Author Topic: Help for my academic study on family history researchers  (Read 4444 times)

Offline j4ckmchugh

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Help for my academic study on family history researchers
« on: Thursday 27 July 17 21:14 BST (UK) »
Dear History Researchers,

I am a postgraduate student at Kingston University, London. I am currently conducting research into the web design of genealogy websites and how well (or not) they manage to support both novices and experienced researchers. So I would love to hear from:

*Newcomers to family history (or any of you who can reflect on your experiences as newcomers in the recent past- i.e. before the website designs changed too much!)

*Experienced family history researchers

What I Would Like You To Do

*First, take this short online survey. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DH6BC3S

*Then let me know your thoughts on how well you think different genealogy records websites support the process of family history research online. Focus on features you like or dislike or ones you think are missing.

*I am mainly focusing on Ancestry.co.uk and ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk so any of your thoughts and experiences with these sites as both novices and experienced users would be very useful.


If you want further information, please contact:

Jack McHugh

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Offline alpinecottage

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Re: Help for my academic study on family history researchers
« Reply #1 on: Thursday 27 July 17 21:46 BST (UK) »
Survey done, but I rarely use Ancestry as it's too expensive for a private sub and I find it's cumbersome to use.  I have used Scotland's People, but I don't have much Scottish ancestry so it's not very relevant to me.  I have got back to about 1800 or earlier on my English lines, so it's getting more difficult to find convincing evidence of earlier ancestry, esp relying on online data.  I'm begining to think I need to explore manorial/parish records which means visits to Record Offices.
Perrins - Manchester and Staffs
Honan - Manchester and Ireland
Hogg - Manchester 19 cent
Anderson - Newcastle mid 19 cent
Boullen - London then Carlisle then Manchester
Comer - Manchester and Galway

Offline j4ckmchugh

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Re: Help for my academic study on family history researchers
« Reply #2 on: Thursday 27 July 17 22:23 BST (UK) »
Thanks!
Yes I have my own opinions on both the sites as a novice researcher and web designer (but I don't want to prejudice my data gathering by posting them now!)
I don't know if you could go into any specifics about why you found cumbersome on Ancestry (guess this depends on how recently you've used it).

Yes even with my best (Scottish) line I've found it gets difficult to research beyond the mid-1700s using online sources.

Offline alpinecottage

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Re: Help for my academic study on family history researchers
« Reply #3 on: Thursday 27 July 17 22:59 BST (UK) »
Why's Ancestry cumbersome? - because it throws up a lot of results, many of which are American biased (I've not got any objection to Americans, just not got any ancestors or present family there!) and I found it quite difficult to filter out the unwanted results.  This is something other people complain about with FindMyPast and The Genealogist, but I know my way around those sites much better.  I have to admit, I've not used Ancestry for a long while (over 12 months).  Maybe I just went off them when they closed down their free offshoot, Mundia!
Perrins - Manchester and Staffs
Honan - Manchester and Ireland
Hogg - Manchester 19 cent
Anderson - Newcastle mid 19 cent
Boullen - London then Carlisle then Manchester
Comer - Manchester and Galway


Offline Johnf04

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Re: Help for my academic study on family history researchers
« Reply #4 on: Friday 28 July 17 00:46 BST (UK) »
I use Ancestry as my main research tool (my online tree is there), and I find it quite easy to limit searches to the area of interest. I also use Scotlands People, and I appreciate the recent change that allows free searches.
Farrell  - Ayrshire
Cairns - Ayrshire
McCann - Ayrshire
Brown - Ayrshire
Petty - Yorkshire, Durham
Lucas - Staffordshire, Durham
Whitaker - Yorkshire
Thackrah - Yorkshire
Stephenson - Durham
Marshall - Yorkshire
Walker - Staffordshire, Southland New Zealand
McCullough -  Antrim, Southland New Zealand,
Cavanagh - Galway, Southland New Zealand
Anthony - Tipperary, Southland New Zealand
Bath - Cornwall, Tasmania, Southland
Brungot - Alesund, Norway; Southland
Bonthron - Fifeshire, Southland

Offline barryd

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Re: Help for my academic study on family history researchers
« Reply #5 on: Friday 28 July 17 02:07 BST (UK) »
Currently my favourite site is Find My Past. Checking for gaps in my extensive genealogy at present so using them extensively. One comment on ancestry is presumably Americans with ancestry in UK pressing the wrong button and publishing their County Durham coal miner as being from Durham, North Carolina. But that is the user's fault and not ancestry!

Offline spades

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Re: Help for my academic study on family history researchers
« Reply #6 on: Friday 28 July 17 03:23 BST (UK) »
Hi Jack,

My apologies for editing your initial post to remove your email address, but as noted above this is to protect you from spam and other interwebby nasties.

The best way for anyone wishing to contact you is via the Personal Message (PM) facility where you can exchange email addresses and other secure personal information.

To activate your PM system you should reply once more to this topic (just a smiley will do).

I have completed your survey.

Best wishes for your research.

Spades
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Offline Liz_in_Sussex

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Re: Help for my academic study on family history researchers
« Reply #7 on: Friday 28 July 17 16:32 BST (UK) »
Hi,

I've done the survey...

Ancestry is great but has to be tamed first - I am getting better at knowing what to search for in order to avoid loads of American records popping up.  It does still have some strange ideas about what might be relevant to me and I have to be very discerning about which records might be relevant. 

I have not needed Scotland's People much but it was fascinating when I used it the other day - I was so excited about what was available and just how much information I could get - and how (relatively) inexpensive it was to cross check - well compared to buying certificates down here in England!  I find both sites very easy to use - I use Find My Past as well - only because of the 1939 Register and the newspapers - I really don't like that one for some reason - it is not so intuitive but perhaps I don't use it enough.

Liz
Research interests:
Sussex (Isted, Trusler, Pullen, Botting), Surrey (Isted), Shropshire (Hayward), Lincolnshire (Brown, Richardson), Wiltshire (Bailey), Schleswig-Holstein (Isted),  Nordrhein-Westfalen (Niessen).

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Offline panda40

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Re: Help for my academic study on family history researchers
« Reply #8 on: Friday 28 July 17 18:53 BST (UK) »
Survey done good luck in your research.
Regards panda
Chapman. Kent/Liverpool 1900+
Linnett.Kent/liverpool 1900+
Button. Kent
Sawyer. Kent
Swain. Kent
Austin/en. Kent
Ellen. Kent
Harman. Kent/ norfolk