Best website to join

[way2serious]

Am considering joining a website to help with my research and wonder which one you would recommend - ancestry, find my past , etc. I don’t want to do a DNA test at this time or use it to store my family tree. If possible I would like access to military records, naval etc. probably would prefer to stick to one website if possible at the moment. Thanks.

Ancestry is good and very comprehensive.

You can often access Ancestry, Find My Past etc for free in your local library

My DH has a subscription to Ancestry. He did have Find my past before that but he prefers Ancestry.

You can do a free 14 day trial on many sites, just remember to cancel before the end of the free period.

I have Find My Past, the top level subscription because it gives access to local newspapers. I've discovered all sorts of things about my family in local papers - criminal cases, inquests, funerals...

FMP has some military records. Also look at Lives of the First World War and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which are free.

Forces War Records is a site for military records. You can search for free, but not access records. But keep an eye out in case they do a free weekend for VJ Day coming up.

What counties are you researching? Different parish registers are available on different sites. I think Ancestry is the easiest for beginners to navigate censuses and birth, marriage and death indexes, and I spend most of my research time using their website. However FindMyPast has more military records, newspapers and the Hertfordshire parish registers (where most of my lot were from) so I keep a subscription to both!

For military records and newspapers Ancestry has separate sites that have their own subscriptions - but they do free weekends periodically. I usually keep a running list of records I want to access and then download them all during a free weekend.

If I had to choose, I’d probably go for Ancestry and use FindMyPast at the library as needed to supplement it.

As others have said, I think that Ancestry is the best place to start with. I totally agree with @FluffyDiplodocus where she says:

"If I had to choose, I’d probably go for Ancestry and use FindMyPast at the library as needed to supplement it."

When I've had trouble tracing a relative on Ancestry I've found that FMP has been an invaluable resource in finding their details. Also, the fact that FMP includes access to newspapers has made a real difference.

But, having said that, Ancestry and FMP do have their different strengths in different parts of the country.

Most of my ancestors come from Gloucestershire and the surrounding counties. Ancestry is great for that area and FMP is just average.

In contrast, I do have one branch of my family that comes from Cambridgeshire and Ancestry is really not very good at all there. But this is an area where FMP really does shine.

So it really does depend on what part of the country your ancestors come from.

Thanks everyone for all your comments and suggestions. My ancestors seem to come from a range of areas, including Essex / London, Norfolk, Devon, Ireland and Jersey.