Family history search databases

[Four Cofffee]

I bought a £5 worth of credits on one yesterday and quickly got back 4 or 5 generations ( I fear the next step back will be my connectiion to a guy who was hung in 1828 for killing the local policeman).

If anybody has used them, I was wondering which is the best database and the cheapest site for doing a bit of bulk searching?

I think The Geneologist is about £40 for six months unmetered access.

Edited by Four Cofffee on Friday 21st August 20:33

[Simpo Two]

Ancestry.co.uk is another, but I've resisted taking the plunge yet.

[Save Ferris]

Simpo Two said:

Ancestry.co.uk is another, but I've resisted taking the plunge yet.

This is the one I'm using, you can pay monthly or in a pay-as-you-go style. Ive got back to about 1855 but now I'm stuck.

[10 Pence Short]

Save Ferris said:

Simpo Two said:

Ancestry.co.uk is another, but I've resisted taking the plunge yet.

This is the one I'm using, you can pay monthly or in a pay-as-you-go style. Ive got back to about 1855 but now I'm stuck.

Your clock's knackered- it's well past 8.

Edited by 10 Pence Short on Friday 21st August 20:57

[Simpo Two]

Save Ferris said:

Ive got back to about 1855 but now I'm stuck.

How are you posting from 1855? Computers haven't been invented yet!

NB: Could you pop down to East London and say hello to my ancestors please? You'll find about 30 of them in Poplar and Stepney.

Edited by Simpo Two on Friday 21st August 21:43

[Save Ferris]

Simpo Two said:

Save Ferris said:

Ive got back to about 1855 but now I'm stuck.

How are you posting from 1855? Computers haven't been invented yet!

NB: Could you pop down to East London and say hello to my ancestors please? You'll find about 30 of them in Poplar and Stepney.

Edited by Simpo Two on Friday 21st August 21:43

No worries, as soon as Ive fixed this bloody flux capacitor thingy again, I'll be right on it.

[Rollie]

Would these sites be any good for tracking family in other countries? My family originate from Terni in Italy, they then moved to Australia and changed our surname.

I live in the UK and know very little of my family in other parts of the world but I am keen to know more. The problem being my grandfather cannot/doesn't want to remember alot of things.

Edited by Rollie on Friday 21st August 22:15

[Limey 666]

Rollie said:

Would these sites be any good for tracking family in other countries? My family originate from Terni in Italy, they then moved to Australia and changed our surname.

I live in the UK and know very little of my family in other parts of the world but I am keen to know more. The problem being my grandfather cannot/doesn't want to remember alot of things.

Edited by Rollie on Friday 21st August 22:15

No my missus is doing this now and she usually comes to a stop outside of the UK but luckily for her she traced her cousin on facebook who lives in New Mexico and he lets her use his account to search USA records so it might be an idea to try and combine the two hope this helps.

[Rollie]

Thanks for the reply. Facebook is an avenue I hadn't thought of. I will give it a try, but I am not 100% sure on the spelling of the original surname. Any PHers Italian that have any knowledge of south Umbria and the names of the region?

Edited by Rollie on Friday 21st August 22:36

[a boardman]

I have used Ancestry.co.uk and managed to trace my dads mum family back to 1678. (with the help of another tree that someone has made public on the website)

[Four Cofffee]

Four Cofffee said:

I bought a £5 worth of credits on one yesterday and quickly got back 4 or 5 generations ( I fear the next step back will be my connectiion to a guy who was hung in 1828 for killing the local policeman).

If anybody has used them, I was wondering which is the best database and the cheapest site for doing a bit of bulk searching?

I think The Geneologist is about £40 for six months unmetered access.

Edited by Four Cofffee on Friday 21st August 20:33

I was easily back to 1812 based on census returns alone by locating my grandfather and great granfather on the 1911 census, Great,great grandfather on the 1871 census and then finally G,G, G G on the 1861 census which listed his age as 49. These pay web sites usually include parish records prior to 1835 when weddings were registered, war lists in WWI and WWII, ship crew lists. The one I saw allows locating children from parents names or vice versa. Only 150 years ago my 10 year old ancestor was working as a labourer in a brick kiln and all the families had at least 5 kids (most of mine had 10 or more). Rather shocked me. On the plus side there is a chance that my policeman murdering ancestor was related to a family who owned large chunks of Shropshire in the 16th century.

[Dan_1981]

Out of interest as I woud love to give this a go what are the best sites for the type of thing - as you can imagine a google returns lots and lots of rubbish.

What are the best free sites - and how useful are they?

And which paid sites do you use?

Cheers

Dan

[speedyman]

I'm back to 1757 with my family.
Here's some free search sites to get you started and the WW1 forum (very knowledgeable people on here)

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/searchthearchiv...

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/

Regards

Speedyman

[ofcorsa]

Join your local library, access to ancestry and census is free

[Dan_1981]

That "Who do you think you are" has got alot to answer for!

It makes it all seem so easy!

How does one go about viewing birth and death certificates / obtaining copies of them?

[Cas_P]

I don't exsist

[TooLateForAName]

The mormons have some strange thing that if you can trace your ancestors then they can still be 'saved', to which end they have a database which you can access to trace people. Sorry I'm not going to go looking for that.

If you can get back a bit further then http://www.icmacentre.ac.uk/soldier/database/

Is quite nice. If you had any family member fighting in the French campaigns. There is one with my surname.

[Dan_1981]

Is local gubberment the only place to get birth and death certs from?

eta: without going to local library and viewing microfilm or whatever.

Edited by Dan_1981 on Sunday 23 August 10:18

[Chocmonster]

TooLateForAName said:

The mormons have some strange thing that if you can trace your ancestors then they can still be 'saved', to which end they have a database which you can access to trace people. Sorry I'm not going to go looking for that.

The Mormon site is one of the best out there which enables you to get information for free, especially the 1881 census.

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp

Their software is also worth downloading to to keep everything in one place.

They don't try to get you to join up or anything

[Dakkon]

My Dad has traced our family tree back to 1503 where we were all farm workers apparently.