Find my Past---was it a wise thing to do?

[Ringrose]

I took full advantage of 3 sessions on the Free offer  with  sucess ---many printed copies to look at.I was disappointed in the coverage of the BMDs pr 1837.I can remember using the Family History on Line  before i t was taken over by FindMyPast and Im sure they had more records---have they all been transferred over. I also found one county(Cornwall) in my research areas very well transcribed but the others very sparse.I also found BMDs hard to look at and could only see half the page ---did not want me to scroll down which meant printing off page to get the whole record. This took too long and wasted paper.
I use Ancestry and was wondering whether to give FindMyPast a go but I am staying with Ancestry as I think they cover more.Anyway well done FindMyPast for your generous offer ---avery good idea.
What do others think?
Ringrose

[Cell]

Hi,

I'm another ex user of family history online when it existed . I think all the records that were on there are on FindMyPast . What I dislike is the expense of  viewing these records on FindMyPast , where they were relatively cheap with FHO (2p and 5 p a record) - everything is so commercialised these days! .

Family history online did not cover all counties - Carmarthenshire was one. - just because carmarthenshire family history society does not seem to like to pool with others - you buy directly off them

Cornwall has always been good, so has Glamorgan

FHO were family history societies pooling all together their transcripts , those same Parish records are on FindMyPast with the permission of the said family history societies.

Anyway I'm with ancestry , have been for years, I actually took the 14 day free trial with FindMyPast just a few weeks ago - I decided to cancel it. There is nothing on there worth my money .
It depends on the individual,, but find my past do not hold anything relating to anything I need

Kind regards

[Silvilocks]

Couldn't swear to it, but I've an idea that I've seen that some societies didn't give permission for their records to be transferred from Family History Online to FindMyPast. I think it may have been because of the fact that it was going to cost more to view the records.

I'm very grateful to FindMyPast - it was an incredibly generous offer. If they do bring in a monthly sub, then at present I'd probably sign up for a month every six months or so. I can't do without Ancestry at present, as I'm still ploughing through all the London records, and I can't afford two annual subs. If FindMyPast expand parish records more (in the right counties of course  ), I'd probably start begging for next year's Xmas present early.

I must admit that once I got used to some of the quirks of the 1911 search, I did like the site, and found it much quicker than Ancestry (apart from the hour I had to do when a match was on.) Hopefully FindMyPast will listen to people and bring in a monthly sub.

[omega 1]

Hi

Silvilocks,i use to subscribe to Family History On Line too & a lot of FHS  did`nt give permission to be transferred. I do miss it.

Omega

[coombs]

I think they used to have Oxon burials on FamilyHistoryOnline but they seem to have disappeared when FindMyPast took them over.

[Marmaduke 123]

A lot of things didn't go over to Findmypast. There has been a previous thread about this, which alerted me to the page on FamilyHistoryOnline which tells you exactly what the situation is:

http://www.familyhistoryonline.net/database/index.shtml

Scroll down to the bottom of the counties list for the key.


Anne

[stonechat]

Yes there were some Berks records didn't make it across

It was to do with permissions

familyhistoryonline was good value for money too

[mlrfn448]

I subscribe to both sites, and when my sub on ancestry ran out a few months ago, upped my membership to include the london parishes.

FindMyPast is invaluable for the 1911 census.
However, census searching is better via ancestry, unless you have a specific address.
When some census details (yes, the actual pages) were missing from ancestry, i found them on FindMyPast, and the resolution was much better.
However, I use ancestry for the london parishes, as the coverage is quite good, now.
Ships passengers out are on FindMyPast, but In are on ancestry.
But having found an ancestor on the Ellis Island site, and scrolled thru the actual pages on FindMyPast for ships out, there is no way to amend what must be a transcription error, as there is no way of finding out what they actually trancribed the entry as, in the first place.
military records are on FindMyPast.
regards

[Plummiegirl]

I thought that the offer made my FindMyPast during the World Cup was awful.
As a fully PAID UP member it was impossible to access any records during any England Matches.

I subcribe to both Ancestry and FindMyPast, and find that if I cannot find someone on one site I can often find them on the other.

Also I prefer the way the results are shown on FindMyPast, and their advanced search is even better.  But where they do fall down is when you go to view the originals and in some instances they are awful.

But all said and done would not consider doing without either.  Ancestry for the LMA records and FindMyPast for 1911 census.