Find My Past Blog - Findmypast Free Weekend 6-9 March 2015

[Family Tree Forum]

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[Karamazov]

Free access to all FindMypast collections, 6–9 March

I've taken the liberty of copying this from Claire Santry's highly recommended Irish Genealogy blog at http://www.irishgenealogynews.com as she summarises the FMP offer/terms and conditions in a user friendly way. I think the only other thing I'd mention is FMPs fair usage policy but as each account may view up to a maximum of 1,000 records per day, I doubt any of us would fall foul of that! The key link is at the bottom of this post.

From Claire's blog:

Findmypast has announced that all its historical records collections will be available free this coming weekend, from midday on Friday 6 March to midday on Monday 9 March.

The records opened up will include:

• Over 900 million census records from across the UK, USA and Ireland
• Passenger lists for ships sailing to and from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA
• Birth, marriage and death records dating back to the 18th century, and the largest online collection of UK parish records
• The most comprehensive collection of British military records anywhere online
• The largest collection of Irish family history records available online
• Historical newspapers from across the world, including more than 10 million British and Irish newspaper pages dating back to the 18th century.

If you already have a 'local' subscription ie Ireland, Britain, Australia/NZ or USA package, you'll be granted World Access for the weekend. If you're already a World Access member, you'll have an extra three days automatically added to your subscription.

A Getting Started video will be available and, to mark International Women's Day, a Finding Women in the Records webinar will also be on offer at 3pm(GMT) on Sunday, free. As, historically, women’s names changed or were not recorded, finding female ancestors can be tricky. This webinar will help users trace maternal lines and get further with their family tree.

You can find out more at Findmypast’s dedicated Free Weekend page, and it looks as though you can register (free) in advance.

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/freeweekend

[vera2013]

Thanks Karamazov. Will take a look at the Irish records

Vera

[Karamazov]

Thanks Karamazov. Will take a look at the Irish records

Vera

Hi Vera,
Depending on where your ancestors are from and how quarrelsome/bolshy/downright contrary they were, have you ever delved into the Irish Petty Sessions records on FMP? If you're lucky (!?!) you can find a litany of family squabbles, unpaid wages, drunkenness, trespass etc. However, FMP only has these for the 26 counties, not the 6 northern counties unfortunately.
I'm so sad I've even downloaded dog licence records for lots of my rellies! On a more serious note, it's helped me narrow down possible dates of death when someone no longer renews their licence...
The filtering works pretty well too if your broad search turns up loads of results - filter by county, then court, and then finally put the name of the townland, if known, in the keyword box. Also try its variant spellings, as if memory serves, I don't think wildcards work in the keyword box.
Good luck

Christine

[vera2013]

Thanks Christine

My great grandmother is the one I am searching for and unfortunately comes from the North, Co Armagh so not likely to get even a dog licence although I would love one for my tree. I agree the most unlikely record can help placing people or dating them.

I will look however at my husband's side in the South to see what terrible deeds his ancestors may have been involved in.

Vera

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Thanks Christine

I will look however at my husband's side in the South to see what terrible deeds his ancestors may have been involved in.

Vera

Lol, Vera, like the message in history books, that perspective often depends on the views of the writer. (I know you had your tongue in your cheek when making that comment!)

My e-mail from FMP states the times as 7a.m EST Friday until 7 a.m EST. Monday - would hate anyone to leave things for the wrong time zone on Monday and get caught out.

Jay

[JBee]

bumping up so folks don't miss it.

[TwigletNumber5]

I knew this, but when I logged in it took off 5 credits for a lookup I forgot already had!
How do I get free access, was there a password to put in?

[Caroline]

I knew this, but when I logged in it took off 5 credits for a lookup I forgot already had!
How do I get free access, was there a password to put in?

It wasn't starting until noon (UK) today. It stops at noon (UK) on Monday.

" .... That means that between midday on Friday, March 6th and midday on Monday, March 9th (GMT), absolutely everyone will have access to our comprehensive collections of historical records and innovative research tools ....."

[Karamazov]

Just a reminder - this offer is now live.

Christine

[AntonyM]

Just a reminder - this offer is now live.

Christine

And the FMP website is slowing down and struggling ..must be popular !

[Janet]

And the FMP website is slowing down and struggling ..must be popular !

Surprise, surprise! I alerted my Family History Group to this freebie, but warned tham that as the the site was being opened up to the world this weekend, that it might be a little slow or even crash, and that I was going to avoid FMP this weekwend!

Lost Cousins was indicating the site would be available Monday morning, but not according to the mail I received from FMP.

Janet

[Karamazov]

Lost Cousins was indicating the site would be available Monday morning, but not according to the mail I received from FMP.

Janet

My email from FMP definitely says the free access is available until 12 noon GMT on Monday!

May have need of Monday morning - I've just tried to search and got the dreaded:

We're having a few technical difficulties

Please accept our apologies. We're aware of the problem and we're working hard to fix it.
Sorry if this causes you any inconvenience - we're confident we can get the site up and running again very soon.
Thank you for your patience.
Findmypast

[Caroline]

Rather then have two threads running on the same subject, I have merged them together.

[Caroline]

If you are having loading issues, it might be a good idea to keep an eye on the Facebook page to see what is happening:

https://www.facebook.com/findmypast?fref=ts

You don't need to sign in or even have a FB account.

[lennon2011]

I've got an account and yet I've not made any effort to use it at all which is a miracle for me. I think it must be due to having an actual Ancestry account now that I just don't feel the need to use the FMP freebie, either that or I have no idea who to search for first.

[TwigletNumber5]

Doh, I thought it said 12.00 midnight!!! No wonder I got charged.LOL
Thanks for reminding me Caroline.

[Loopy Linda in La La Land]

I am all for having free offers.....BUT they could have got their act together a bit better. I can't even get on it 'Due to Technical Difficulties'

I think I'll give it a miss till next week :(

Linda