Genealogy Chat

i've got as far as i can using free sites and lots of smashing info from fellow genes reunited pals. which sites should i subscribe to now? and how much do they cost? any recommendations welcome. p.s. i have relations from england, wales [the dreaded jones name] and scotland] krissie

I would say Ancestry for England and Wales all censuses and much more..£69.95 per year(well worth it).Someone else maybe able to give you a scottish site Zoe

Ancestry in my opinion is the Best, subscription varies depending on what you want, most do yearly, its in $ but breaks down to about £60 which when you add up your savings, it is Fantastic. For Scotland www(.)scotlandspeople.()gov(.)uk/ is a Pay for view and fantastic too

You can get 20% off ancestry sub if you register free at the Lost Cousins website and click on the ancestry logo on the right. It is the essential pay for site, you wont be able to research much without it.

Hi Krissie, You might find Ancestry useful, they have UK censuses (Except Scotland and Ireland) from 1851 to 1901 but they can be badley transcribed and the 1841 will hopefully go online this year. They also have the Biths, Marriages and Deaths indeces but you need to look at each image and transcriptions are quite bad at times. For Scotland try Scotland People they have Births, Marriages and Deaths as well as census records. If you get stuck just ask! the records board always has people offering to look things up for you. www.ancestry.*co.uk www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ (take the star out of the address) Lunar (who's only Jones' are cousins but has the dreaded Davises and Evans's in Wales) This is the address for the site Heather mentioned with the discount link. www.lostcousins.*com

I have Thomas Jenkins in Wales if thats any comfort!

thanks everyone, 60 quid sounds quite pricey though, it might even be more since i don't live in the UK. aren't there any cheaper ones? and can you get birth certificates and so on from Ancestry or can you only get them from a Records Office? krissie

Please be careful saying Ancestry seems quite pricy, or you will have Gary B getting shirty with you......!! (everyone else will know what I mean! Please don't be cross Gary, if you read this!) This hobby can become quite expensive, but Ancestry gives you SOOOO much, if your rellies are from Eng Wales......In the past (as Gary will tell you LOL) £60 might be the cost of a UK person finding just one ancestor on a census return (by the time you had visited London or your local County Record Office a few times before you traced them), but that's in the days when it might take you months or even years to cover one or two generations..... Think of it as a £1 a week and it soulds much less!! If you have ancestry you could get away with your only other expense being the odd cert and maybe a will or two. Merry

£60 sounds pricey until you realise that it works out at about £5 per month. You can easily get through that on other sites just viewing a few images, and Ancestry gives you unlimited access to indexed (beware transcription quality, as mentioned above) images of all the censues from 1851-1901, plus other material. I don't regret my membership fee one bit. Christine

Ancestry has the index of reference numbers you need to order certificates fron the General Records Office (GRO) the only other place you can get certificates from is the Local Register Office / Local Records Office but if you don't live near by it can be a chore. Ancestry should let you subscribe to just the UK records of all you want are the records for England and Wales but if you want America as well then you need the World records. The other option is to use the credit system on Ancestry - 10 credits for £5 and they will last up to 14 days, 1 credit is 1 census image. I used this method until I couls afford a longer term subscription and I'm an a very limited buget as a student (my savings are disserpearing to pay the rent!).

Its incredible value. One trip to a local records office would cost me about a tenner in fares! Think about it, a pound a week for 24/7 access! I cant see how anyone can begrudge the cost.

You really can't research your family without Ancestry. It is worth every penny and there is no extra charge for being abroad. Doing your family history costs money - full stop. Certificates cost £7.00 each and are vital to confirm identities, dates of death, marriage and birth, parents names, etc. You get them from the GRO and can order them online once you have the reference, which can be found on ancestry. If you live near a records office, you can sometimes do it cheaper, but in the end the cost of travelling, photocopying and time will mean that Ancestry is the cheaper option. The IGI is useful but notoriously unreliable. Anything you find on there should be confirmed by using other resources, but it is free. It won't give you census returns for anything but the 1881 census. So, unfortunately, you will need to find the price of the subscription if you are serious about doing research. It will be money very well spent. Good luck! Ian

Ian, Fantastic post - well said and bang on! Cheers, Horatia

ok, i'm convinced. you all sound so enthusiastic you must be right . If you think of it as 5 pounds a week, that's just a couple of magazines and a choccy bar, so it does sound better. i can't do any visiting because i 'm an ex-pat living in holland. i began researching so that my sons [born here] will know about their roots but my husband and parents have become really interested in it too. it's so fascinating isn't it. krissie

Its not even a fiver if you use the link from Lost Cousins. By the way, its not a WEEK, its a fiver a month. Its the best money Ive ever spent on this hobby. Less than one bottle of wine a month. Brilliant value.

Bet you haven't reduced your wine intake thought, Heather!! Merry

Merry, Just ordered two cases from Tescos - they are half price and on top of that I had a £15 off voucher - so that saving has more than paid for me ancestry sub. All the women on here will follow that train of thought, hubby wont. Im now trying to text my sister in Canada cos she cant use her mobile for some reason and text to say sort it out for me - no rest for the wicked eh. Ive been queued on vodafone for 20 mins and Ive a ton of paperwork here that doesnt seem to have diminished since 7 this morning!!

Merry you put it so much better than me, i am renewing now at the $200 option and still think its for nothing, football fans i know pay £500 a year for season tickets and £100 every fortnight on away games, so compared to that it is cheap. although i have just had to spend a fiver at 1837 for all the missing pages on the bmds on Ancestry

LOL Gary!! Knew you would be out there somewhere! Maybe sometimes people don't want to spend too much at the start in case their interest wains?? If you know you are hooked though.....Ancestry is an absolute must. Now, Heather....about that crate of wine.................... Merry

i see your point not wanting to spend at first if you are not going to continue, but by the same token i have seen so many come in the lbrary with no idea where there grand parents are from spent an hour going through the films, can't find them and quit and i thing with Ancestry i would find them straight away and that may have got them hooked as you well know this gets you, if i could have a years subscription for every £45.00 pair of shoes the current Mrs B has worn once i would be quids in