FindMyPast Friday's. General opinions.

[coombs]

You cannot please everyone but for people who only have UK subs to FindMyPast and use it for their UK ancestors the Fridays can be quite disheartening when the new records are 99% American, Australian or Canadian. Others have commented via FB saying that they should do more UK records and I agree.

[jc26red]

I must be lucky then...   

I have recently gone back to fill in bits on my husband's Irish line (my favourite line to research) and find FindMyPast is good for me.  This line isn't a Catholic line, and they split their time between Ireland and Westminster, again FindMyPast comes up trumps with Westminster Archives. My other Catholic lines have also progressed a little.

The newspaper coverage is excellent for this family.

I do look forward to Friday emails and it usually only takes a few minutes to see if it's relevant to my research. I haven't had much luck with other world records though.

My only reserve with FindMyPast is many of their other parish records are transcripts only, I prefer to see the image as I have found so many transcript errors.

[coombs]

There always appears to be a lot of London records
Regards panda

When they are, they are quite good as I have London ancestors. London ancestors can be difficult to research due to the population of the city and the higher frequency of "candidates" for ancestors.

I eagerly await school records for Oxon, Sussex and Essex when they get round to it.

[Josephine]

I'm always keen to read their Friday update emails because you never know...

It's like that little thrill I get when I walk through the front door of an antiques mall.

 

[LizzieW]

I always used to get emails from FindMyPast.ie - why this was happening I have no idea and not only that most of the records mentioned weren't available to me as I don't have a world sub.  I complained to FindMyPast and they didn't know why I was getting emails from the Irish part of FindMyPast but they've tweaked something at their end and now I get the British version.  Sometimes it's useful, sometimes it's not.

[Clarkey500]

I suppose its the old story - you can't please all of the people all of the time.

I always check - just click on Find My Past Fridays on their home page. I don't seem to get emails either. I am disappointed when they give us stuff that's already available elsewhere, and I would like more digital copies of actual PR entries, rather than transcriptions but all in all I'm happy with it.

Personally, I'd like some attention given to counties like Westmorland and Cumberland (modern day Cumbria) which have little or no coverage at the moment but perhaps these Archives are not prepared to play ball, who knows?

At least I can find my way round FindMyPast - I find A very hard to navigate.

I also would love more attention given to Westmorland and Cumberland as I have ancestors from there too. I would also like Northumberland to have more attention...

Regarding the emails, I always get about 3 telling me their new records! 

[coombs]

I have recently started helping out and becoming a transcriber for Essex for FreeREG via the SEAX online images but not sure if FindMyPast transcribing is done by volunteers or employees of the company. I suppose you have to live near a certain RO to get access to the parish records (on microfilm and fiche) that are not yet online in order to transcribe.

[jillruss]

I also would love more attention given to Westmorland and Cumberland as I have ancestors from there too. I would also like Northumberland to have more attention...

Regarding the emails, I always get about 3 telling me their new records! 

You must be getting my emails then, Clarkey500!! I used to get them once upon a time but not for ages now.

I thought FindMyPast did a sterling job with Yorkshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire PRs - digital images and all! My guess is that they use staff rather than volunteers and that they may not be British (is FindMyPast American owned?) as they made quite a few mistakes with names of parishes etc that you'd expect from someone who didn't know the area in question. At one time, I'd email them and point these out but they got quite defensive about it so I don't bother any more. I just try to figure it out for myself.

I'm wondering if the digital copies were costing too much because they seem to be sticking to transcriptions more and more.

Clarkey500, I have also emailed them a couple of times to request Westmoreland and Cumberland - they do suggest you let them know what you'd like to see - but they never even acknowledge the emails. Then they send you an email asking you to give them marks for how they dealt with your query!! What a cockeyed world we live in!!!

[Clarkey500]

I also would love more attention given to Westmorland and Cumberland as I have ancestors from there too. I would also like Northumberland to have more attention...

Regarding the emails, I always get about 3 telling me their new records! 

You must be getting my emails then, Clarkey500!! I used to get them once upon a time but not for ages now.

I thought FindMyPast did a sterling job with Yorkshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire PRs - digital images and all! My guess is that they use staff rather than volunteers and that they may not be British (is FindMyPast American owned?) as they made quite a few mistakes with names of parishes etc that you'd expect from someone who didn't know the area in question. At one time, I'd email them and point these out but they got quite defensive about it so I don't bother any more. I just try to figure it out for myself.

I'm wondering if the digital copies were costing too much because they seem to be sticking to transcriptions more and more.

Clarkey500, I have also emailed them a couple of times to request Westmoreland and Cumberland - they do suggest you let them know what you'd like to see - but they never even acknowledge the emails. Then they send you an email asking you to give them marks for how they dealt with your query!! What a cockeyed world we live in!!!

I probably am! 

I don't have ancestors (that I know of, yet) from those counties but I do have quite a few from Devon, and they have done well with those records. I think they may be British as they tend to have a more British focus compared to ancestry. There will always be some problems regarding transcriptions though. 

I would think so, as they don't have to do much with regards to digitisation and some transcriptions are already done.

I would imagine the archives are a bit hesitant to do so, as they may not get as many visitors?