Genealogy Chat

I was wondering how come some of you are so quick with the answers to peoples queries on here, have you got crystal balls or something?? as you come back with it so quickly. I seem to spend a long time searching for my stuff, do you all subscribe to a wonder site?? or are you so seasoned it comes natural after a while

It does become easier after time, you get to know where to look or what details to put into the search fields to get the results you want. However I must say that most of my info comes from Ancestry and so far that site has been worth every penny of the subscrition I paid! Sam

I use ancestry and it takes me ages to find stuff hope I get better at it

Hi, I use Ancestry too, its good although I probably dont utilise it as much as I could. I started off with the LDS 1881 site then went on the 1901 census site but I am happy with Ancestry as it fills in the gaps. 1837 is also a must have.

Valerie, you put my thoughts into words. I have tried several times to look up info for people, only to give up & go back to the thread after about fifteen minutes to find someone has found the answer in about two minutes. Makes one feel so inadequate. I use Ancestry Vivienne

Don't worry, it's taken me ages to work out how people find things so quickly. A couple of weeks ago someone messaged me and said 'Wow, you've found that so quick, I spent ages looking' and I thought 'Yes! At last I can do it!!' So you will get there, honest! Sam (Not even been doing this seriously for a year yet)

yes Vivienne I have done the same thing as people have been helpful to me I try to return the favour but am much too slow, still one day maybe

I've never downloaded it so please don't ask me anything technical but I think a lot of people use the decoder for 1901 as well It groups families together which makes searching the census so much easier especially if you have a few names you need to match up

Sam maybe its an age thing the younger you are the quicker you pick things up, it took me ages to learn how to email , now I sell on ebay do all my own photos and everything, something I thought I could never do.

Lancasghire Lou what is the DECODER?????????sounds frighteningly like torture

lol Valerie I understand that it isn't painful and can be done without the need for anaesthetic! Don't know much about it to be honest but if you google 1901 decoder, there's a site that explains it and you can download it to your PC. The gist of it is if you are looking on the 1901 census for John Smith in Lancashire, you're going to have a lot of them. But if you know that your John Smith was married to Mary and had 3 kids called Curly, Larry and Mo, you can key all the names in and it will give you the family with all those names in it! Lou

Valerie, I'm not that young (36) and I could never get my own photos on ebay! I think it is definately practice. I really did used to think the same as others, 'How did they find that so quick?' but one time I tried searching Ancestry with just the christian name, approx age and place of birth, and I found the person in question with the surname mistranscribed! It felt really good to finally find someone before anyone else did. Shame I can't find my own family in the same way :-p Sam

Sam Seeing as I can find yours, would you like to adopt some of mine??? Lou

Hi Lou Good idea, we should start a kind of 'Swap Shop'! I know you found mine really quickly yesterday and I'm sooo grateful. In fact, without the peeps on this Tips Board, I wouldn't even have known the names for you to look up for me. Now, give me someone else's family, I can find them no problem! Sam

Hi Sam I don't know about Valerie but as far as I'm concerned you are definitely young. My baby is 34 Vivienne

Good idea Sam You should start a thread. Got some particularly nasty ones I can't find Lou

I use Ancestry Plus, its better than ancestry cos its free. (as long as you get there the right way and have the password) Lol

Ann Marie How do we get into Ancestry Plus??? Vickie

Be aware if you try to access Ancestry through Ancestry Plus you run the risk of prosecution as those passwords are intended for Libraries which pay for the access on behalf of their members. Much better to buy a subscription, which quickly pays for itself in saved travel costs to the archives, or to access through your local library if they are one of those who have subscribed.

free: rootsweb mailing lists .... GENUKI ... free BMD ... IGI ... google ... Ancestry (fee paying) ............................................................... and other free ones including 1914-1918.net inbetween ................ GR. :-) Joy