Newby

[Diphilp]

Hi
My name is Dianne Philp. I had been researching my husbands and my own family some time back and have just picked up the bug again. Unfortunately, I now see that you have to pay for almost everything. I have a small family tree on heritage.com. I have made the mistake of putting both families on there. I am searching the Philp, Billing, and Potter families. All I believe to be from Cornwall. I am looking forward to conversing with all you knowledgeable people. Cheers Di

[Pam Downes]

Hi Di,

Welcome to British-Genealogy.

Not quite sure what you mean by 'have to pay for almost everything', because as far as I can recall you've always had to pay for most documents you actually want to view. Some sites such as FamilySearch, FreeBMD, FreeCEN, and FreeREG, are indexes which can give you certain information, but only in transcript form.

For Cornwall research you are very lucky because of the extensive Online Parish Clerks site.
https://www.cornwall-opc-database.org/search-database/
The results shown are only transcriptions, but some of the images are available on FamilySearch.

None of the free sites (including Cornwall OPC) have complete coverage.

When you've sorted out the questions you need answered post in a fairly appropriate forum (it can always be moved if neccesary) and our sleuths will do what they can to help.

Pam

[Lesley Robertson]

Welcome to the British Genealogy Forum.

Use of this Forum is indeed free, but most of our expert members donate their time to help, and use subscriptions that they have paid for to do so.
Apart from FreeCEN and FreeBMD, which rely on volunteers, and FamilySearch, which relies on the LDS Church, most genealogy resources are indeed not free, but who’s better than the users to pay the transcription charges, database maintenance and licenses for publishing the data?
My research is certainly much cheaper than it was when I had to buy hard copies of certificates or visit Edinburgh for a few days of searching papers and microfiche.