Free Ancestry UK Access this weekend

[KGarrad]

Because Ancestry is an American concern!

Corporate Headquarters are in Lehi, Utah.

[jonwarrn]

   *Access to the records in the featured collections will start on 18 February and will be free until 20 February, 2017 at 23:59 BST. After the free access period ends, you will only be able to view the records in the featured collections using an Ancestry.co.uk paid membership. To see a full list of the records in the featured collections please click here

They may be giving free access to British records on all their websites. So if there's nothing doing at 7pm on ancestry.co.uk you could try logging into their .com site

[smudwhisk]

On the other hand FindMyPast has uploaded numerous records of use to me in the past 8 days - English Catholic records and Norfolk Bishops Transcripts.

The Norfolk Bishops Transcripts have been on Ancestry indexed for some time.  They are all from Familysearch.  They have both had Familysearch's Norfolk Parish Registers indexed for some time too.

However, I agree that if there isn't anything of much use to your research, there isn't much point subscribing.  I previously had a subscription to The Genealogist for several years when they had exclusive access to the England & Wales Non-Conformist registers (apart from the pay per view site that was run by them anyway).  When that exclusivity period ended and both Ancestry and Findmypast acquired copies, there wasn't much point continuing with the subscription because there was little else on there of interest that wasn't available elsewhere.

[Nick_Ips]

I guess they don't publish an exact start time for free access to make sure the system doesn't get trampled in the rush.

I've also noticed that although the end time is usually 23:59, the records are often still freely accessible for some time the following morning.

I use the time between finding out that a free weekend is coming, and the actual start of free access, to work out exactly what information I need to look for.  So on that note I have some work to do now 

[coombs]

FindMyPast Fridays are a waste of time to me most times as the records are either already available on other sites or they release records totally irrelevant to the areas I am researching. Sorry, getting off my soap box now. I guess I have pretty much exhausted all the Anc and FindMyPast and FamilySearch databases online now. I am probably eagerly awaiting the Suffolk records to come online. I think more records coming online has made me less willing to do things to old fashioned way which I did for years.

[groom]

I am probably eagerly awaiting the Suffolk records to come online

So am I, no sign of any yet though is there?

[Nick_Ips]

Same for me coombs and groom. I spent hours in the SRO looking for parish records with very little return for the time invested. Just knowing that the records will be online 'soon' has made me reluctant to go back when there is so much else I can be doing in the meantime.

On the other hand, the Ipswich office being moved to a new site which probably won't have any parking (and lets not mention the flood risk  ) is an incentive to go before it is too late.

[jonwarrn]

Well it's not long past 2pm eastern time, and (as I predicted!) ancestry's UK records are now free

[smudwhisk]

Well it's not long past 2pm eastern time, and (as I predicted!) ancestry's UK records are now free

They may be on the US site but Ancestry UK Facebook have told a poster that they won't be available to view for free on the UK site until tomorrow and they've also not posted anything officially on their UK Facebook page about it yet as far as I can see.