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Ancestry Versus Findmypast


Stuart0742

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I currently use Ancestry, which until today I thought served my requirements. Now I find it has some National Archive WW1 records that are not on Ancestry (or I cant find them).

So which service is the better and gives the best value for money.

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I use Ancestry too. I also use Family Tree Maker software which connects and downloads information from Ancestry. I don't think it would work on Find My Past. So that rules it out for me. Ancestry claim to have more records then anyone else. But that's no guarantee of anything as it depends on what records from the various places has been uploaded. Ancestry has a good link with West Yorkshire Archives, but has little links with South Yorkshire Archives yet. If Find My Past where to get records from SYA and no Ancestry access, then we would probably have to pay to join that. Since as Sheffield historians we would need to see them.

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Guest Barbara M

I don't know if it is relevant but my neighbour is currently involved in compiling her family tree which has many ex servicemen in it , we live in the Doncaster area.

She uses the local library computer in Bawtry & the main library in Doncaster for all her info , also the Doncaster Family History Society at the Palgrave Centre , Balby and all these places use Find My Past which she has found very helpful , she told me that they have Ancestry but it isn't as helpful to her as Find My Past .....probably only a coincidence !!

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I don't know if it is relevant but my neighbour is currently involved in compiling her family tree which has many ex servicemen in it , we live in the Doncaster area.

She uses the local library computer in Bawtry & the main library in Doncaster for all her info , also the Doncaster Family History Society at the Palgrave Centre , Balby and all these places use Find My Past which she has found very helpful , she told me that they have Ancestry but it isn't as helpful to her as Find My Past .....probably only a coincidence !!

Ancestry is not always the easiest site to use, until you get used to it.

I think Findmypast is newer and designed more with the user in mind

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Ancestry every time for me. I tried Find My Past for a month recently & found all the comments about its new search engine being very difficult to use are true!

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I alternate between them - 1 year Ancestry, next year FMP. That way you get the benefit of new additions, and don't miss out on data collections for more than a year. It also help to look for half price offers.

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Sheffield archives have signed an agreement with FMP to digitise all their Anglican parish registers and place the actual images on their site. This will be happening within the next 12 months.(release date Nov 2013)

"Leading UK family history website findmypast.co.uk has today announced at the Who Do You Think You Are Live Show at London’s Olympia that it has been awarded a contract by Yorkshire Digitisation Consortium. This significant new project will lead to the publication online for the very first time of millions of historic records from archives across the whole of Yorkshire.

The Yorkshire Digitisation Consortium comprises the East Riding Archives and Local Studies Service, the Borthwick Institute for Archives (University of York), the North Yorkshire County Record Office, Teesside Archives, Sheffield Archives and Local Studies, and Doncaster Archives and Local Studies.
Together these services hold the parish registers for a large proportion of Yorkshire, England’s largest historic county.


Spanning the years from 1538 into the twentieth century, the records cover parish church registers and bishops’ transcripts from most of Yorkshire, including entries relating to:

S&D FHS have already submitted all their transcriptions to Findmypast including Derbyshire Lane cemetery, marriages, baptisms and burials from various churches.

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FMP announcement

Today we’re delighted to announce that we’ve published almost 4 million parish records in partnership with the Yorkshire Digitisation Consortium. We’ve worked with six Yorkshire archives to make these records available online for the very first time. The Yorkshire Collection comprises beautiful scanned images of the original handwritten registers from 1538 to 1989, alongside fully searchable transcripts of the original documents.

The first phase of this landmark project, released today, includes nearly a million parish records from North Yorkshire County Record Office, Doncaster Archives and Local Studies, East Riding Archives and Local Studies Service, Teesside Archives and Sheffield Archives and Local Studies, as well as over 3 million parish records and Bishop’s Transcripts from the Borthwick Institute for Archives (University of York), which cover the whole of Yorkshire including West Yorkshire. Further Yorkshire parish records will be released in 2015.

As the provenances of the records are defined by historical, rather than modern boundaries, areas now outside of today’s Yorkshire are also covered, such as County Durham. On completion this will be the most comprehensive online repository of Yorkshire family history records anywhere in the world.

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Thread on Sheffield Indexers saying there are very very few Sheffield records, just some early Parish Church ones.

Not checked myself as I use Ancestry.

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It's frustrating when you have just signed a year to Ancestry and the FMP come up with these records. But subscription of £99 for a year is a bit too much. I did a quick search and it appears that the only records that are in the this batch uploaded to FMP from Sheffield Archives would be the 1831 census for Nether Hallam. What is more interesting though clearly not from Sheffield Archives, more likely the Borthwick institute, are the transcripts. For example the Bishop transcripts for Marriages, just entering "Sheffield" in the place of marriage with no names produced 70,299 results. All you can look at though without paying is the names and the year.

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/articles/world-records/search-all-uk-records/special-collections/the-yorkshire-collection?_ga=1.27061821.128067787.1411672401

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We (S&DFHS) submitted the 1831 Nether Hallam census.

FMP have filmed all the Anglican registers at the Sheffield archives.

I have also checked and it does appear that only the bishops transcripts are available for marriages at the present time, apart from all our baptism, marriage and burial registers transcriptions. We get a royalty payment for every hit on our transcriptions from FMP.

They are releasing the records slowly from the Yorkshire consortium. Some of the Doncaster registers are now online.

We are now concentrating on transcribing all the non-conformist registers as FMP did not film these.

Angela

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We (S&DFHS) submitted the 1831 Nether Hallam census.

FMP have filmed all the Anglican registers at the Sheffield archives.

I have also checked and it does appear that only the bishops transcripts are available for marriages at the present time, apart from all our baptism, marriage and burial registers transcriptions. We get a royalty payment for every hit on our transcriptions from FMP.

They are releasing the records slowly from the Yorkshire consortium. Some of the Doncaster registers are now online.

We are now concentrating on transcribing all the non-conformist registers as FMP did not film these.

Angela

Sorry Angela I assumed that the Sheffield Archives had done them!

So it looks like they haven't digitised anything yet or uploaded it. Mind you it doesn't surprise me as I'm certain that Sheffield Archives would have made a big fuss about the fact there archive is on that site, I'm assuming they haven't anyway, as someone on Sheffield History would have mentioned it before the FMP anoucement.

Again I suspect that when data from Archives goes on then they will issue a press statement or something.

That aside where there any disscussions with Ancestry and S&DFHS about putting material on there site?

I'm assuming that FMP would object to S&DFHS also doing a deal with Ancestry now that they the records are on FMP.

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We S&DFHS have never been approached by Ancestry. The first records to go on Find my Past were the NBI records through the Federation of FH Societies, this was when the site was known as 1837 online.

This is the statement released by the archives in 2013 and printed in our journal.

Sheffield Archives has recently committed to two separate projects involving the digitisation of archives by commercial suppliers. The first, in association with Find My Past, will see an estimated 15 million Yorkshire Anglican parish register records for the years c. 1538 - c. 1920 made available via the internet. This will include images of the registers, as well as transcripts. The Yorkshire-based project has established a 'Yorkshire Digitisation Consortium' comprising all Diocesan archives in the historic Diocese of York (apart from West Yorkshire which has already signed a contract with a supplier). In addition to Sheffield, the consortium includes the Borthwick Institute (University of York), Doncaster Archives, North Yorkshire County Record Office and Teesside Archives.

The involvement of both Doncaster and Sheffield Archives (with coverage of the whole of the Diocese of Sheffield) means that for the first time access to key genealogical content for all of South Yorkshire will be available worldwide, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. It is hoped that the digitised records will be available within the next eighteen to twenty-four months. Microfiche copies of parish registers, and more recent original volumes that have not been copied, will continue to be available for free at Sheffield Archives.

Sheffield Archives is also part of a national digitisation project led by the National Archives and the U.K. Archives and Records Association. Involvement here will see digital images of the city's school admission registers, c. 1860 - 1914, made available via the internet. The timescale for release is similar to that for the parish registers, and once again existing surrogates and original volumes (falling without the 75 year restricted access period) will continue to be made available for free.

Angela

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I too have some WW1 records for family members missing, a great uncle in particular. I can find the award of his medals but not his service history. I then found out that there were some WW1 military records damaged or lost due to bombing in London in WW2. That explanation is consistent with the damage to the record of a brother of my father that seems a bit burnt around the edges

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I have now switched from Ancestry to Find My Past and so far it is really good! Of course the big advantage is the Sheffield Newspapers. As well as the family history angle, these papers are ideal for Local History work. Today I searched for the various farms that used to be on the Manor, and there was a stack of stuff on nearly every one of them. Though sadly no pictures of them.

The only disadvantage is that the site doesn't work well with family history software. Though you can upload the tree to the site. Sadly it doesn't put the media files up, so all your ancestors have no pictures of them, unless you upload it yourself. Also if you do a manual search it's not automatically added when you find a piece of new information, you have to manually attach it to the tree plus find the person, again! I don't think it changes the profile of the person also. Only the automated suggestions have that built in. So far those appear to be only the standard BMD files and census ones. As yet it has not suggested any other types of records. 

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I too have some WW1 records for family members missing, a great uncle in particular. I can find the award of his medals but not his service history. I then found out that there were some WW1 military records damaged or lost due to bombing in London in WW2. That explanation is consistent with the damage to the record of a brother of my father that seems a bit burnt around the edges

In fact over 50% of the WW1 service  records were lost in the WW2 fire so the chances of finding ancestors are not great!

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