"Access the Birth, Marriage and Death Index for nothing"

[bitty_matriarch]

Have just sent in my cancelleation email 

Will be interesting to see what 1837Online come back with regarding use of their other databases + National Archivist - which I've used a lot in the past as well.

Received this email from 1837Online yesterday:

"Thank you for your email.

We are currently experiencing extremely high volumes of customer emails which may mean we are unable to answer your email as quickly as we would hope.                                                                                                                                     
Please be assured your custom is important to us and we respond as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Customer Services Team   1837online.com

24 Britton Street, London, EC1M 5UA, United Kingdom "

 
I bet they are experiencing high levels of refund request emails!
I'd like to see my refund in place before the card bill comes in!


  Ann

[Guy Etchells]

I'm ecstatic that Ancestry has put this information on their website.  As many of you have pointed out it avoids using 1837online and the "pay per view" issue.  What has surprised me is the lack of gratitude and satisfaction that I have sensed in a large number of these posts.  Since when has genealogy been easy?  We are always plagued by transcription errors whether they be from suppliers or our own difficulty in reading old handwriting (or simply hitting the wrong key on the keyboard).  We often have to use creative and lateral thinking to figure out where our ancestors are hiding.

Have our standards become so high that we would rather wait for perfection (for free) rather than take something a bit suboptimal sooner?  I'd rather not wait.  I also don't want to discourage any companies such as Ancestry from making this information available. 

Just my humble opinion

Mark

Garrick Webster, the editor of Your Family Tree magazine contacted the UK MD of Ancestry.UK and was informed that the "data has been put up early and is in a 'beta' format. They hope their database will be working properly and that all these random errors that appear will be cleared up by Wednesday."
Cheers
Guy

[kerryb]

Mark

Whatever I feel about Ancestry offering me something free when I have just paid annual subscription, please be assured that the price I paid for the annual subscription is worth the aggro otherwise I would not have bothered.

Basically I find Ancestry.uk a very useful site, yes there are transcription errors but I have learnt about to think laterally or literally (never quite sure) and find missing people.  I wouldn't pay £60 lightly without knowing I will use the site a lot and get use from it.

Also yes it saves me buying another load of credits from 1837.

By the way has anybody else found One World Tree on Ancestry, I actually found some stuff on their the other day that was useful.  However I also found a gr gr grandfather connected to a completely wrong family that I had to change but the info I found that was useful far outweighed that!

Kerry

[meles]

You might have noticed the word "beta" on the BMD. Although they have not said, it's a first test. So it can only get better.

I'm delighted, I've sorted out three problems already!

meles

[Dragonlore]

I've only just found this thread ( late as always ) and must admit I hadn't even realised that the original images were available through ancestry. 

Typically, I'm one of those who paid a one-off fee to 1837online just before Christmas for 3 years unlimited access to BMD records.

But given that, I still think I'm ahead.  Many a time, I've found entries on 1837online that Ancestry seems to have cleverly hidden and from posts on here it seems that it's far from being as complete as 1837online even with it's occasional indexing problem.  Searching is definitely quicker.

So, no complaint from me.  Yet.

( Or maybe I'm just trying to justify the money spent   )

Dragonlore

[goggy]

Gawd!!
So its still the same old story,you pay's your monet and you take's your chance,or you pay's your money and get's your info.
Read all the pro+con's,still on the side of the freebies.
Think I'll lie down now.
                          Goggy.

[mnmilt]

The images are free for now but they may not stay that way.  As has been pointed out the database is a "beta" database.  In other words it is a test database.  The 1851 census was made available as a beta version for a week or so and the disappeared in that form.  When it reappeared it was part of the subscription service.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if the beta version of the BMD images disappears in a week or so and then reappears as part of the subscription service.  If so, I don't think that Ancestry have made it available for free just to entice people to subscribe but to see how the database performs under high use.  For those that have a subscription to Ancestry I would suggest that you don't fret about paying for something that you could have got for free and for those that aren't subscribers I would suggest that they "make hay while the sun shines."  The only real losers at this point in time are, unfortunately, those who have credits to 1837online.  The issue there is that the way that the BMD database it set up and "indexed" (if you can call it an index) is not really compatible with a pay-per-view business model that keeps a customer satisfied.  Since I am performing what amounts to a one-name study of a couple of my lines the Ancestry subscription business model works best for me.  Now, if they would only get the 1841 census on line!  Given the fact that they have just put the BMD images up I doubt that it is coming in the next few weeks but would love to be proved wrong.

Regards

Mark

[kerryb]

Mark

when did you get to be so sensible!!!!!

That was exactly the conclusion I came to so I have been taking advantage of whatever offer it is that Ancestry have offered me! 

Oh for the 1841!!!!! 

Kerry

[julianb]

I am now in my second year of a subscription to Ancestry.co.uk.

I too considered 1837online's "hurry, buy now" subscription offer before christmas, because I feel a subscription is so much better value than pay per view when you are researching heavily in england and wales post 1837. 

I hesitated though, and decided to look at what the other BMD-focused sites were offering.   I signed up with the genealogist - primarily because it was a slightly better price, and there was  a reasonable amount of 1841 census info there - which of course was not covered by my Ancestry subscription.

So, like others, I was a bit taken aback when I got my ancestry notification that they were offering the BMD registers (I assumed at the time, just to ancestry subscribers), and feel a little burned.

However, what is good about this whole affair is that the balance between pay per view and subscriptions has changed - so bulk users (like many of us on here) are probably now much better served in terms of what we get for what we pay.  This must be welcome (unfortunately there is no competition in Scotland to force Scotlandspeople's hand to offer a subscription-type package).

This may be the death knell for 1837online - and I assume it is why they have joined forces with others to broaden their offerings.  While I am a fan of ancestry (because it meets most of my current needs) I am concerned that they might wipe out all competition.

JULIAN