Ancestry vs Find my Past

[Debbie]

I have a full membership to Ancestry. I just found Find my Past. Is there a lot of different things on this site that would make it worth my while to subscribe?

[Darksecretz]

Hello Debbie,

Ancestry is a comprehensive site and now it has merged with the LDS (familysearch) it does make one powerful tool.

Findmypast does have some things though that ancestry doesnt, like the overseas BMD's

am sure that there are other things but tbh, I dont use findmypast now I have an ancestry sub.

[Christine in Herts]

I have Explorer membership on FMP.

FMP doesn't have such a comprehensive set of the censuses - but what it does have is some different search tools, different transcriptions of the same materials - which means that you might find someone on FMP whom you couldn't find on Ancestry (and v.v.)

It has combined with the FHS-Online (but isn't as cheap as getting credits from there).

It has some other records which haven't appeared on Ancestry such as:
BMD - British overseas 1761-2005
Births at sea 1854-1887
Marriages at sea 1854-1883
Deaths at sea 1854-1890
Divorces and matrimonial causes 1858-1903
Civil service evidence of age 1752-1948 (Society of Genealogists)
Index to death duty registers 1796-1903
Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919
De Ruvigny's Roll 1914-1918
Royal Naval Division 1914-1919
Army Roll of Honour 1939-45
GWR shareholders 1835-1910 (Society of Genealogists)
Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960 (TNA)
Some professional Directories

Yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice.

I use Ancestry more than FMP, but there are some things I want that aren't on Ancestry.

Christine

[humbug]

Sorry to but in

FMP has deaths at sea??

does that include overseas - I have a mariner who I suspect died on board a ship in 1991 - could I find his death on FMP>>

[Christine in Herts]

Sorry to but in

FMP has deaths at sea??

does that include overseas - I have a mariner who I suspect died on board a ship in 1991 - could I find his death on FMP>>

It looks like your death at sea (1991) isn't in their date-range (1854-1890).

Christine

[KiteRunner]

You can always buy pay-as-you-go credits on one site and a full sub to the other one. I have a full ancestry sub and buy credits for findmypast as and when I need them (though one of these days I must book a computer in the section of the library that has free findmypast access!)

[humbug]

It looks like your death at sea (1991) isn't in their date-range (1854-1890).

Christine

what i should of REALLY said is 1881 - i was only one hundred years out!!!

[Elaine ..Spain]

FMP has the parish records which have been transcribed by Docklands Ancestors which is great if you have ancestors from there.
However, unless it is a very uncommon name then it would be almost impossible to search them on a pay per view basis as you need to view each record to see what it contains, at a cost of 8 units per record.

[KiteRunner]

The other day when I checked, Docklands Ancestors was back anyway so you can get them directly from there.

[LondonLass]

I don't think it's accurate to say that Ancestry has merged with LDS/Familysearch. Like a number of sites (including findmypast), they have some projects they're working together on in tandem, from what I've read. It's interesting though that LDS have started using findmypast's UK census records - I think the accuracy is much higher, and they have transcribed more fields, so it can be easier to search if the surname isn't right (they also allow wildcards at the beginning of words, which is a useful feature). And the growing number of parish records is very useful.

[Elaine ..Spain]

The other day when I checked, Docklands Ancestors was back anyway so you can get them directly from there.

Yes you can Kate. However, when you are working with a common name and are not sure of the church then it can get expensive - but still a lot cheaper than doing it via FMP on a pay per view basis.

I've got a sub for FMP and am currently going through all the Bradley names (just over 300 of them) on the Docklands Ancestor database, putting them into family groups. There's a lot of them!

One thing I like about FMP is the loyalty discount they give to existing members - none of this telephoning and haggling as people try to do with Ancestry.