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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: coombs on Tuesday 28 November 17 16:59 GMT (UK)
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Do you ever get excited with "FindMyPast" Fridays or do you find it can be a disappointment every Friday?
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I would be excited if F M P actually sent me the email, I seem to have been removed from their mailing list ::)
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Me too.
I have to go into their blog now to see what's new.
Carol
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Interested, rather than excited or disappointed. I always check. English records - yes please. Irish or American - then not so much as I have no connections.
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I get a bit disappointed by the amount of Welsh/Irish and American records as I have no Irish or Welsh ancestors so the FindMyPast Irish records are of no use to me, and I have read that Irish ancestry is so difficult and the surviving records outside post 1864 civil reg are just a minority of what has survived.
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There always appears to be a lot of London records
Regards panda
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I suppose its the old story - you can't please all of the people all of the time.
I always check - just click on Find My Past Fridays on their home page. I don't seem to get emails either. I am disappointed when they give us stuff that's already available elsewhere, and I would like more digital copies of actual PR entries, rather than transcriptions but all in all I'm happy with it.
Personally, I'd like some attention given to counties like Westmorland and Cumberland (modern day Cumbria) which have little or no coverage at the moment but perhaps these Archives are not prepared to play ball, who knows?
At least I can find my way round FindMyPast - I find A very hard to navigate.
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Spam - but not nearly as annoying Ancestry's constant emails imploring me to get my DNA tested!
I have to disagree jillruss - I can find my way round Ancestry but, despite having had a subscription to FindMyPast for a couple of years or so, (not currently) I find their interface illogical, annoying and, some times, impossible to find something you know is there.
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Ray T, F M P have recently improved their search options I find them much better than they were ;D
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You cannot please everyone but for people who only have UK subs to FindMyPast and use it for their UK ancestors the Fridays can be quite disheartening when the new records are 99% American, Australian or Canadian. Others have commented via FB saying that they should do more UK records and I agree.
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I must be lucky then... :D
I have recently gone back to fill in bits on my husband's Irish line (my favourite line to research) and find FindMyPast is good for me. This line isn't a Catholic line, and they split their time between Ireland and Westminster, again FindMyPast comes up trumps with Westminster Archives. My other Catholic lines have also progressed a little.
The newspaper coverage is excellent for this family.
I do look forward to Friday emails and it usually only takes a few minutes to see if it's relevant to my research. I haven't had much luck with other world records though.
My only reserve with FindMyPast is many of their other parish records are transcripts only, I prefer to see the image as I have found so many transcript errors.
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There always appears to be a lot of London records
Regards panda
When they are, they are quite good as I have London ancestors. London ancestors can be difficult to research due to the population of the city and the higher frequency of "candidates" for ancestors.
I eagerly await school records for Oxon, Sussex and Essex when they get round to it.
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I'm always keen to read their Friday update emails because you never know...
It's like that little thrill I get when I walk through the front door of an antiques mall.
:D
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I always used to get emails from FindMyPast.ie - why this was happening I have no idea and not only that most of the records mentioned weren't available to me as I don't have a world sub. I complained to FindMyPast and they didn't know why I was getting emails from the Irish part of FindMyPast but they've tweaked something at their end and now I get the British version. Sometimes it's useful, sometimes it's not.
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I suppose its the old story - you can't please all of the people all of the time.
I always check - just click on Find My Past Fridays on their home page. I don't seem to get emails either. I am disappointed when they give us stuff that's already available elsewhere, and I would like more digital copies of actual PR entries, rather than transcriptions but all in all I'm happy with it.
Personally, I'd like some attention given to counties like Westmorland and Cumberland (modern day Cumbria) which have little or no coverage at the moment but perhaps these Archives are not prepared to play ball, who knows?
At least I can find my way round FindMyPast - I find A very hard to navigate.
I also would love more attention given to Westmorland and Cumberland as I have ancestors from there too. I would also like Northumberland to have more attention...
Regarding the emails, I always get about 3 telling me their new records! ;D
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I have recently started helping out and becoming a transcriber for Essex for FreeREG via the SEAX online images but not sure if FindMyPast transcribing is done by volunteers or employees of the company. I suppose you have to live near a certain RO to get access to the parish records (on microfilm and fiche) that are not yet online in order to transcribe.
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I also would love more attention given to Westmorland and Cumberland as I have ancestors from there too. I would also like Northumberland to have more attention...
Regarding the emails, I always get about 3 telling me their new records! ;D
You must be getting my emails then, Clarkey500!! I used to get them once upon a time but not for ages now.
I thought FindMyPast did a sterling job with Yorkshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire PRs - digital images and all! My guess is that they use staff rather than volunteers and that they may not be British (is FindMyPast American owned?) as they made quite a few mistakes with names of parishes etc that you'd expect from someone who didn't know the area in question. At one time, I'd email them and point these out but they got quite defensive about it so I don't bother any more. I just try to figure it out for myself.
I'm wondering if the digital copies were costing too much because they seem to be sticking to transcriptions more and more.
Clarkey500, I have also emailed them a couple of times to request Westmoreland and Cumberland - they do suggest you let them know what you'd like to see - but they never even acknowledge the emails. Then they send you an email asking you to give them marks for how they dealt with your query!! What a cockeyed world we live in!!!
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I also would love more attention given to Westmorland and Cumberland as I have ancestors from there too. I would also like Northumberland to have more attention...
Regarding the emails, I always get about 3 telling me their new records! ;D
You must be getting my emails then, Clarkey500!! I used to get them once upon a time but not for ages now.
I thought FindMyPast did a sterling job with Yorkshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire PRs - digital images and all! My guess is that they use staff rather than volunteers and that they may not be British (is FindMyPast American owned?) as they made quite a few mistakes with names of parishes etc that you'd expect from someone who didn't know the area in question. At one time, I'd email them and point these out but they got quite defensive about it so I don't bother any more. I just try to figure it out for myself.
I'm wondering if the digital copies were costing too much because they seem to be sticking to transcriptions more and more.
Clarkey500, I have also emailed them a couple of times to request Westmoreland and Cumberland - they do suggest you let them know what you'd like to see - but they never even acknowledge the emails. Then they send you an email asking you to give them marks for how they dealt with your query!! What a cockeyed world we live in!!!
I probably am! ;D
I don't have ancestors (that I know of, yet) from those counties but I do have quite a few from Devon, and they have done well with those records. I think they may be British as they tend to have a more British focus compared to ancestry. There will always be some problems regarding transcriptions though. :-\
I would think so, as they don't have to do much with regards to digitisation and some transcriptions are already done.
I would imagine the archives are a bit hesitant to do so, as they may not get as many visitors?
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FindMyPast owned by D C Thomson
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I'm wondering if the digital copies were costing too much because they seem to be sticking to transcriptions more and more.
More likely they're not getting the business to digitise the records but have been given permission for transcripts.
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TGIF :D I recently signed up for a free account. I get excited when I find one of my ancestors records on FMPF. until I try to view it and they want me to pay for it. :P
I am getting the emails for Fridays and others offering me discount on membership. ;D
I have used their site to build my family tree
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I don't get emails, though I nearly always check on Fridays. Sometimes it may be later in the weekend when I get a chance. The person who puts the blog entry on often does it in a hurry and makes blunders, such as referring to the wrong dataset in the link, or using findmypast.com rather than findmypast.co.uk. The blog posts used to be at midnight, but now appear somewhere around UK breakfast time.
Occasionally there are items which are relevant, and I have a World sub, which lets me follow my one-name study. Some databases, such as PERSI, remain stubbornly irrelevant to my research, being heavily US-centric, but are regularly updated with tens of thousands of records per year.
Many of the recent UK records appear to be transcriptions done by local Family History Societies, unfortunately with no links to images. Much better than nothing, but we all prefer to see at least an image of the original.
At least FindMyPast's blog page tells you something about what has been added to an existing dataset, unlike Ancestry, where the "what's new" just tells you that some dataset has been "updated". Have they found a missing part of a census down the back of a filing cabinet, or have they been fixing transcription errors, however unlikely that may seem?
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I do find that a lot of their bulk releases seem to be ones that are already online elsewhere. This Friday they released some British and Irish emigrant records to USA and Canada but very few of them are new ones, they seem to be censuses, passenger lists etc that are already available on other websites, hence why I can find FindMyPast Fridays disappointing at the best of times. But you cannot please everyone all the time. :(
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You must be getting my emails then, Clarkey500!! I used to get them once upon a time but not for ages now.
I thought FindMyPast did a sterling job with Yorkshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire PRs - digital images and all! My guess is that they use staff rather than volunteers and that they may not be British (is FindMyPast American owned?) as they made quite a few mistakes with names of parishes etc that you'd expect from someone who didn't know the area in question. At one time, I'd email them and point these out but they got quite defensive about it so I don't bother any more. I just try to figure it out for myself.
No it is a Scottish company with offices in London as well.
I'm wondering if the digital copies were costing too much because they seem to be sticking to transcriptions more and more.
I think you will find that is more down to supply and demand.
There is a big demand for more records but digitising and transcribing/indexing take a huge amount of manpower.
On the other hand many Family History Societies have found they can combat the falling membership numbers and sales by licensing their transcripts to Findmypast.
Each time a transcript is viewed the relevant FHS gets a royalty fee, this means you can help FHS by viewing the online records even if you cannot get to their meetings.
Cheers
Guy
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I have recently started helping out and becoming a transcriber for Essex for FreeREG via the SEAX online images but not sure if FindMyPast transcribing is done by volunteers or employees of the company. I suppose you have to live near a certain RO to get access to the parish records (on microfilm and fiche) that are not yet online in order to transcribe.
Coombs - I don't suppose you would know whether there are any plans to transcribe Essex Catholic records ? SEAX does hold some, but they haven't been digitised.
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Many of the recent UK records appear to be transcriptions done by local Family History Societies, unfortunately with no links to images. Much better than nothing, but we all prefer to see at least an image of the original.
FindMyPast has the transcript for a parish in Wiltshire I'm interested in. It's easy to search for people on FindMyPast in this parish. Ancestry has the images, but with many transcription errors, so very difficult to find the right people. So I use FindMyPast to find the date and then browse the images at Ancestry until I pin it down.
To be fair, the writing is very difficult to read. I sent an image to to a relative to show him his gtgt-grandfather's baptism in the 1770s. He couldn't see it. I had to explain it was two thirds down the page and which records were directly above and below it before he found it.
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I am afraid this page is out of date now but in the past I phoned every County archive in England to find out if they supplied "their" parish registers on microfiche or microfilm this page was the result
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01l5s/
Even today with online companies digitising records and FHS transcribing records the microfiche and microfilm I bought for the parishes I was interested in still hold a number of years not digitised or transcribed online.
Cheers
Guy
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The American and Australian records can be good in the long run to trace missing siblings of ancestors, or even if a direct ancestor seemed to vanish from the UK after widowhood and joined children out there. I have a direct ancestor who emigrated to America in 1892 and settled in Pennsylvania so every little helps.
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FindMyPast staff must've had a merry Christmas :D :D :D
No FindMyPast FRIDAY for December 29th....yet!! ;D ;D
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Perhaps they are still on holiday, a lot of companies don't reopen until after New years day :)
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I'd totally forgotten to check! Is it Friday??? :-[
I think we might let them off this week, don't you?
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FindMyPast have posted on their Facebook page that they let everyone know in last weeks email that they were taking a brake from FindMyPast Friday's this week.
That would be the email that I never received.
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Me neither!
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Ermhhhh - it was the very last item on the 22 December e-mail for FindMyPast Fridays!! ;)
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I am afraid this page is out of date now but in the past I phoned every County archive in England to find out if they supplied "their" parish registers on microfiche or microfilm this page was the result
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01l5s/
Even today with online companies digitising records and FHS transcribing records the microfiche and microfilm I bought for the parishes I was interested in still hold a number of years not digitised or transcribed online.
Cheers
Guy
PS Note the above link is not working at present due to the Ancestry security alert
Cheers
Guy
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Ermhhhh - it was the very last item on the 22 December e-mail for FindMyPast Fridays!! ;)
:D :D I never read the e-mail, just the top part about what is newly added ;D ;D.
then I click on the Logo to open the webpage. hehehe ::)
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New e-mail today :D :D
Get your first 1 month world subscription for just €1*and make your tree blossom in 2018. Hurry, this amazing offer ends on Sunday 7 January.
GET 1 MONTH FOR €1 » ;D ;D ;D
Grow Your Tree This New Year
With your Findmypast family tree you can:
1
Get record hints to extend your tree and discover unknown family details
1
Access records using your €1 subscription, search directly from the tree and attach your finds as you go
1
Add documents and photographs to bring your tree to life
GET 1 MONTH FOR €1 »
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Again - where's my email? :-\
Not bothered about the world sub but, as a paid up subscriber to FindMyPast, why am I not receiving any of these notifications? It appears I'm not alone - are they really this disorganised?
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Not sure where chinapaddy lives, but as the currency sign is for Euro rather than Sterling, perhaps that has something to do with it. As you live in England, jillruss, perhaps you wouldn't be eligible to pay in Euro :-\
Only a thought :)
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So its RACISM!!!! :D ;D 8)
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Again - where's my email? :-\
Not bothered about the world sub but, as a paid up subscriber to FindMyPast, why am I not receiving any of these notifications? It appears I'm not alone - are they really this disorganised?
You are certainly not alone.
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Again - where's my email? :-\
Not bothered about the world sub but, as a paid up subscriber to FindMyPast, why am I not receiving any of these notifications? It appears I'm not alone - are they really this disorganised?
Are you sure the "receive occasional newsletters" option is ticked in your account personal details folder.
If not it is doubtful you will receive notifications.
Cheers
Guy
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Yes it is ticked. I always got email then they stopped. I recently tried unticking that box, leaving it for a couple of weeks and reticking it but that did not work. My email filters are not set up to refuse emails from them either.
I do plan to contact them in the next few days once they are back at work
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Not sure where chinapaddy lives, but as the currency sign is for Euro rather than Sterling, perhaps that has something to do with it.
I am in Ireland. Also, I only have a Free account, never been a subscriber as I have free access to findmypast.ie at local library. ::)
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Many thanks, chinapaddy, that explains a lot ;D
I don't get any of these "free offer" e-mails because I have a permanent worldwide subscription.
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Many thanks, chinapaddy, that explains a lot ;D
I don't get any of these "free offer" e-mails because I have a permanent worldwide subscription.
Is there a discount code ?
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Many thanks, chinapaddy, that explains a lot ;D
I don't get any of these "free offer" e-mails because I have a permanent worldwide subscription.
Is there a discount code ?
It seems the offer is exclusive to Ireland. there is an Irish flag at the top beside FindMyPast logo. All the contact info at the bottom are Irish addresses. And *This offer is only available to first-time subscribers.
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Yes it is ticked. I always got email then they stopped. I recently tried unticking that box, leaving it for a couple of weeks and reticking it but that did not work. My email filters are not set up to refuse emails from them either.
I do plan to contact them in the next few days once they are back at work
Ditto - yes, its ticked and yes I USED to get emails from them but not now. I suspect its because we're already fully paid up members, so we don't count any more. A bit like banks and building socs only offering the higher interest savings rates to new customers. Someone ought to give these people a lesson in how to keep your loyal customers before said loyal customers toddle off to the opposition!!
I won't hold my breath! :(
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Just checked and mine is also ticked, but nary an email about FindMyPast Fridays in a couple of months - the last one was in September.
As a World subscriber I used to get "exclusive" offers every month, but these have also dried up - in September. Virtually all of them were only useful to people living in London, but it would be nice not to be left out.
The email address for these is also used to log in, so no excuse for them forgetting me.
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I have a World membership with FindMyPast.
I receive the Friday e-mails - they arrive in the Promotions folder of my Gmail account.
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FindMyPast owned by D C Thomson
Given their connection to Scotland, I wish they'd publish more Scottish records. Scotland's People have a stranglehold on BMD's, I know, but there are plenty of others they could concentrate on. Would love to see more Free Church records, Kirk sessions, parish aid and shipping records for instance.
In answer to the original question: yes, I'm more often than not disappointed in FindMyPast Friday's. Not enough local Irish or Scottish records for me. And I'm getting a bit sick of these companies posting (and therefore charging for) what amounts to little more than links to other sites I can access for free myself anyway! By all means do it if need be, but don't post them as though you're posting a ton of new information that your loyal customers should be excited about - you're not and we aren't!
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New e-mail today :D :D
Get your first 1 month world subscription for just €1*and make your tree blossom in 2018. Hurry, this amazing offer ends on Sunday 7 January.
GET 1 MONTH FOR €1 » ;D ;D ;D
Grow Your Tree This New Year
With your Findmypast family tree you can:
1
Get record hints to extend your tree and discover unknown family details
1
Access records using your €1 subscription, search directly from the tree and attach your finds as you go
1
Add documents and photographs to bring your tree to life
GET 1 MONTH FOR €1 »
Whey you click on the link to subscribe to it, does a code come up in the box?
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Whey you click on the link to subscribe to it, does a code come up in the box?
A 'pop-up' gives the message below, but doesn't actually show the code
Discount Code
Discount code successfully applied.
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Ah, that's a shame :-\ Thanks for looking though :D
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Given their connection to Scotland, I wish they'd publish more Scottish records. Scotland's People have a stranglehold on BMD's, I know, but there are plenty of others they could concentrate on. Would love to see more Free Church records, Kirk sessions, parish aid and shipping records for instance.
In answer to the original question: yes, I'm more often than not disappointed in FindMyPast Friday's. Not enough local Irish or Scottish records for me. And I'm getting a bit sick of these companies posting (and therefore charging for) what amounts to little more than links to other sites I can access for free myself anyway! By all means do it if need be, but don't post them as though you're posting a ton of new information that your loyal customers should be excited about - you're not and we aren't!
I take it you do not see the contradiction in your own posting!
Companies like Findmypast post records held by other companies in order to expand what they are offering to their subscribers. If they did not do that then the coverage of the records they hold would be diminished for two reasons.
1) They would have to spend time and money digitising and indexing the records held by partner companies in order to supply them.
2) The money and time they save can be productively spent on digitising and indexing new records not held elsewhere.
To address your first point I would suggest the Findmypast would be happy to host more records of the kind you mention, but it is not as simple as that.
Have you ever tried to gain access to such records to transcribe them for instance, it is not always easy. Some who are approached are happy to have their records digitised but have unrealistic demands that have to be met before that can happen.
There is also the simple business case that has to be met, a Scottish parish may have a tiny population therefore a tiny proportion of people requiring access to those records. That means they do not have the same priority as larger parishes have for digitising.
However all is not lost there is a way you can quickly get more Scottish records online. Negotiate with the holders of the records and digitise and index them yourself then offer them to the large internet companies, but then you will possibly be joining the groups of people and companies you are complaining about.
Cheers
Guy
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We can all be a bit selfish, can't we? I personally have no connections to Scotland, Ireland or Wales and I sigh sometimes when I see the Friday productions. As of this moment all my families are in England, and specifically Yorkshire, with one or two escaping to London, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
However, I am more than happy to see that FindMyPast is expanding their coverage, as is Ancestry, and I can fulfil the other side of my persona - I can help others.
Let's face it, you CANNOT please all of the people, all of the time. :D
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at bottom of findmypast webpage you will see
Other Findmypast sites:
Lives of the First World War
The British Newspaper Archive
©2018 Findmypast
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Again - where's my email? :-\
Not bothered about the world sub but, as a paid up subscriber to FindMyPast, why am I not receiving any of these notifications? It appears I'm not alone - are they really this disorganised?
You are certainly not alone.
I tried resetting my email notifications by unsubscibing to them , leaving it a few days and re subscribing - nothing. I contacted customer service - Today I have F M P Fridays email ;D ;D ;D
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And - hurrah! - they've added some Yorkshire BMDs today, but - boo! - no indication as to what they've added so will have to plough through all my Yorkshire lines (a lot!).
I just don't understand why they can't spell it out.
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If you use the connection via the e-mail for any of the Yorkshire items, you will see that on the right-hand side of the screen is Useful Links and Resources. First item is "Yorkshire Parish Registers - parish list"
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Sorry, BumbleB, what email?
ADDED: Thanks, I've located the parish list via the FindMyPast Friday link and I suppose that's better than nothing but it would be so much more helpful if they could put the added parishes/years in italics or similar to show exactly what has been added.
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They seem to be lots of comments here about people moaning about not getting the email. You don't need one. Just click on Blog, (what a stupid word) , and select New Records. Last month I found a wonderful photograph of an ancestor I didn't even know served in the army.
It's one of the first things I check on a Friday after waking up.
Martin
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The first thing I do any morning after logging in is to look at my emails that is why I prefer not having to go searching their blog ;)
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I look forward to it every week! Even if most of the new collections are not useful to me. It's the anticipation that they might be.
In 2018 I'd really love some major additions - proper coverage of new counties. Access to original images.
More newspaper coverage of certain places would be welcome too, though the newspaper database is already a great resource.
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Re anticipation of new discoveries
It seems to me that this is analogous with gambling or drug addiction. The more one discovers about ones ancestors the more one wants to know. It is quite thrilling when you discover some tit-bit of information whether it be hear-say or recorded fact.