Genealogy Chat

Hi Happy I think Gary's description of Ancestry as being like an interest in cookery but with no oven is spot on. Made me laugh too!! He is so right. To me Ancestry is the foundation of Genealogy, and I couldn't possibly be without it now. It might be a bit expensive but believe me it is well worth it. Dianne xx

The discount offer is still on at www.ancestry(.)co(.)uk/promo £56 for years subscription, at £1-07p a week it's a bargain. Carol www.genealogyprinters(.)com

Spread over a year,ancestry isnt expensive,and you could hammer it in the first year,printing off all the censi and bmd refs for 1851-1901 on all your bloodlines,then....worry about parish records later-theres enough time spent in that era,without needing it for the ancestry years. I got it for £55,which works out as less than one packet of fags a month (if youre a smoker) one pint of beer a week (if youre a drinker) if youre neither a smoker nor a drinker,then even more reason.Whats more you'll have a lot more to show for it !! I've been on it for 6 weeks and have already printed off 50 or so census sheets,which would otherwise have cost me £25 alone. Remember-youre not paying for mistakes this way. Also-dont forget the charges you pay to be on the internet in the first place-an average package works out as £200 + a year just to be connected.

I go to my Local Studies library ever week, and have watched new people come in week after week, and it is the same procedure, they only know there grandparents name and no address, they sit at a film viewer and start trawling through the images, for an hour, they find nothing, they then think this is to much like hard work, they give up and you never see them again, happens all the time, i sit there and think i could find you them on Ancestry in a couple of minuets, and i do offten log people in an get them started, once started they love it, but since the bbc programes i think the interest hit the roof and has now fell back to worse than before then, my library is dead most days now, i think having an interest in family history and not having Ancestry is like having an interest in cookery and having no oven.

Hi, Ancestry is worth every penny. I started researching long before ancestry put censuses on line. At the LDS it took me 8 hours (over 3 weeks) and 3 films at £2.70 at time to find my families in the 1871 census of Ebbw Vale. I found them again on ancestry in 2 minutes. When you take into account the cost of fares to record offices, the price of copying census from film, plus the hours and hours of searching unindexed censuses it is a total bargain for anyone serious about genealogy. Gwynne

Hi, Why don't you trial it..... You can test it out for 30 days which I am doing ..... I will definately be signing up for it after the 30 days is up. But see what you think.. Sal

Ancestry has the complete England & Wales census for all decades from 1861 to 1901 inclusive. All are name-indexed (but with some howling mistranscriptions!) and the indexed names are linked to images of the original census page. The 1881 is also address-indexed. The subscription is all-inclusive - i.e. there are no extra charges for downloading the images, etc. The 1851 and 1841 census have been promised ''soon'' (whatever that means - though the 1851 was up and running for a few days last week, so presumably is at the testing stage). There are also some other useful databases, eg. bmd's from 1984-2000, but the site's main usefulness is for the census info. It doesn't have much for Scotland or Ireland, but if you're chasing ancestors in 19th century England/Wales then I would certainly recommend the site. Richard

I think I have found all I can using cheaper sites and search engines, but Ancestry is so damn expensive. How good are their records - how far back do their censuses go in the UK?? Do they give complete info, or do you wind up paying more to get copies of records or to see the additional info.... Is it easy to search, or do you have to go trawling thru enormous amts of stuff to find what you are after??