Who gets my money?

[oxtaff]

I'm looking at FindMyPast, Ancestry, Genes Reunited etc to get more branches and twigs on my tree, but which one should I go with? I think it is a choice between FMP and Ancestry but which is best?
Cost wise there isn't much between them, but FMP pay as you go seems better value than Ancestry's PAYG.
Any advice/suggestions gratefully received.
Thanks in anticipation.

[Jan1954]

I think it is a choice between FMP and Ancestry but which is best?

Neither is best; it is all down to personal preference and what you are wanting to research. There are things available on one that are not on the other and vice versa. Have a look at the topics that they cover and make your choice from that.

However.....

If you can visit your local library, you should be able to access both of them for free.

[Coromandel]

Hello oxtaff and welcome to the forum

Both Ancestry (worldwide) and Findmypast are available free in Oxfordshire libraries, so you can 'try before you buy'. I am so mean that I've not bothered to get my own subscriptions . . . I just have taken up residence in the library instead!

P.S. sorry, Jan, I didn't see your reply until I'd posted mine.

[Peter Goodey]

I think it is a choice between FMP and Ancestry

Well no. It isn't really.

It's true that there is some common ground between them - for example censuses and GRO indexes.

But there is much that is unique to each company and is not duplicated by the other. This follows from the way in which county archive services and other repositories let their contracts.

For example, Ancestry has London Parish registers outsourced by the London Metropolitan Archives. On the orher hand, most registers in Westminster are held by Westminster City Archives and they have outsourced digitisation to Findmypast.

You won't find everything you need through one supplier.

So start with what you actually need and then assess which supplier is going to best meet your needs. Then decide about access which depends on your assessment of cost and convenience. You'll be looking at some mixture of library access, subscription and pay-as-you-go.

Oh and there are other companies you may need to use on occasions.

[stepives]

with all the above.

But depending on where your rellies are centered(if they are), Parish Regs Transcripts may be available from various Family History Societies, in your area/areas of interest.
I invested £10 pounds in one of many Cd's, and it saved me a whole heap of cash on 'wrong certs'., which you will need eventually.

Take what's free, up to the point of being a scrooge. In Forums like this one, you'll find heaps of willing helpers.


Steve.

[Jan1954]

But depending on where your rellies are centered(if they are), Parish Regs Transcripts may be available from various Family History Societies, in your area/areas of interest.

Many of them are available through our sponsors

[Shezzy]

This is just my thoughts - whichever one you do go for - swap over next time you renewal is due - so each year you get a chance to see the differences and where the information is the same you get to see a different transcription / copy of the information.

Alternatively wait for each of them to do the 14 days trials that they do any you can have a good look around the sites. (Many people I know have their own preferences when it comes to the search features on each site)

Or as has already been suggested - check them out at the libraries - although I did understand that there were differences between the library versions and the subscription versions at one stage - don't know if it's still true.

Hope this helps
Shezzy

[dylan thermos]

Hi oxtaff,
As a fellow Welshman I would visit your local library and join. I would also suggest you get your wife/partner to join at the same time.
Once this is done you will have two membership cards to use because each card allows two hours of access to Findmypast and Ancestry.
Four hours is more than enough time to spend looking at a computer screen and your money can be used another way.......dylan.

[nataliew]

Just my preference but for what it's worth... I have a subscription to ancestry and have made some very useful contacts by having an online tree (although it's private - someone experienced told me to do this when I joined as then you always get some give-and-take with people!). I have lots of London ancestors and Ancestry is good for that as well as throwing up lots of different options in your research. I think fmp's census is far easier to search and it has a wider coverage of burials through the National Burial Index - I use pay as you go on there. I put the vouchers on my 40th birthday wishlist and now have enough to keep me going for quite a while!
Also family search is free and has a great parish collection. For bmds in civil reg, I don't think you can do better than the freebmd website - note the word 'free'! Have fun!

[exiled brummie]

It might be worth considering doing the same as a cousin and me. Before we "found" each other I was with Ancestry, but have since moved to FMP, simply because my cousin is with Ancestry. This way we can look up data that might be on our individual provider.

The value of the services offered by the free sites cannot be underestimated, and are well worth visiting. Then of course there is always the British Library newspaper archiving project, which is growing bigger every day. While this is not free it costs nothing to find which newspapers have been digitised and to do searches; if something is found a short term subscription option is available.