#Find my past for free
#Find my past full
#Find my past trial

Does the site (or may it) contain information relevant to your ancestor? If your grandfather was a merchant seaman, for example, does this site contain seamen's records for the period during which he served? Here are some features shared by many of the excellent sites - and some questions that you might like to ask:

#Find my past for free

Hint: Often when you look at a record on a subscription site, you can return to it for free for a period of time - but make sure you get a print out of the searches you have done, along with the results.

#Find my past trial

Hint: Often there is a free trial period for subscription sites so you can decide if it really is for you.

- contains (among much else) birth, marriage and death indexes and census returns for England and Wales.

- contains (among much else) birth, marriage and death indexes for Scotland and digitised images of many of the certificates and census returns for Scotland.

- contains (among much else) birth, marriage and death indexes and census returns for England and Wales.Here are some examples of pay-for sites for basic genealogy: If you simply want two or three records, and you have the option, you might be better off paying only for what you view. Are you happy with the way you will be charged? If you like to look at everything on a site, it is better to have a subscription that lasts for a certain period of time, during which you may look at whatever you like as many times as you please. Some sites just give indexes and you order copies of the original document from there, according to what you find - that's fine because you can see the information for yourself when your document arrives. Can you access original documents (digitised) or just transcripts? It is always better seeing the original document in digitised form that what someone else has copied (or miscopied) from it.

#Find my past full

Is there a full explanation of what else is in the site? Can you find details of all the records held, how they were created and how researchers can use them? Without this information, you might just end up groping in the dark. Does it contain the basic resources of genealogy - in other words, birth, marriage and death certificates (or indexes to the certificates) and census returns? You're not going to be able to do your genealogy without them. So, to start from the very beginning, which sites do you absolutely need in order to build your family tree, and how can you tell where to put your money? for genealogy chat and all kinds of relevant information.īut none of these is guaranteed to hold all the records that you want.for the vast international genealogy website run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.for some birth, marriage and death indexes for England and Wales.You may find that you can use online resources for free or more cheaply at archives, but is it worth the time and expense of travelling there? And you will still have to pay for the photocopying!įirst of all, there are lots of excellent free resources used by genealogists - here is a small selection: And sometimes it's cheaper and easier to do what you can online and in your own time than travelling to archives and bowing to time pressure there. Databases and search engines make information accessible in a way in which it wasn't before: searches that used to take weeks or months now take only a few minutes. There is a wealth of material available on the web, and it is being added to every day. But there are good reasons why more and more genealogists are going online. You cannot manage without the basic building blocks of certificates and census returns, and money can be liberally spent in travelling to archives, paying online fees, hiring private researchers and whatever else you deem necessary as you continue your research. The bottom line in genealogical research is that you are going to have to pay for it. Here are some tips and guidelines to help make order out of the chaos so you can make the right choice when it comes to selecting your website. It is fair to say that most genealogy sites for which you have to pay have some worth - it just depends whether they are going to be worthwhile for you. There is an overwhelming amount of information on the internet, and it's difficult to know which of the pay-for services are of value to you.