Returning with a general question

[birdsedge]

Hi, I'm not new here but I haven't posted in the last year or two (or three). Life got in the way of my research, but I'm just getting back into it again. I've had some tremendous luck with some of my lines (getting back to 1600 with a couple of them) but mostly I'm getting stuck in the pre-1837 births marriages and deaths - or rather baptisms, marriages and burials.

I guess most of us subscribe to one of the major family tree sites. I've been on Genes Reunited for years and years, but I'm now wondering which is the best value for money when it comes to the availability of pre-1837 records.

Can anyone compare and contrast Genes Reunited with Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.com and TheGenealogist.co.uk? They are all expensive, so I don't want to commit to the wrong one. I'd appreciate your experiences. Or if this has been covered in a thread before perhaps someone could post a link. At this point I have ten months left on Genes Reunited and I can afford one more subscription this year.

The geographical areas I'm interested in are Yorkshire West Riding, Somerset, Cotswolds/Gloucestershire with a few forays into Flintshire, Lancashire and the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border. I don't need (so far) foreign records or emigration lists

I've made as much use of the IGI extracted records as I can and found area specific sites like the Forest of Dean one and Gloucestershire records, but since travelling is difficult for me I'd like the best online access to parish records that's available.

Your suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks.

[pennydog]

If you can get to your local library you should be able to access Ancestry there. You could either do your research in the library or spend half an hour looking at what they have available on Ancestry and its relevance to you.

[birdsedge]

Thank you. My local library does have Ancestry and it's a great idea to look at it again with parish records in mind. (Last tme I accessed it down there I was much more interested in census returns).

As far as I'm aware, though, the library doesn't have access to the others. Have you used any of them yourself? I'd like to compare and contrast if possible. Parish records are so scattered and seem to have been transcribed so randomly. I know there's a lot more on line than the last time i made a concerted effort to search, but still big lumps of things missing.

Do ancestry, genes, findmypast and genealogst have different parish records available or do they just have a different way of indexing more-or-less the same collection?

[Procat]

Hi,

I have moved this from Introduce Yourself to General Family History Queries

[jac65]

Hi

Generally speaking there is little duplication of Parish Records on commercial sites. You need to look at each site to see what records they have. You also need to look at the details as a County might be listed but they might only have a small number of Parishes and a limited year range.
Both Ancestry and Findmypast I believe have free trials which can be helpful. Familysearch.org are also worth looking at as they have added many records that are not on the old IGI.
Andy

[Peter Goodey]

No single site will supply everything you want. Not everything you want will even be on line at all.

Forget GR. It's only the "social" branch of FMP.

Do ancestry, genes, findmypast and genealogst have different parish records available or do they just have a different way of indexing more-or-less the same collection?

It doesn't work like that. For example, the Barsetshire Record Office wants to put its PRs online. So they put it out to tender. FMP, Ancestry & the Genealogist submit bids. The one who offers the best deal gets the contract. The other companies don't! That's why Ancestry has got London Metropolitan Archives data and the other companies haven't got it.

We all need to work to a budget but you must give priority in your budget to buying BMD certificates. You'll be best off just working on a pay as you go basis until you're clearer about what you want.

[Ladkyis]

Can I suggest that you look at the Family History Society local to where your research is based. You will probably find that FMP or Ancestry has used their transcriptions of parish registers and is paying them a royalty for the transcript. If you join the local society you will get a newsletter or journal three or four times a year, access to the whole membership - some of whom will be the transcribers of those records - and access to the wealth of local knowledge that simply isn't on the genealogy websites.

You can talk to real people, even if it is by email, in a FH society and they usually have some sort of look up service for members or they can provide you with the name and address of a local member who will go to the local record office or archive and search the records for you.

My advice is to always look at the Family History societies close to where you live AND where your ancestors came from. Sometimes it won't be a quick click to find the information but it will always be local.

look at the Federation of Family History societies website here:
www.
ffhs.org.uk/
click on "Find a Society" in the side menu and follow the prompts

You could also make GENUKI a starting point for more information about what is available for your particular area of research

https://www.genuki.org.uk/

For what it's worth I have a sub to both FMP and Ancestry because their datasets are so different and because the transcripts of census are very different too.

[birdsedge]

No single site will supply everything you want. Not everything you want will even be on line at all.

Forget GR. It's only the "social" branch of FMP.

It doesn't work like that. For example, the Barsetshire Record Office wants to put its PRs online. So they put it out to tender. FMP, Ancestry & the Genealogist submit bids. The one who offers the best deal gets the contract. The other companies don't! That's why Ancestry has got London Metropolitan Archives data and the other companies haven't got it.

We all need to work to a budget but you must give priority in your budget to buying BMD certificates. You'll be best off just working on a pay as you go basis until you're clearer about what you want.

Thanks, Peter, that's great information and a good plan.

I'm past the BMD stage for most lines of my family history and I'm (mostly) looking at pre 1837 - at least for the ones I haven't hit brickwalls with. I suspected that the family history sites were much of a muchness, but obviously not and that in itself is very useful to know.

GR has been reasonably useful up to now (and I have found clues in other members' family trees) but these days I'm finding that if I discover any matches, I'm more likely to have more information than they have. While I'm always happy to share research, these days I'm doing much more giving than receiving. I'm also finding that the GR indexing of census returns leaves a lot to be desired. I know there's always a percentage of errors in any indexing or transcriptions but so many times I go to look up a record that I've seen before and know exists and the GR indexing lets me down.

None of the sites seems to list clearly what they have and don't have (or at least they may do but not until after you've subscribed). It's so frustrating to search for something and not know whether your failure to find it is because it doesn't exist or because where you're searching doesn't have that partcular data.

Is there a way to find out exactly why you're coming up blank?

[birdsedge]

Thank you.That's a good idea. I have been in the Barnsley FHS but dropped out when I didn't manage to make it to any of the meetings. I should rejoin.

Good to know that FMP and Acestry are very different. I think I should try the free trial at Ancestry and see whether it's got what i want.

Have you also tried The Genealogist at any time?

[Peter Goodey]

Have you also tried The Genealogist at any time?

Others may know better but I haven't touched them because their website seems coy about exactly what you get for your money. However the company does have the official franchise for the National Archives series of non-parochial records. However that's something you can buy credits for as and when.

Don't forget, when you're assessing coverage, that images of original records are preferred - not just transcripts.

You mentioned Barnsley. You may want to assess Ancestry's collection of West Yorkshire PRs (original images).