Best Value Pay/Membership Site ?

championc

I came across Findmypast.ie this evening and it certainly has an incredible amount of information on it and I suppose I would be happy enough to pay 60 for a year. I could maybe even "share" the logon details with my Dad or Kids and get them researching too so that would make it better value.

It was had to make out the difference between some possible relations without having access to the original documents which makes me go for a subscription.

But are there other sites which give the same information, and more ? I've possibly got all I can already from the Census Records.


Regards
C

dido2

Have you looked at www.ancestry.co.uk they have a lot of what find my past have but you can take out a month by month subscription, it does depend on where you are looking for info, if its just ireland and the UK then there is a lot on www.familysearch.org and www.irishgenealogy.ie

championc

It will be Ireland only I reckon. I have a huge amount done from years ago but now want to fill in blanks.

I know i won't have the time to do a hell for leather search in a month. Ancestry seemed expensive but does it provide more Irish records (B, M & D) or does anyone have all Parish Records ?

shanew

championc wrote: »

It will be Ireland only I reckon. I have a huge amount done from years ago but now want to fill in blanks.

I know i won't have the time to do a hell for leather search in a month. Ancestry seemed expensive but does it provide more Irish records (B, M & D) or does anyone have all Parish Records ?

Ancestry doesn't have that many records for Ireland. The BMD Index and most of the extracted records they have are available free on FamilySearch.

There's no one website that covers all Irish parish records, it depends on the exact area and denomination involved - e.g. IrishGenealogy for Dublin City (and parts of south county), Kerry, South West Co. Cork (RC only), Carlow (CofI only), RootsIreland, : Wicklow, Co. Dublin, Meath, Louth (RC only).... etc

dido2

If it's only ireland then you won't much more on any of the sites than whats available for free online, if you have anyone who was in the british army then you would find more on find my past or ancestry, I use Ancestry over find my past because once I pay €22 a month for the world subscription, cheaper for just ireland and uk, then thats it full access to all records but with find my past its either year subscription or buying credits for each record you want to view..

I thought all my research was in ireland but I found a great gran uncle who died in France in WW1 and his sister and brother who emigrated to America, and also the same sisters marriage record along with her childrens baptisms

If you want to post details of who your looking for we might be able to help with the free records..

championc

Many thanks.

I'm using Webtrees(.org) and have built a website so I plan to now email all family relations to view their records and update them as much as possible. Since I have over 50 people who I could involve and who could all do a bit of research while then updating my tree at the same time, I thought it would be a reasonable idea to create an account on a pay service and share the logon around so everyone could have a really good crack at researching. I could evaluate in a years time as to whether it was with further investment at that point. If I bought membership for one site, maybe someone else would buy one for another and we'd all share - win, win !!

dido2

If your not sure where siblings of grandparents or great grand parents ended up then the UK records and then world records could prove very useful to you...

odds_on

dido2 wrote: »

If your not sure where siblings of grandparents or great grand parents ended up then the UK records and then world records could prove very useful to you...

If they were born, married or died in England or Wales (not Scotland), then FreeBMD (Yes, it's Free) is a good place to go.

championc

Another question - which site do people feel that the index of a search produces the most relevant information on the search to help pinpoint the person you are looking for ?

On FindMyPast, when looking at Marriages, it would appear to indicate the Spouse and bridesmaids (not sure). However, looking for a Birth or Death will leave you trawling through pages and pages of records.

However, if I look at FamilySearch, the indexes produce a lot more information including parents names and one search could find a person's Birth, Marriage and Death details.

And then there's IrishGenealogy.ie which directs you to all sites which have matches to your search criteria.

shanew

championc wrote: »

.....On FindMyPast, when looking at Marriages, it would appear to indicate the Spouse and bridesmaids (not sure). However, looking for a Birth or Death will leave you trawling through pages and pages of records.

The same BMD Index data is included on Ancestry and FMP.ie, and both are based on the FamilySearch index. Anc. and FMP match up references (year/quarter, district, volume & page) for marriage and show possible partners along with search results - often 2 or four marriages to a register page - so 4 or 8 names.

championc wrote: »

.....However, if I look at FamilySearch, the indexes produce a lot more information including parents names and one search could find a person's Birth, Marriage and Death details. ....

those sound like some of the extracted records rather than Index records. These include many, but not all, of the details extracted from films of the registers and cover from the start of civil registration up to about 1880. Not all records or areas are covered in these extracted records.

shanew

championc wrote: »

Another question - which site do people feel that the index of a search produces the most relevant information on the search to help pinpoint the person you are looking for ?......

assuming it's civil records you are searching for then the best way to narrow the search is to use the clues you already have from the generation following. e.g. use a date range even using an approximate year of birth, marriage or death. Include the registration district, starting with the same district the generation after your target person lived. You can narrow searches for Deaths by approximate year of birth. Births after about 1927 include mother's maiden surname on the Index. Often when searching common names you will need to order several certs to try to establish matches to your family. Other clues than can help narrow down the search often come from census returns, dates of children's births etc

If you use this direct link to the BMD Index only Index entry search results will be shown.

championc

Does anyone use RootsIreland.ie ? I see they are credit based rather than maybe a flat 1 year fee. Are the credits just to display / print docs or do you lose credits for searches too ?

And therefore, how meaningful are their search indexes ?

So far, for me, it looks like FamilySearch is excellent for locating a record and then FindMyPast could be used to look at the original document for the required item

shanew

championc wrote: »

Does anyone use RootsIreland.ie ? I see they are credit based rather than maybe a flat 1 year fee. Are the credits just to display / print docs or do you lose credits for searches too ?

And therefore, how meaningful are their search indexes ?

So far, for me, it looks like FamilySearch is excellent for locating a record and then FindMyPast could be used to look at the original document for the required item

You need credits to see full search results as well as the transcripts. Depending on the clues you have (e.g. parents names), it's often possible to establish some of the details from a record just using the free search.

The records on RootsIreland are transcripts, no images, mostly of parish records, although they do have civil records for some counties. If you know which area your family came from, and it's one of those RootsIreland cover, it's definitely worth checking their index.

tanoralover

championc wrote: »

So far, for me, it looks like FamilySearch is excellent for locating a record and then FindMyPast could be used to look at the original document for the required item

FindMyPast don't have the images for civil BMDs. The only advantage they have over FamilySearch is being able to view and search by possible spouses.

championc

tanoralover wrote: »

FindMyPast don't have the images for civil BMDs. The only advantage they have over FamilySearch is being able to view and search by possible spouses.

Ah ha, so what images DO they have ? Or do they just provide more breakdown than the index provides ?

dido2

championc wrote: »

Ah ha, so what images DO they have ? Or do they just provide more breakdown than the index provides ?

All they offer over familysearch for Irish civil records is that they list possible spouses so you'd have on the average search 4 husbands and 4 wives if you happen to know spouses names familysearch on its own you may be able ti match them up

championc

I think I'll need to do a month on each system to really compare them

dido2

I use the records in this link as my starting point for Irish research because you know what dates it covers https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927084

Find My Past does credits too, they don't offer a month by month subscription ..

If your looking for people past 1927 then you can often narrow down the potential marriages from the groups of them on Ancestry or Find My Past by searching a male surname (Childs Surname) with one of the female surnames (Childs mothers surname) on the birth records after 1927 and it can sometimes help figure out who married who...

dido2

There is also a 14 Day trial for both Ancestry and Find My past that might be worth trying out too

This is the list of what Ancestry has available in terms of IRish records http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/CardCatalog.aspx#ccat=hc%3D25%26dbSort%3D1%26sbo%3D1%26fh%3D25%26bsk%3DCIAABNEAAAOl%26filter%3D1*3250%26

And this is what Find My Past has http://www.findmypast.ie/articles/world-records/full-list-of-the-irish-family-history-records

Mumha

I'm already committed to Ancestry for 6 months, but it's really come up trumps for my research this time, though not on Irish newspapers...

Could anyone check something on Findmypast for me ?

In the What else search field for Newspapers, I put in Coast Guard, and then narrowed down the date to 26 April 1852 for the Cork Examiner. It turned up this

"IMPORTANT TO PERSONS ENGAGED IN RENDERING SERVICES IN CASE OF WRECKS.
“...
of the coast guard force in the boat to accompany the corn to the store, but after Keeffe had got a considerable distance from the rock, he and his crew took the corn to a different quarter against the remonstrance and threata of the coast guard man, who ...”

I'd really like to see the full piece, as an ancestor was drowned on duty on April 23rd at Rock Island, Crookhaven. I'm hoping it might be a report on what happened.

tanoralover

Mumha wrote: »

In the What else search field for Newspapers, I put in Coast Guard, and then narrowed down the date to 26 April 1852 for the Cork Examiner. It turned up this

"IMPORTANT TO PERSONS ENGAGED IN RENDERING SERVICES IN CASE OF WRECKS.
“...
of the coast guard force in the boat to accompany the corn to the store, but after Keeffe had got a considerable distance from the rock, he and his crew took the corn to a different quarter against the remonstrance and threata of the coast guard man, who ...”

I'd really like to see the full piece, as an ancestor was drowned on duty on April 23rd at Rock Island, Crookhaven. I'm hoping it might be a report on what happened.

That article is about Indian corn being stolen from a boat in March.

Mumha

tanoralover wrote: »

That article is about Indian corn being stolen from a boat in March.

Thanks TL, it was too much to hope I suppose.