Which Family History Websites Do You Use?

Thanks everyone for all the useful information that I have just read,this winter I am going to spend the days that are too cold for outside venturing on researching my family history,I have been going to do it for a couple of years now but after reading all your helpful hints and tips will most certainly join a site to help with my enquiries.

grannybug I use Scotland's People too. It's a great website, especially now they can go back as far as Parish Records. Just wish some of th handwriting was more legible.

I use Scotland's people as my family are all from Scotland as far as I know. Would love to spend time in the records office in Edinburgh although web search facilities are very good. Haven't got that far as yet but find it completely absorbing.

You can search the GRO indexes of births marriages and deaths from 1837 for free on FreeBMD, and view a scan of the actual page of the register. They have not finished transcribing all the entries, so if you have the patience to look at each page of the untranscribed parts, you can sometimes find information which is not yet online. A useful feature is that they list all the marriages ( two to four) on each page of the original, both parties, so you can often work out who belongs to whom without buying a certificate.

(The transcription is being done by volunteers so if you have some spare time and are accurate and meticulous, they will welcome you. Scans of pages are emailed to you to be transcribed into the software they issue you with)

I started research in my "local" family about 30 years ago - at a time when you could see the actual registers etc. I was very lucky in that my Grandmother gave me information about her maternal Grandparents , GG Grandmother was born in 1820 and Grandfather who was born in 1816, GG Grandmother was local to my home town, GG Grandfather's family were blacksmiths from about 20 miles away, but as my grandmother was able to tell me all about them I was able to trace them back to late 1500's as the village blacksmiths so did not move around to much. On my Grandmother's paternal side of the family is the name Britnell and, thus far, all the people with that surname can trace their ancestors back 5 centuries (sorry cannot remember the exact dates - have just moved and all the records are in storage for another month!) So if any of you have the surname Britnell in your family tree "hello cousin"

I like Ancestry and it seems a lot of new data has been loaded on lately. Through Genes Reunited I have established a close relationship with a 2nd cousin in Canada, I didn't know I had, and we have visited each other in our respective countries. She has given me loads of information including wills and old photographs that I'm sure I wouldn't have found on my own. I was also lucky enough to re-introduce my mother to one of her first cousins who she had lost touch with before she died and she was very thrilled about that. However, on Genes I don't like how you can't remove people from the family tree when they have inadvertently been added more than once, that really bugs me.

I joined Ancestry.co.uk when they had a special offer.Since then have found out so much about my,and my late husband's family ,and ----BEWARE, -have become totally obsessed by my research. Had previously found out quite a lot for free, but definitely now getting value for money from Ancestry. Amazing how many connections can be made with others researching the same names. A very fulfilling hobby for anyone living alone as no complaints about time spent on the computer-----and beats watching TV on own in the evenings.

Yes, so many sites lead you into something you have to pay for.
I was on findmypast for 6 months, and now miss it at times. But I have found that you can get some info off it even without a sub, which can be useful.
Not address searches though.

The wonderful thing about this genealogy is that I learn so much about all kinds of things. I've just been writing to a Glasgow history site man about the industrial past of one little area there, because I got curious about my gggrandfather's employer and his business and how he got started in Glasgow.

There are so many helpful people out there. This man got hold of a photograph from 1852 for me - of the bottleworks my gggf worked in.

I keep several files of copied links to sites I have found useful...now in about six countries.

I started with Genes reunited - and thought that found at least 9 cousins of my husband living in austraila which was great - but I want to do my side now - and the fees can be expensive - Its the adverts or link that say something is free - and when you get there they are not - it is so frustrating

I use Ancestry but find a lot of the transcriptions of names very poor and almost every time I access it I end up filing corrections to it.

I do wish it had the facility to search the census by place as well as name as I have one generation of my family resident at the same address for over 40 years but they are entirely missing from one census year. I know they were still at the same address, or at least the same village because the next census records a child born just before the missing census in the same location.

The problem is probably a mistranscription of the name so I would like to be able to get the census return for the street and find them that way. I had a similar problem with another member of the family where I needed to know the name etc of an immediate neighbour. Fortunately it was a London adress and pre-war electoral rolls for London have now been published so I now have the information, but that is five years after I first started looking for it.

I have found the Irish sources poor and expensive, as with Scotland's people it works on credits and as the information they give you for you to make a decision on paying for the full record is so limited I have wasted a lot of money paying for records than when fully revealed are not for the people I am looking for.

I'm with Find my Past and I will use Top cashbackuk in future thanks for the info michelleblane

I have used the Scotland's People. The trouble is you use credits and that means you can use up a lot of money on wasted searches, especially if the names you are searching are quite common. I am a member of Ancestry, and Find My Past. Now that Ancestry has the Scottish census, I tend to use that as it doesn't matter how many wrong people you look up! However, Scotlands People is brilliant for deaths (whoops that sounds a bit off!) The death certificate details come up on line and have more details than the English ones. They give addresses, spouse names inc. maiden names, addresses and witnesses. Often good info. I am not a searching member on Genes Reunited but I do have my family tree on it which means quite a few people have contacted me and we have swapped trees.
Regarding subscriptions.....The cashback sites Quidco and Topcashbackuk (I use the latter) give good cash back on subscriptions. I delayed renewing Find my Past so they offered me a reduction, then I went through Topcashbackuk and got another 20% back!

oxon70 If SP works like findmypast, then if you have any old vouchers you have not yet used but are still valid, they get re-dated to match new ones just bought. That way you can keep vouchers valid if you have no immediate use for them but they are approaching their use-by date. It costs you to buy the new ones, of course, but it means the old ones are not wasted.

I can't afford Ancestry but can access it in my local library for free. Check all info on Genes as many people put on before verified. I now have so many 'relatives' I have had to stop.

Don't know yet. If I hear it is any good I will ask for a sub for 6mths for Xmas....
I have brick walls there still, in the same time era......

Oxon I did not know there was a Findmypast Irish Site. I will give it a whirl and see what comes up. I need information from 'way back when' tho'. Do you think they will be able to help from the early 1800's?

Another question I forgot.
Has anyone tried the new findmypast Irish site? Any comments?

Sorry about the delay in answering - been busy.
I looked at the SP FAQ again and this is the bit that puzzles me:

"......7GBP. For this fee, you will receive 30 "page credits" which are valid for 1 full year. Viewing a page of index results costs 1 credit and each page will contain up to 25 search results. Viewing an image costs 5 credits (equivalent to 1.17GBP). Your session begins when payment has been authorised and additional credits may be purchased in 7GBP increments. The session will restart with each new credit purchase."

Is the "one year" the session? Am I being dim?

oxon70 My daughter works for the National Archives of Scotland, so I passed your question on to her.

She replied " I'm not sure what I can tell them above what's on the FAQ system for the site. There are discussion boards about genealogy - this one has a specific hints & tips for ScotlandsPeople thread - scotfamtree.11.forumer.com//viewtopic.php?t=9926 which it might be worth her while reading through before she makes a start."

Have not looked myself, but it sounds as though it could be helpful.

I have a full sub to Find my past. When I first started there was a month's free offer on Ancestry so I made full use of that.

Also - Curious Fox has been useful and I recently answered a query on there which linked me with someone in New Zealand who was the granddaughter of someone who painted a couple of plates in 1912 that hang in our dining room.

Lost Cousins has a monthly newsletter. On the site you can enter the names of relatives, neighbours etc for three (I think) of the Census' with the Census reference for the page they are on and the site automatically links you with other people who have entered people from that particular page. It works, too, I was automatically linked to a relative I was already in touch with so we both knew it worked.

I have messages posted on several message boards and I am now in touch with three fairly close relatives which is great plus a Canada branch.

Last year there was a re-union between one branch of the family - a large gathering in the area from which we originated.

Several surprises though - one set of great grandparents never married and there is one mysterious person whose parentage we suspect but will probably never be able to prove!

I use Ancestry and find it's good value as I am compiling family trees for both mine and my husband's families. Our local library hosts a genealogy/family history group meeting every now and again and I've found out one or two useful things at these.

I use Ancestry but have learned to be careful about looking at other people's public trees on the site as they are not always very accurate about side shoots of their own family and I have found my own relatives put in with wrong information.

I have also used Scotlands People very successfully but it is pay as you go and can get very expensive so you have to be very clear about what you are looking for to try to avoid looking up the wrong relatives. However, having said that the death records have much more info than the English ones and they seem to include lots more names and addresses.

I have also used two professionals for one off research I couldn't do myself, one well known one was expensive and useless and one independent person was very good value indeed. Added to that a very nice Canadian person did some free of charge!

Boooo....they have taken away the FamilySearch RecordSearch site. Anyone tried their new one like this that you have to register for?

Ancestry is the one I've found most useful, but it only has the Scottish censuses, basically, and no more.

Can someone tell me about using the ScottishPeople site? I keep thinking I need to look there, but I'm not sure how to start, and I hear things from others that they have used a lot of their credits looking at the wrong records, which is offputting.

Really love finding out about the family, you are right my mum would have loved it, she never knew her father as he died when she was 3 and he came from Scotland and they lived in the east end of London so she never knew his family either, she always said that she would go on holiday to Scotland and see if she could find them but of course she never did, now i want to find out who her family are but although I know a little bit their name was Hunter and it is such a common name in Scotland, will have to join Scotlands people or is Ancestry a better bet, i belong to Find my Past but it only covers England and Wales, it is so expensive to belong to them now so have to pick what one is best, does anyone know which site is the best site to belong to which covers the most areas please?

Hello Oxon70.Thanks for the information!.My greatgreat grandfather did come from Whittingham, so your details are right.
I will look up Callaly on Wickipedia, again many thanks.