Lost access to Find My Past

[GallowayLass]

Help please!

Can anybody tell me if their local library service offers access on their pcs to Find My Past and has anything gone wrong in the last couple of weeks?

My library service doesn't subscribe to FMP but previously anyone who had a sub or credits could log in to www.findmypast.co.uk and use the site from the library's public network pcs.

2 weeks ago things changed and now that link takes you to the Schools Project version which offers free access to 1911 census to all schools in England and Wales. It does this by the local authority providing them with the relevant blocks of valid IP addresses. This is the only version available to me in the library now, even if I bring my own laptop and hook up to the library wi-fi. Even more galling is the fact that my library service is in Scotland!

If your library service does have an FMP sub, do you know if your children or grandchildren have got the free 1911 census project version in their schools and are the two versions working happily side by side in your local authority?

[Christine in Herts]

If you're using WiFi, it should be possible to get into the site by using the link you have on you laptop. is it worth querying with both your library service and with FMP?

Christine

[GallowayLass]

Hi Christine,

The link goes straight to the schools version no matter if you go wi-fi or not. The same link works fine anywhere else on wi-fi as long it's not provided by the local authority.

The staff pcs are now the same as the public ones, they are all stuck with the 1911 census only version. Every pc throughout the entire council network will be the same.

I emailed FMP and wasn't happy at all with their first response so I replied to it and still got no joy. They say it's nothing to do with them - "not a site issue". The local authority has provided them with a block of valid IP addresses which are entitled to receive the freebie version and that's that. Unless the library service and/or the council makes an issue of it corporately then they ain't interested.

Libraries and archives are not part of the education department so why FMP didn't get the IP addresses for only the terminals actually in schools I don't know. I'm not a happy camper with the new arrangement. I have my own sub and until 2 weeks ago I could pop in to any library locally and log in to www.findmypast.co.uk and get full access. They have just recently acquired the library edition of ancestry for use on library terminals and there is a link to it on the machines. But if you want the full ancestry site then you can simply go to www.ancestry.co.uk and log on in the normal way.

FMP 1911 project version won't allow this. If you try to view images of other censuses or search other types of dataset what you get is a page which askes you to register with FMP and they will send you and email with a link to either get 20% off credits or a 14 day free trial of the full site but you must be at home to use these. Why can't they provide a link on the free version home page which allows those with a sub or credit to log in and go further than the free content? Or perhaps more sensibly have a separate url for both versions of the site like ancestry does? My suggestion to FMP of such an option was ignored.

[Christine in Herts]

I would complain fiercely to the library service, and ask them to sort it out!

It should be possible to earmark some IP addresses for more general access, so that people with a legit subscription can get access. It's not as if you're trying to get something to which you are not entitled.

Christine

[GallowayLass]

Exactly!! (Trouble is I am a member of local library staff and am still stuck with it! Even the genealogist has lost her access to the full site. We are not best pleased).

[Jill on the A272]

I've been using the 1911 on FMP at school (though I'm at home at the moment), it seems to recognise the IP address as a county council one regardless of which department it is. Schools access ends in July...but that's a long time to wait.

[Christine in Herts]

Exactly!! (Trouble is I am a member of local library staff and am still stuck with it! Even the genealogist has lost her access to the full site. We are not best pleased).

I've been using the 1911 on FMP at school (though I'm at home at the moment), it seems to recognise the IP address as a county council one regardless of which department it is. Schools access ends in July...but that's a long time to wait.

That smacks of computer department incompetence to me. Either that, or someone in Admin ignoring what they've been told by teh techies!

Christine

[GallowayLass]

I've been using the 1911 on FMP at school (though I'm at home at the moment), it seems to recognise the IP address as a county council one regardless of which department it is. Schools access ends in July...but that's a long time to wait.

Ending July? Now that's something I didn't know Jill. Can't come soon enough for me; that'll make it 3 months of sub unavailable to me in the daytime unless I'm having time off at home.

Have you tried typing in www.findmypast.co.uk in your local library yet to see what happens?

[GallowayLass]

I've discovered it wasn't the cybercentre at headquarters who provided the IP addresses, a member of staff there was blissfully unaware anything had changed! Am thinking it seems most likely another techie department thing.