Ancestry.com and FindMyPast

[Smudgeboy]

Hello all,

Complete newbie to RootsChat here, so hello everybody! I've been researching my family tree on Ancestry.com for a few years now.

I'm getting to the stage where I've possibly exhausted all the hints and searches on Ancestry (although it's probably fair to argue this may never really be the case!) and am also mindful of the fact that many Ancestry users have recently been complaining that they seem to be finding new ways to get more and more cash out of people (the latest seems to be the trick of posting any NEW military records on a different site - 3Fold - which requires a separate subscription).

Anyway, without harping on (too late!!) my basic question is this - I have never tried FindMyPast, can you good people on here advise whether it is worth it? Would FindMyPast open up information not on Ancestry, or would I be mostly finding the same info?

Thanks

[davidft]

Whilst Ancestry and Findmypast do have a lot of records in common they both have records that the other does not. The only way to see if Findmypast might be of use to you is to compare their coverage of records with that of Ancestry. Some public libraries have a public subscription to Ancestry and\or Findmypast so that could be a first port of call to see what their detailed coverage is. If it is not possible to do this at a local library then you could take out a short term subscription to Findmypast and see if that helps (if you do that don't forget to cancel it if you don't want it to continue).

Good luck.

[Smudgeboy]

Just about the perfect answer!

Thank you so much davidft.

[Pennines]

Hi Smudgeboy and a warm welcome to Rootschat.

I agree with everything David has said as it is each to his own (so to speak).
Being the nerd that I am I subscribe to both - but on a personal level I prefer Ancestry (others will of course say the opposite).

I find Ancestry much more user-friendly with it's search screens. Having said that - Find My Past has old Newspapers and old Military records (pre WW1) -- both of which I have found very useful.

On Ancestry I use the 'Card Catalogue' a lot and input a relevant search term such as a county name or 'schools' or 'poor' -- etc just to see if any datasets come up.
Find My Past have the same useful facility under 'A-Z of record sets'.

There are thousands of data sets on both sites which you would never realise were there except for this facility on both.

Do try Find My Past though, as David suggests -- you will never know if you don't try it.