FREE Access: 257 Million UK Birth/Marriage/Death Records @ Ancestry.com.au (Queen's B'day W/end)

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Ancestry

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  [Deactivated] on 06/06/2014 - 10:26

  +11

  Has anyone actually managed to get any sort of tangible stuff out of these free weekends from this site? Last time I tried it showed me some teaser information that something existed and then required a full account to get anything more than this?

  I might have another look this weekend, maybe I was not understanding how the website works.

  • 

    mafmouf on 06/06/2014 - 10:32

    +9

    No idea why you were negged. Most people are probably in the same (pardon the pun) boat you are. I have never used it and may have a look and see what's there. I'm fairly interested in this sort of stuff.

    • 

      ThisJustin on 06/06/2014 - 10:54

      +2

      Had to + you for the boat bit :p

      I'll also have a look around this weekend.

    • 

      battler on 06/06/2014 - 10:55

      +1

      finding some stuff, but yes, need account to go further.
      Still, free access tells me that there IS stuff out there I MAY be interested in, and that makes this free access beneficial.

      • 

        mafmouf on 06/06/2014 - 11:00

        Username so appropriate.

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  johninmelb on 06/06/2014 - 11:49

  +9

  It is possible to get some good stuff from these free weekends.

  BUT (yes, there is always a BUT), they only allow access to certain data sets. The t&c's of the "free" offer will tell you what is free for the nominated period. So long as you confine your searches to the free area, then you will be ok.

  For example, on Anzac weekend they had access to WW1 records, so I was able to download a heap of stuff relating to family members.

  On another occasion, they had access to Electoral Rolls, so I went mad for the weekend and downloaded masses of stuff and put it into Excel spreadsheets so I can massage the data later and trace ancestors thru various addresses, find new ancestors and family members, etc.

  If you turn up some interesting stuff which is not free, you then have the option of joining - if you think it would be worth the money (somewhat doubtful in my view, and I've been doing genealogy for 30 odd years), or finding a library which has Ancestry access. If you live in Victoria, the easiest place is the Family History Centre at the State Library. However, these places have what is called the "Libary Edition" of Ancestry, i.e, not all datasets, but pretty well most of it.

  Not sure if the LDS Family History Libraries have Ancestry access, as I haven't been to one for some time now. Maybe someone else can clarify that for us.

  Another alternative is familysearch.org. Tons of stuff there, and it is free. But you need to sign up. They don't spam you. I've never had a problem with them, but just use a yahoo or hotmail address, if you don't feel comfortable. It is also owned by the LDS.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 06/06/2014 - 14:02

    Thanks for the comment. Very helpful.

  • 

    cornbeef on 06/06/2014 - 14:40

    +2

    Thanks johninmelb. My only concern with familysearch.org is that it is a service provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If I end up being directly related to Jesus Christ I fear it will be a matter of seconds before they come looking for me.

    • 

      johninmelb on 07/06/2014 - 09:52

      I've been using LDS genealogy records for 30 odd years now. You won't get any grief from them!

      Even at "Head Office" in Salt Lake City, I spent a couple of days at the huge Family History Library without any problems.

      Away from the Library, it is a different story. When you do the tour of "Mormon Central", ie the massive compound in the centre of town, they never stop trying to convert you!! I just ignored them, and just changed the subject every time they said something I wasn't interested in.

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  johninmelb on 06/06/2014 - 11:56

  I just had a look at what is available FREE, and unfortunately there is not a lot of really useful stuff, if you are only new to family history, and not sure of what you are looking for. Not a lot of help if your name is Smith for example!

  1911 Channel Islands Census FREE
  1911 England Census FREE
  1911 Isle of Man Census FREE
  1911 Wales Census FREE
  England & Wales, Birth Index, 1916-2005 FREE
  England & Wales, Death Index, 1916-2007 FREE
  England & Wales, Marriage Index, 1916-2005 FREE
  England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966 FREE
  UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 FREE

  • 

    dexx on 06/06/2014 - 17:05

    Anything for Ireland and Scotland?

    • 

      johninmelb on 07/06/2014 - 09:53

      Nothing this time unfortunately.

• [Deactivated] on 06/06/2014 - 14:35 Comment score below threshold.
  • 

    phobaphobic on 06/06/2014 - 15:38

    +2

    Yeah, ok buddy.

  • 

    Gnostikos on 06/06/2014 - 18:21

    -3

    Yeah I'm sure genealogy records would really benefit you mate. There's only what… 100 million other Chans, Lis , Tangs, Wangs, Wus, Yuans and Zhaos in the world; should be a cinch to map out your family tree.

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 06/06/2014 - 18:42

      -1

      Yeah, being a minority in the whole world has it uses I suppose. What about arabs, indians and latinos, how come they being discriminated by much smaller brits.

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        johnno07 on 06/06/2014 - 19:28

        +1

        Ancestry is an American company. White Americans, like white Australians, are descendants of the British. That's why Ancestry has a database that caters chiefly to the country it's based in, and others like it. China/Asia is a very different kettle of fish and it's hardly Ancestry's fault if your home country doesn't have a way to access your family tree.

      • 

        Gnostikos on 06/06/2014 - 23:05

        +3

        What about arabs, indians and latinos, how come they being discriminated by much smaller brits.

        You're missing the point.

        You talk about these minority groups like they represent enormous target markets that businesses need to be catering to in Australia.

        There are still more British and Kiwi migrants in Australia than any of those groups you mentioned, including Chinese. They all individually comprise 6% or less of Australia's population. You're confounding the urban, ethnic enclaves you're familiar with or live in, with Australia as a whole, which varies drastically from state to state and city to town.

        A majority of Australians as of now, descend from the British Isles, and a site like this could actually be useful for a majority of Anglo-Celtic Australians; who by extension make up the majority of visitors on OzBargain (not as you bizarrely claim; Asians or Chinese. It's simple probability.)

        Secondly, and most importantly: the phenomenon of genealogy, family pedigrees and tracing your ancestors back through the ages is primarily a European one.

        There are really very few countries outside of Europe or the Anglosphere nations where there exist long-standing traditions of family genealogy and unbroken lines of descent that go back hundreds and hundreds of years.

        Keep in mind, the idea of surnames was uncommon in most of the world prior to the 1700s.

        Where those traditions do exist elsewhere in the world, they are limited to bourgeoisie classes and royal dynasties primarily; not accessible to the common man.

        The state of accurate and easily-accessible record keeping is an alien concept in many parts of the world for obvious historical, political and economic reasons.

        There's no need to be offended and take this as a reason to go on some political-correctness tirade. It's simple logic.

        Being able to make use of genealogy is really, even for "Whitey", a very exclusive privilege (for instance, if you're predominantly Irish or Scottish-descended, genealogy won't be of much use to you as the historical Celtic migrants to Australia were impoverished, marginalised and isolated; not the kind of people to be recorded by anyone of note).

        If your interested in your ancestors and are not Anglo-Celtic then I'd recommend personal genome sequencing services like 23andme which can still tell you a lot about your ancestry, and population movements much further back in time.

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    johninmelb on 07/06/2014 - 09:37

    Take out your anger on the Chinese Government not us.

    It is more than likely that the Chinese Government will not allow Ancestry to film the records so they can be indexed.

    I don't know which other Asian country's records are not available on Ancestry.

    One of the problems with countries like China and India, apart from the sheer scale of the task of finding and filming records, is that there may not be written records going back in time. I recall reading or hearing many years ago, that in these societies, "family history" was mostly oral, and just passed down from generation to generation in the family.

    Even in my own "whitey" society, a lot of family history is still oral. It is often said that the women in the family are the keepers of the family history and pass it down through each generation.

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  phobaphobic on 06/06/2014 - 15:54

  Wow, this makes me realize just how little I know about my ancestry :/

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  Emilia on 06/06/2014 - 17:27

  I have just filled in some information about my Great Great Grandfather's immediately family. Luckily they were in the 1911 census.

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  slipperyslippers on 06/06/2014 - 18:49

  Used this site again recently and I'm not a fan. I stupidly registered for a month's 'free trial' which requires you to enter your credit card details. They claim that if you cancel your subscription prior to the end of the 30 days your credit card will not be charged. Unfortunately I missed the part that says, "if you have taken out a 30 day free trial previously you WILL be charged regardless of when you cancel within the 30 days".

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    johninmelb on 07/06/2014 - 09:42

    On any site like this that offers trial periods etc, you need to remember to clear the cookies out at the end, so it doesn't recognise you again next time.

    I registered for a "free" account years ago, and have never given cc details, so I don't have a problem.

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      slipperyslippers on 07/06/2014 - 12:44

      Thanks for the tip.

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  OBone on 06/06/2014 - 23:00

  +3

  For those with a British heritage, a genuinely FREE web site for researching BMD records is www.freebmd.org.uk
  I've found it immensely useful in tracing my ancestry, though official records only go back to 1841.
  The LDS web site (familysearch.org) has changed a lot since I last used it but you can still get some information without registering. With LDS I got back to the late 1700's.
  Even census records are being transcribed for free use. Though it was only the 1881 census when I did it some years ago, it now looks like it goes much further. (www.freecen.org.uk)
  In the end though, you may need to pay to see some census records as these are key to piecing it all together.
  Where the genealogy web sites come in handy is for setting out your family tree and connecting you with potential matches.
  It's amazing what you can find once you get started.

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  Benoffie on 09/06/2014 - 20:18

  I think Ancestry is great for starting out. It is helpful and if you're not sure what you're doing (which is most people first off), then it offers a good system to work with.

  However, you do get to a point whereby it's better to buy your own personal software and run your trees through that.

  Also, you have to come to terms with crap records. Some countries are awesome (I love Scottish records, directly through Scotland's People - http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/) but others are completely useless. Even if you think you have an uncommon name, you'll soon find you're still banging your head against the desk from missing or incomplete records.

  It's also worth noting that Anglo-Indian records are kept in the British Library but not everything has been digitised - http://indiafamily.bl.uk

  A tree will cost you money and it will take years to complete but it is very rewarding.