited "


Interesting ......... this shows that there has been NO transcription of the bmds by GR, they have just copied the index, and ancestry used to carry that (still does).



If however, you scroll right to the bottom of the screen, there is a great long list of sites shown.

Click on 1901 Census ....... ti takes you to the official 1901 site ....... www.1901CensusOnline.com


Click on the 1881 Census ........... it takes you to the 1901 site ..... www.1901censusonline.com/c1881-census.asp That's very interesting as the 1881 census is free on both familyearch and on ancestry


If you click on BMDs .................. it takes you to the 1901 site ........ again interesting as bmds are free on www.freebmd.org.uk. Plus the 1901 site ONLY shows you the index listing ...... you have to search each page for "your" name


None of this is convincing enough evidence for me that GR is carrying its own records, and has done its own transcriptions!

Nor that it is worth taking out the Gold membership



The value of this site to me is in these Community Boards, and the help that one can obtain from other members ............... using their memberships in sites other than GR!



sylvia

I'm not saying GR's collection is good or bad, in fact I DON'T KNOW.

However, there does seem to be a lot of people on here who don't have any first hand experience of GR's Gold Membership who seem to want to express an opinion. Why?

To nswer Brinsley


No, I do not have Gold membership

But upto a few months ago people who either paid extra to buy credits to look at records on this site, or who paid the Gold Membership themselves complained about diversion ot other sites, and about access to records..

Several of them investigated, and reported back that GR did not carry its own records but re-directed one to other sites.


This was the reason why one was unable to move from one page to another on a census image. If, for example, your family members were spread over two pages or you wanted to check on neighbours ...... then you had to use more credits to look at the second page.

Jim is actually the ONLY person who I have read that says he has proof that this is no longer the case.


Good for GR if they have developed their own records

........................... but I still firmly believe that ancestry is the best site. It has advantages over findmypast so far as I am concerned. But it is everyone's privilege to choose their own site.



Just one question though



if GR's collection of records is so good ..... why do so many people with Gold membership appear on these boards asking for help in finding people that they cannot find on GR's version of censuses ......... and I and others find them within minutes on ancestry or findmypast?



sylvia

I go back to what I said earlier

"Does anyone posting on here actually have Gold membership?"

If not, then perhaps they should not be try to provide "expert opinion" on something they know nothing about.

Hi
I must be the voice in the wilderness. I find it useful(gold membership) being able to click onto the census records and look at the original copies. I know that the 1911 isn't on here but I have found the facility very useful. Perhaps it depends on what information people want and how much they want to pay.-JLe