Ancestry- new records ?

[Maggie1895]

I find a lot of excellent records for my main area, Cheshire & Lancashire, and others too, at archive.org for free and which can be far more wide ranging. eg wills that are not A2A and when I asked at Lancs Record Office, there they were!
Fiona

My turn to be the thickie (again).  Fiona, I've clicked on the link and I'm sure I've seen this site before but thought it was all music.  Where on it did you find Lancashire and Cheshire wills, or what did you put into the search to find them?   

[Darwin]

I have the premium membership so I can see the new records but I don't have a single ancestor in England or Wales who had enough possessions to be in the list! I have some wealthier ones in Scotland but that's not included.

[tillypeg]

I emailed Ancestry regarding the availability of the Wills & Probate records on Tuesday-Wednesday and then the sudden unavailability and have received a quick response from them:-
"We appreciate your message.  While we were in the process of adding the new probate records to our site we made them available to all of our members as a courtesy.  Now that the collection is finished it is available through the Premium and Worldwide memberships as all of our parish and probate records are.  We apologise for any misunderstanding or inconvenience this has caused you."

[nigelp]

A problem I have found with the new records is that the letter G has often been incorrectly transcribed as a C. As a result, a name such as Thorogood has regularly been transcribed as Thorocood.

Nigel

[FAB Fiona]

Maggie1895

Sorry... didn't get the usual email on topic replies etc.  Anyway, I have to confess that my main source of wills in Lancashire from late 1500s to at leasst 1840s is:

http://www.xmission.com/~nelsonb/lws.htm

They have wills that are not catalogued on A2A or Lancs RO office, but are in fact there.

Now www.archive.org has a miscellaneous collection of all sorts, courtesy of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society (might be t'other way round, Cheshire and Lancashire!) in their most active years at the beginning of the 20th century. 

Their printed works have been scanned in, but yes you do have to search.  And you can search other counties and find all sorts of historical transcripts by their Antiquarian Societies etc.  Unfortunately it was all sorts of bits in different volumes for different periods in time so you have to look at all the volumes to find the useful things.  There are many transcribed parish records too. 

One of my most important finds was a transcription of the Freemen Rolls of Chester in two volumes!  All sorts of stuff for local history too!

Hope that helps

Fiona 

[Maggie1895]

Thanks Fiona, really appreciate your taking the time to explain it all - obviously a whole new (or old) world out there to get to grips with..
Maggie1895

[Nick29]

from thier twitter page,

'Get ready – our biggest launch of the year goes online tomorrow.

This major new collection will give you a thrilling insight into the lives your ancestors led. Plus, it will point you towards unexplored branches of your family tree.

Cancel any plans for the next 48 hours – you don’t want to miss this!'

theres 3 comments saying its already online, anyone know what  they are ?

Anyone wanting to know what's coming up on Ancestry (and who is a member) might like to consider becoming a volunteer transcriber.   Not only do you get to see a full list of what is currently being transcribed (with a progress indicator), it also puts you into a very good bargaining position when your subs are due for renewal.  As long as you do a reasonable number of transcriptions, of course.

Upcoming attractions (still currently being transscribed) include the 1891 and 1901 NSW Australia censuses, British Post Office Employment Records (Appointment Books), Pennsylvania US Naturalization Records, and French historical postcards.   Those which have finished transcription and are awaiting release include the Andrews newspaper indexes, UK Prison Hulk Registers and Letter Books 1802-1849, Fife Scotland, Voters Lists 1832-1894, and naturalization indexes of several US states.

Anyone wanting to volunteer to transcribe can do so by finding the World Archives Project in the Ancestry Community section.  Transcribing involves downloading a small program to your PC, which guides you through the transcription process, and all downloading and uploading of records is automatic, once the program is installed.  You can choose from a list which records you want to transcribe, with varying levels of difficulty.  All records are transcribed by at least two people, and the transcriptions are then checked by an adjudicator.  All this is anonymous - you don't know who the other transcribers and adjudicators are.

[panda40]

How much time a week or a month do you spend transcribing? Trying to find out the time commitment to see if it is feasible?
Regards panda

[Nick29]

Sometimes it might be as much as 10 hours, sometimes I can go a couple of months without doing any.   When you download a document to subscribe, you have a few days to complete it, because otherwise you will hold up the adjudication process, but other than that, there is no pressure on you at all.