Spending your money on Family research - where are those bargains?

[the happy granny]

Geniedi has a posting on The Lighter Side that some people may want to take advantage of...............20% discount card for Ancestry.
Sue

[MarieC]

Irene

Interested in what you had to say about Ireland!  I enquired of a researcher about some fairly basic research, that I cannot do from here because the resources are not online, and I was quoted something like $320 (= about 128 pounds) which I thought was a real rip-off!  I did not go ahead with it.  It seems as though this might be a fairly common attitude.

I agree with you about death certificates too.  It would be wonderful if English ones were as informative as Australian ones.

Also have to agree about 1837online.  If you do not have precise years or uncommon names, you spend a lot of money very quickly.  I find it much better to go to the good old LDS and trawl through GRO microfiches!  Very timeconsuming and not good for the eyes, but you eventually find what you want!

Marie

[lizdb]

some years ago, it was 25p to read them and 75p to get a copy!

I can remember Wills at 25p! There - now you can put all my moans down to 'age' !!!!!

[Arranroots]

...yes , but then 25p was 5 shillings and that was nearly 3 weeks pocket money!!

 

[DebPat]

Hi, I would like to say that i am sure that for reasearch that a photocopy or emailed scan of BMD certs. would be fine for most folks? Am i wrong? After all what we want is a piece of paper with the info on?!! Does it matter if it is a copy of a copy?

in which case what we need is a cert swap shop?! Where we can list ALL the certs we hold and allow peeps to order a copy of them from us!? That would cut out the middle man! No Payment involved of course! D x

[Keith Sherwood]

I was recently horrified to discover how much three sisters (second cousins of mine) had paid about 5 years ago to a firm of "Professional Researchers" to discover a little more about their ancestors.  All they got for £250 were two marriage certificates, one birth certificate and a death certificate, which had been searched for and sent away for, all beautifully mounted and presented in a book.
To cap it all, they'd been given two marriages that were both "possibles" for their great-great-grandparents.  And did the sisters want to pay more money up front to continue with these lines of research?
Thanks mainly to people on Rootschat I soon discovered that NEITHER of the suggested marriages were the correct one, and I've been able to tell my cousins that they can save any more money-haemorrhaging by being patient just a little while longer, and waiting for me to neatly put together and send them their tree in the post very soon...
Keith

[Guy Etchells]

There was me thinking family history research has never been easier cheaper and more convenient than it is today.
We now have thousands of CD resources, parish registers on fiche wills etc. on the internet at the touch of a button and what does it cost peanuts.

Gone are the days of have to save six months to afford the train fare and incumbent,s fee to search the parish registers, today vast tracts of resources are available in ones own home for a fraction of the cost of even twenty years ago.

Just think, prior to 1976 there was no IGI available in the UK, there were only a handful of Family History Societies and as there were few FHS there were limited numbers of transcripts of parish registers census indexes etc. and what few there were were limited to a print run of 100 to 150 copies worldwide.

As someone once said "You have never had it so good". 
Cheers
Guy

[Amy K]

Keith,
   I would feel I got better value for my money if I could recycle those 'wrong family' certificates - yes, I do post them on the BMD exchange on rootschat, but so far they sit idly waiting - too bad there wasn't a better way to recyle them - perhaps the GRO would take them back? - for free, of course!!

   I quess it bothers me to thinks some one else may be shelling out money for the exact same cert. that I couldn't use!

drakes

I've often thought that it would be a good idea if the GRO/ local registry office provided a service whereby you told them if you wished to be informed should someone buy the same certificate as you. Thereby putting 2 relatives in contact. I know it doesn't prevent us buying copies of the same certificates but at least we get to meet a cousin out of it!!

[the happy granny]

That's a brilliant idea Amy K
Sue