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The Genealogist

AMW

master brummie
Hi

Is anyone a member of "The Genealogist"? Does The Genealogist have more records than Ancestry and FMP and how does it differ. My family are predominantly Midlands based so not sure which site might be best for membership.

Best wishes
Alison
 
I was a member for one year. I believe they do have some parish records not available elsewhere, though cannot comment on which ones. they also have some other military records such as RAF pilots operation books. On occasion I found people on the census which did not easily come up on ancestry (because of miss-transcriptions presumably). One facility which can be useful are the tithe maps, with associated ability to determine who owns the particular plot and the occupier (though from experience the "occupier " might be the person leasing the land from the owner rather than the person actually in residence). One feature which would be very usefull, but so far is only covering areas of london and nearby are maps and associated details of occupiers from the 1910 survey of Lloyd George. When/If that covers areas of interest to me then I will probably return , for a year at least. As I remember it there are no records outside UK.
 
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Really appreciate that thanks :) so many sites nowadays and really can't afford to subscribe to everything. Another site of interest is Fold 3 but don't know if they have more records than Ancestry and FMP.
 
You can always subscribe for a month to Ancestry or FMP and see which suits you. I also thought Fold 3 was military records.
 
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AMW,

Fold 3 is ONLY military records. I subscribe to both FindMyPast & Ancestry at World level and find myself using FMP rather more than Ancestry. I frequently go to Ancestry for images of parish records, because FMP quite often has only the transcription, but it is really a matter of horses for courses! One useful free site is forebears.io, simply because it is a list of links to parish registers and other records, both free and paid for, with the years that they span. If what you want is not on their list, then you can be pretty sure that it is not online.

FMP also has an extensive collection of UK military records covering those that have survived from WW! and earlier Boer War and militia records. I have no experiemce of subscribing to The Genealogist, but I am occasionally linked to there from forebears.io for some particular parish register.

Don't forget to try the freebies such as FreeBMD, FreeReg, FreeCen, and familysearch.org. And if using the latter, don't forget to search their catalogue. Their main vaults in Salt Lake City contain films of all the parish chest records such as Poor Law records, which contain pre-1837 information that is not available anywhere else other than perhaps county archives. You can order up copies of some of these films to view at their LDS Family History Centre at 38-42 Lordswood Road, Harborne, details here:-
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Harborne_England_Family_History_Centre and there are various other centres dotted around the UK and overseas. Films not in stock can be obtained within 2 to 3 weeks and you then have 6 weeks in which to view them as often as you like. The staff are all volunteers and very friendly, and won't attempt to talk to you about their particular brand of religion. All my years of early research 30 years ago made extensive use of their Centre in Poole, Dorset. When the LDS Church originally sought permission to film UK parish registers many years ago, it was granted on the condition that they made access to the records available to all, whatever their beliefs and non-beliefs, and this condition is strictly adhered to. There is a lot more information here:-
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Introduction_to_Family_History_Centers and one interesting thing I note is that, like some libraries, you can obtain free access to Ancestry, FMP, British Newspaper Archive, and others from the PCs on their premises.

Finally, please make use of this Forum as members will always help if they can. Sorry if this is a long reply, but I wanted to add some information about resources that otherwise rarely get mentioned.

Maurice :cool:
 
Hi Maurice

Thank you so much :)
Your reply has been really informative and very helpful. I will certainly check out the LDS centres when they reopen. I've never heard of the Forbears site before and that will prove really useful too. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this reply. It really is very kind of you.

Best wishes
Alison
 
Happy to be of help, Alison. Yes, the pandemic may prove a bit of a problem as the Centre is staffed by volunteers, though generally retired people who should have had their jabs by now. Good hunting!

EDIT: Currently there are 2,692 different record collections on FMP. Even without a subscription, you can go onto FMP, click on the Search button, select Births Marriages & Deaths. Then on the right side of the page you will see All Record Sets. Click on this and you can page through all the various collections. This will give you a general idea of what they have.
I'm sure you can do something similar with Ancestry, but it's not obvious how to do it. Both have free days periodically, generally over bank holidays, when you can go in and use them as if you have a subscription. Someone generally announces them on the Forum.

Maurice :cool:
 
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Really appreciate that thanks :) so many sites nowadays and really can't afford to subscribe to everything. Another site of interest is Fold 3 but don't know if they have more records than Ancestry and FMP.
Fold 3 is Military records. I subscribed for a month to get information, but make sure you cancel before the date it ends or they will automatically think you want to subscribe for another month.
 
Hi
What would be the best way of recording a family tree? If you use Ancestry and FMP to record the tree would you lose your tree if you no longer had subscription to the site.
Best wishes
Alison
 
No AMW your tree is still there to view but you can't make any alterations or amendments or view "hints" without a subscription.
 
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You can also download your tree, which you can then upload to a different site that uses the same format.

I've never done this so don't know how well it works but downloading your tree doesn't delete it so you won't lose it even if it doesn't work satisfactorily.
 
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Sorry, but I'm one of those who doesn't believe in putting my tree on such sites. For years I have used Brother's Keeper, here:- https://www.bkwin.org/ but this is Windows only software and is shareware with very few limitiations (just a couple of reports) should you choose not to register and pay your 45 bucks once-in-a-lifetime payment, though as an ex-software engineer I'm not an advocate of using it free forever. However, there are many alternatives for Windows, Apple & Linux operating systems.

Yes, you could use the Ancestry, FMP and other databases as many do, but if you make it private, you're unlikely to get many responses, and if you make most of it public, everyone gets your research for free including the host company and including any family photographs you upload.

Moving from one database to another is easily accomplished using the export/import facilities in GEDCOM format. Brother's Keeper also allows you to keep more than one tree in separate databases, which is handy if you research other than your own tree, as I do. And, of course, it is private on your own PC, does automatic backups to wherever you choose on your system, and has a variety of different reports, trees, and search facilities.

Again it is horses for courses as to how and where you choose to store your database.

Maurice :cool:
 
Maurice, I was very interested in your post. Currently I use Ancestry and have several trees on there showing different branches of my family. I had never heard of Brothers keeper but using the link you provided I looked at the site and things that you can do on there. You say moving from one database to another is easy using the export/import facilities. Can I transfer my Ancestry trees direct to Brothers Keeper using these facilities? I am not very technically minded when it comes to computers but it seems that Brothers Keeper will allow me to print family trees which would be great for me.
Thanks
Jim
 
Jim,

I believe so. I haven't got a tree on there, so can't test this out, but there should be an export function, and if you get a choice of format then choose GEDCOM. It's then a simple matter to import that file into BK. I can guide you through that once you have the GEDCOM file.

Maurice :cool:
 
Maurice that's great, thank you. I believe that the Ancestry trees are in Gedcom form. When I'm ready and when you are able I'll contact you via the messaging system to arrange a guidance tutorial.
Thanks again
Jim.
 
Jim,

Here's how:-

Downloading your tree from Ancestry®​

  1. From any page on Ancestry, click the Trees tab and select a tree.
  2. From the tree, click the tree name menu in the top-left corner and select Tree Settings.
  3. On the right side of the Tree Settings page, click Export tree.
  4. The button will begin spinning and say Generating a GEDCOM file. When it stops spinning, right-click (Mac: Ctrl+ click) on the Download Your GEDCOM File button that appears.
  5. In the drop-down menu from right-clicking, select Save as, Save target as, or Save link as.
  6. In the window that appears, choose a location on your computer and click Save. If you select Desktop as the location, the file will save to the main screen of your computer.
Maurice :cool:
 
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