Ancestry.co.uk

[Dan_1981]

Morning All,

Old mans 60th this week and he's asked for membership to Ancestry as he's interested in doing the family tree thing.

Anyone used the site and have any feedback?

He has Irish relatives a few generations back so will need the premium version that gives access to Irish records.

Are there any discount codes around at the moment that anyone's aware of?

Cheers

[zbc]

My mother has always done loads of family history and absolutely loves it. I love it less as she has added my email (with my permission) so now everytime she adds a new relative I get an update email. It was fun the first few times but now it's just an annoyance, I just need to find a polite way of telling her this. Seriously it is very powerful and interesting and if my mum rates it for family history it must be good. Only downside is to check very carefully exactly what you get with your level of access. My mother can't print off as she would like, I think that she needs either to upgrade or get some extra software to do that. Can't help with voucher codes sorry.

[Dog Chops]

This may be too late as you've said "this week" but if you get a sub through Quidco, you get a 25% refund: http://www.quidco.com/ancestry-co-uk/?ac

[mike-r]

Tried a free trial and was pretty disappointed. Although I only joined to see if I was descended from Vikings or something cool, and I don't think that's the point.

[Vipers]

Through Ancestry site, a guy tracked me down, following which I contacted an aunt we all thought had died years and years ago. The site has now tracked relations back to the 1500's.

I Think its a good site, but it will need a lot of hard work finding people.

Give it a try.

[anonymous-user]

A good site , but some distant relative in USA (who comes across as a nutter) keeps on about visiting us when he's over here!

[SV8Predator]

Dan_1981 said:

Morning All,

Old mans 60th this week

Dan_1981 said:

Are there any discount codes around at the moment that anyone's aware of?

Cheers

[BillPeart]

Not sure of discount codes, but I've used it regularly for 5+ years now and it's been a godsend for getting past sticking points in tracing various lines, previously done from family recollections, records, annotated family bibles (from mid 19th Century) and many visits to record offices, churches etc.

I've now traced various family lines back, some for many centuries, been able to visit places in the UK where ancestors lived and have got in touch with umpteen others searching on similar lines, including family members on 3 lines; one a genealogist and one a historian, and two authors of family history! Weird coincidence but very helpful.

No way could I have done so much without the internet or that site in the past, not without spending all my waking hours on research and having access to some repositories not easily open to all.

Related to your post (pardon the pun) my octogenarian father is thrilled with what we've found, including putting some rumors to bed.

[Dan_1981]

Cheers guy - went ahead with the subscription and he seems pretty pleased with it.

Oh and SV8 will be pleased to know I paid full price too.

[Vaud]

Be careful.

The further you go back, the worse records get.

Online ancestry before recent census data needs a lot of correlation.

Ancestry.co.uk and related sell a good dream of tracing your ancestors but it needs to be heavily qualified. Many records are marred by low literacy (everywhere) and even destruction by the British (Ireland) leading to all sorts of complexities and half truths.

Bit of fun, but that's all. Use it as a start point for correlating based on local records.

(Don't blame me, blame my librarian/researcher for a mother)