RootsChat.Com
Census Lookups General Lookups => Census and Resource Discussion => Topic started by: carmay on Wednesday 24 October 12 23:06 BST (UK)
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I am at a point where I really need to get into parish records to pursue a few of the branches of my family tree. FindMyRoots says that they have the most complete collection of parish records, and Ancestry says that they have them as well.
I'd like to know people's experience with both places. I can only afford one, and I was leaning towards Ancestry as I can pay by the month. With FindMyRoots, I'd have to pay for at least 6 months up front which is quite expensive for me. I'm on a limited budget as I'm retired. I would like to get the most for my money in terms of being able to find information efficiently.
Please let me know of your experiences with both places so I can make a good decision :)
By the way, I live in the U.S. so I can't go to these places to look up the information in person. I'm interested mostly in Salford, Manchester, Liverpool, and I know my search will take me to Scotland at some point.
Thank you!
Carole
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Hi Carole,
I assume you mean FindMyPast not FindMyRoots.
Both sites are great and have vast collections.
I think the best advise is for you to try out each site with their free 14-day trial (make sure to cancel before the end of the trial though). Each site has different things to offer and you can try out which is the best for you. FindMyPast might be better for Manchester, Ancestry.co.uk better for Liverpool.
For Scotland research you have to use ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk (neither Ancestry nor FindMyPast are great when it comes to Scotland).
Alexander
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I have both and use both.
In England and Wales FindMyPast much better search engine and gets there very quickly.
Ancestry however allows you to be more creative with your searches if you are having problems.
Ancestry MUCH better for records overseas, although you pay more for this.
Ancestry brilliant for London parish records(although much of their stuff is from family search).
FindMyPast helps me greatly with my Welsh parish records and more promised soon.
Ancestry has West Yorkshire parish records.
I couldn't choose between them and use them both.
My tree is on ancestry.
Best wishes
Helen
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Thank you, Helen and Alexander. And yes, I did mean Find My Past :) That was an oops. I fixed it in the title of the thread :)
I guess I will try both trial periods and see which one works best for me. My records are all in Lancashire, so whichever one has the best for that area would be of the most help to me.
My library has Ancestry.com but the library version only has the census records, nothing beyond that.
Also, does either one of the above have newspaper archives for the Lancashire area?
Thank you again,
Carole
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Hi
It is important that before you spend any money you check that the websites actually have the records you are interested in. Do the 14 day free trial of each of Findmypast and Ancestry and see if they are of assistance. Also don't forget to look at Familysearch as that may be of help.
For Scotland, Familysearch has indexes of Scottish Parish Registers and also have indexed Births and Marriages 1855 to 1875 direct from the Statutory Registers, for images the only online source is Scotlandspeople http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ which is a pay-per-view site. Ancestry and Findmypast do have transcriptions of Scottish censuses 1841 to 1901 but not images.
Andy
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FYI,
Since you live in the U.S, and not in the U.K ,you won't have to pay the tax on these sites
So the prices will be slightly cheaper for you ;D
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I can access The British Library collection of 19th century newspapers for free through my library,but from home. You ought to enquire. I go to the (bradford)library site and using my library card number I can get to something called 'Infotrac', there are loads of papers from all round the country there and being added to all the time. Well worth it.
Helen
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Sorry you probably can't use the British Library from US.
Just been looking at which parishes in Lancashire ancestry and FindMyPast cover, neither seem particularly good.
Try lancashire on line parish clerk
http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/, I've always found that pretty good, but not been looking at Salford and Manchester.
Helen
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Agree Lancashire OPCsvery good o try before spending.Also what about Free Reg site which has loads of pre 1837 records on.Also it may be worth just googling for the parish records in the areas you want and see what come up.Also a google genealogy search on the surname for that area may give some ideas,though they may not be accurate.
Ringrose
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Carole - as you mention Lancashire - have you seen FamilySearch's extensive selection of parish registers? Most are around what is now Greater Manchester & they have the images (ie not just transcriptions). They seem to move the weblink around, but this is the list today (shrunklink):
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0ry5/
There are other records on FamilySearch besides those with images (more than on the old IGI) so it + LancashireOPC are good starting points for parish records.
https://www.familysearch.org/
I'd suggest trying searches on both commercial sites for some people you've got information for & seeing what results they come up with. Both can be searched free & will list results - the sub or credits are needed for the detail - so you'd get an indication of what they have (and how easy or otherwise you find them for searching).
FindMyPast has a "Manchester Collection" which includes other records (ie non BMD) which are listed here:
http://www.findmypast.co.uk/content/manchester-collection/about.html
I don't think either site have clear lists of what parish registers they have.
There was a post on here a few weeks ago suggesting that FindMyPast would be offering access to the British Newspaper Archive (they are under common ownership), but I don't know & haven't seen the source of that info. That newspaper site is being updated regularly & does have many Lancashire newspapers:
http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
You can purchase credits or subscriptions of varying lengths. You can check what they have in the "browse by location" area - for Lancashire you'd need to check Lancashire, Greater Manchester & Merseyside (the last two were created out of parts of Lancashire & Cheshire).
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Carmay, you should also have a look to see if there are any parish records on CD for the places you are interested in. Parish Registers on CD typically cost about £10 ($16) a CD, which compared to Ancestry subscriptions is pretty good value, I think.
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Thanks everyone. The marriage records at St Peter's in Liverpool seem to be missing for the time period I'm looking for. I'm wondering if they had a fire or flood or something and they were destroyed? I've found baptisms for three children in 1816 and 1818, and am now looking for their parents marriage.
Thanks so much for all the links. I'll check them all out first before I pay for either website :)
Carole
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Try lancashire on line parish clerk
http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/, I've always found that pretty good, but not been looking at Salford and Manchester.
Helen
Unfortunately, they don't list any parishes from Liverpool, and the one that I need in Salford is not listed either. My Mom went to St. Simon's as did her family. I know they merged with St. Matthias at some point, but I have to wonder where the records are?
Carole
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hi i got a lot of my records of family search its worth looking on there and getting as much info as you can before paying for other sights also bmd is good for looking up marriages etc if you know the surnames etc
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I have just had a look on Ancestry and they have the parish records for St Peters from 1813 If you let me know the names and dates you are looking I will look to see if the information is there before you make any decisions as to which subscription to go for.
Regards panda
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I have just had a look on Ancestry and they have the parish records for St Peters from 1813 If you let me know the names and dates you are looking I will look to see if the information is there before you make any decisions as to which subscription to go for.
Regards panda
Thanks, I am looking for the marriage of William McKinsie (or Mc Kinzie) & Ann. They had children baptized at St. Peter's in Liverpool.
William Morris Mc Kinzie, Son of William Mc Kinzie & Ann
Baptised: 9 Jan 1814 at St Peter, Liverpool, Lancashire
Abode: Dale St - Occupation: Auctioneer - Baptised by: J. Pulford Curate
Jane McKinsie, Daughter of William McKinsie & Ann
Baptised: 6 Dec 1818 at St Peter, Liverpool, Lancashire
Abode: Hodson St - Occupation: Auctioneer - Baptised by: T. Kidd Curate
James McKinsie, Son of William McKinsie & Ann
Baptised: 6 Dec 1818 at St Peter, Liverpool, Lancashire
Abode: Hodson St - Occupation: Auctioneer - Baptised by: T. Kidd Curate
I'm not sure if Jane and James were twins since there was no birth date listed. But the marriage must have happened sometime before 1814. There were also the two different spellings which I know is normal since back in those days they spelled things phonetically much of the time. When I found Jane's younger sister listed in a census, she was listed as Mc Kenzie.
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I'm having to search year by year as nothing that matches shows up in the search engine. I will carry on over the weekend but it may be a while. They may have married in her parish so it might not be possible to find them in St Peters.
I will keep you posted of any results
Regards panda
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I'm having to search year by year as nothing that matches shows up in the search engine. I will carry on over the weekend but it may be a while. They may have married in her parish so it might not be possible to find them in St Peters.
I will keep you posted of any results
Regards panda
They may also have been married in Scotland as I found their first child in a later census and it says he was born in Scotland. So I don't know when William and Ann moved to Liverpool, or if she just gave birth in Scotland as she was visiting at the time.
Carole
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Unfortunately, they don't list any parishes from Liverpool, and the one that I need in Salford is not listed either. My Mom went to St. Simon's as did her family. I know they merged with St. Matthias at some point, but I have to wonder where the records are?
Carole
Neither of these churches were open pre1837 (when civil registration started). From GENUKI's Salford pages St Simon was founded 1846 & closed 1926; St Matthias founded 1842 & closed 1967:
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LAN/Salford/
For pre1837 Salford C of E it seems to be Sacred Trinity (founded 1635), Christ Church (1831). St Philip (1825), St Stephen (1794).
While FamilySearch is seeming having problems with access as I'm typing you may find the Manchester Libraries lists of church registers useful as it tends to list those that are online (thought the main purpose it to identify those they hold on film or otherwise):
http://www.manchester.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=448&documentID=464
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Familysearch current accessible. Salford images they have:
Sacred Trinity: Baptisms 1813-1887, Marriages 1838-1882, Burials 1813-1854
St Ignatius: Marriages 1903-1920
St Philip: Marriages 1865-1935, Burials 1834-1957 (also have banns 1869-1903)
St Stephen: Baptisms 1794-1812, Marriages 1869-1921
Stowell Memorial: Marriages 1885-1914
There are also registers with images from the broader area, eg Pendleton, Swinton, Weaste, etc.
On the listing of collections this has 957,350 records of which there are 249,255 images. The collection has a few registers from Cheshire & Yorkshire, but most are Lancashire