Best research site?

[chrysantheMum]

am using ancestry.co.uk and borrowing a friend's login - they all seem so expensive to use! which offers best value for money do you think?

www.familysearch.org/ is a good site and it is all free.
It is a bit harder to find the info, but worth it not to pay!!

The Ancestry site is probably the best one imo - I've got a 6 month subscription (with a discount)

Other sites I use include

British Origins (originsnetwork.com)
Findmypast.com
Genuki
Freebmd/Freereg/Freecen
Rootsweb (archive/mailing list section)

I find ancestry.com.au - with UK membership the best for me. i am in Aus but am only first generation aus on dad's side and second on mum's side.

The other thing I like about Ancestry.co.uk/com.au is that you can go to the Community section and put in names of people you have and link to other people's family trees. I found a branch of dh's family - woman who was fil's 2nd cousin or something like that. It was great to add our branch to hers. You can also post asking for help. Very very helpful.

thanks for replying! have had a look at the others but think will stick wihancestry and get other family members to chip in for the sub!

Use the 14 days free trial first (click on the advert on MN)

Like your name btw!

It isn't really a case of best website - use them all!!

ancestry is ok but there are mistranscriptions and another company may not have made the same mistranscription - so therefore if you can't find your ancestor on the census try another website census.

Your local library may have a subscription to ancestry.

Other websites which are good

www.familysearch.org

free bmd - use google

this site is good for births marriages and deaths between 1837-1920 ish but remember it is not complete and there are errors. They are also compiling free cen which is coming along well and free reg for the parish registers.

chrysantheMum - I did that - my dad is wanting me to find things and he has paid for a few months for me.

I mainly use ancestry and familysearch. If you have Isle of Wight ancestry there is a very good site (google Isle of Wight family history) with a searchable BMD index which gives you maiden names. Excellent for tracing children who were born and died between census.

Another good site is lostcousins.co.uk. This is a free site with a very simple philosophy. You enter the census details of the ancestors you've traced for 1881 and 1841 and if they match those that someone else has added they let you know so you can contact each other through the site. You have to pay to join to actually be able to contact but every so often the site has a free week so you can catch up with the contacts you've traced since the last free one! I have been in contact with 4 people I share gt-gt grandparents with, luckily for me all on different branches of my family. The bonus is they tend to be serious researchers and often have lots more details they can give you.

Scotland's People is fab if you have Scottish family - Scotland has had excellent record-keeping for a really long time.