Free searching?

[Peggy]

Just read in the National Archives Newsletter, about the 1871 census: "You pay a fee to view the census entry on the Ancestry website but the index is free." I went to the site without logging in, and when I tried searching on the 1871 census (also on the 1861) I got a box to register for free to view the search results. Has anyone tried this? Could be a way of narrowing things down before asking for help.

Peggy

[Rod Neep]

"Registering for Free" on the Ancestry site is actually a 30 day trial. By which time you have entered your credit card details, and they will charge you for the whole year's subscription at the end of the 30 days. It is possible to cancel before the end of the 30 day trial period, but the method of doing so is not easily apparent.

The technique used relies on people "forgetting" to cancel.
It is a kind of marketing technique that is apparently acceptable in the USA, but considered to be somewhat less so here in the UK.

Regards
Rod

[Geoffers]

Just read in the National Archives Newsletter, about the 1871 census: "You pay a fee to view the census entry on the Ancestry website but the index is free." I went to the site without logging in, and when I tried searching on the 1871 census (also on the 1861) I got a box to register for free to view the search results. Has anyone tried this? Could be a way of narrowing things down before asking for help.
I've tried following the link from TNA's website and am able to search without the register malarkey. If I go straight to the Ancetry website, it asks me to register first.

I confess myself to be underwhelmed by the quality their index. I've just tried a dozen searches for people in the 1861 census (using information exactly as it appears on the CDs purchased from Archive CD Books) and found none of them using the exact match search. The other general search provides so many hits as to be pointless.

Geoffers

[mary elms]

I have used pay-per-view at Ancestry on occaion in the past (for reasons for using this payment method see Rod's reply!) so it recognises me and lets me search free but the index doesn't give you references just name, approx year of birth, birthplace, and the county they were in on census night. Anything else and you have to pay!

Mary.

[Peggy]

Interesting. The marketing technique is legal here. I don't know about "acceptable." I've heard numerous complaints. I guess TNA has an agreement that circumvents the "register free" bit if you follow the link from TNA?

Getting "name, approx year of birth, birthplace, and the county they were in" could still help those asking for help to narrow down the search possibilities. Exact searches rarely work, Geoffers. But I've been scolded for criticizing transcribers, even incredibly careless paid ones, so. . . . :)

Now I'm wondering about the FreeBMD database, which I understand is used with the agreement that it will be free. I also get asked to register free (or log in) for that. I hadn't searched without logging in for a long time, but at one point the "free" results were freely accessible, and the "you have to pay" results were "padlocked." I wonder when they changed that to require the trial.

Peggy

[Geoffers]

Exact searches rarely work, Geoffers. But I've been scolded for criticizing transcribers, even incredibly careless paid ones, so. . . .Having done a bit of transcription and indexing myself, I wouldn't adversly criticise those working on records for areas that they know. - and names/letters can be difficult to read. But I chose entries which are as clear as though they were written yesterday - so they really ought to turn up; if they don't then it doesn't instil much confidence (in me) in the rest of the indexing. As for carrying out general searches, one came back with over 500 matches, with the entries which were 'nearest matches' being very wide of the mark.

Narrowing down to a county may be useful in somewhere like Rutland, but doesn't help enormously in Yorkshire, Lancashire, London, even Norfolk with its several hundred parishes.

Geoffers

[Burrow Digger]

I never get asked to register for freeBMD. I've used it countless times to find GRO records.

What value does registering at free BMD give you over and above the GRO details? Can anyone enlighten me?

I refuse to register at any site that says I must give my credit card details before I can registered for "free". Which is why I will NEVER join Ancestry Not genealogy either.

I have signed up for British Origins and scotlandspeople, and am thinking of paying a subscription to Scots Origin as well. I need websites where I can search OPR records before 1837 or 1855, so 1837online is of no use to me.

BD

[Burrow Digger]

Oh and that "forgetting to cancel" is called Negative Billing. Here in Ontario its actually illegal, but my company does use it. I dont like it, and I dont agree with it. I get a lot of abuse from customers on the phone about it. I'm leaving soon, thank goodness.

BD

[mary elms]

I never get asked to register for freeBMD.

I think Peggy's referring to the agreement whereby people can access the FreeBMD database from Ancestry for free.

And agreed - negative billing and all related practices are unethical in my book.

Mary.

[Peggy]

Hi Geoffers,

I beg leave to doubt that people who transcribe Middlesex as Mexico or Somerset as Somalia or Norfolk as Norway have much local knowledge, or, for that matter, much interest in accuracy. It appears obvious that no one is checking, so I guess they'd get paid if they put Alpha Centauri.

What can be useful is narrowing down by birth date and place of birth. It works best, of course, for those born in smaller places than London or Liverpool! Leave out the county of birth at first, to avoid cases where it was transcribed as some foreign country. For example, if the index shows a Simpson born in Badsey, I've almost certainly found my relative. (Unless it says Badsey Suffolk, in which case it is really Bawdsey, I think. <g>) More may be revealed if I try for Bad* in Worcs.

Peggy

[Rod Neep]

Oh and that "forgetting to cancel" is called Negative Billing. Here in Ontario its actually illegal, but my company does use it. I dont like it, and I dont agree with it. I get a lot of abuse from customers on the phone about it. I'm leaving soon, thank goodness.

BD
My personal opinion is that such practice is distateful marketing. However, even if 75% of people don't fall for it, it is such big business that a huge amount of money is generated from those who "forget to cancel".

Similarly distateful practice that I see, is an email that states "We have found 342 references to your surname in our new online records... click here to see them"..... which you can't unless you subscribe and pay. The email is even worded as if it is a personal message aimed only at you. Complain to them? Absolutely no use. It is all a game of percentages. Lots of people will still give their credit card details for the "free trial" to view them.

Rod

[Geoffers]

I beg leave to doubt that people who transcribe Middlesex as Mexico or Somerset as Somalia or Norfolk as Norway have much local knowledge, or, for that matter, much interest in accuracy. It appears obvious that no one is checking, so I guess they'd get paid if they put Alpha Centauri.Thank you, Peggy. I have long suspected (and attributed) many of my missing ancestors to have been subject to alien abduction. Do you know when they held censuses on Alpha Centauri - where are the parish registers deposited??

Live long and prosper

[Peggy]

["We have found 342 references to your surname in our new online records... ]

Oh yes! On a par with the World Book of Neeps. I always wish I could reply on the lines: "If you have found only 342 references to my common surname, you aren't looking very hard!" It is disappointing when these come from "real" genealogy sites.

I guess these people operate on the theory that can you can fool some of the people all of the time. So far this year we have had two of our local legal talents make the newspapers in connection with the Nigerian scam. <G> The law professor was facing charges of money laundering, and the other lawyer the loss of his license for using client funds as "earnest money." Much easier to believe that someone has found your ancestors than to believe that a stranger wants to give you millions of dollars!

Peggy

[Terry]

"Do you know when they held censuses on Alpha Centauri - where are the parish registers deposited??"

Well that's easy the census were held every 22 and a half Alpha Centaurian years and they and the Parish registers are in the Galactic Record Office, which is located on Venus, but appointments are strictly necessary to book a fiche reader!
Mind you I hear a rumour that Archive CD Books next overseas branch may well be on Venus so perhaps we'll be able to buy CDs soon.:D