Findmypast this Friday

[nigelp]

FindMyPast has confirmed the 90 minute offer again between 9.00am on Sunday and 9.00am on Monday (UK time).

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/world-cup.jsp?utm_source=FB&utm_content=160610&utm_campaign=WorldCup160610

Nigel

[Paul Caswell]

I downloaded 9 military records for someone I thought was my grandfather but sadly it wasn't. I'll keep them just in case as it is an unusual name and may connect up one day.

It was lovely to discover they were in colour!! Far better than the B/W ones you get from Ancestry.

Paul

[susan williams]

For those not too interested in Football the Findmypast site are offering free use of their records for 90 minutes whilst England are playing.. Check out the site so you can register,

[Gartag]

Cheers Susan, and another good tip...  I'm of to practice searches.  So far I've only found a couple of out going passenger lists, but even thats more then I had.
Been desperately trying to find 2 families on the 1911 census but just get '0 results'

Ahh well, the practice have been good.  Thanks FindMyPast

Happy Hunting all

Garth

[Paul Caswell]

Please take note Garth.

The invitation has changed and you now get a period free sometime during the day. It was 1 1/2 hours last time but check the website. Don't go practising tomorrow, the first time you log on is the start of your time.

Paul

Added: The 1911 site is not free but you can search the 1911 from FindMyPast and get the images for free. Practice that.

Paul

[Guy Etchells]

Tip when searching remember less is often more.

Try searching without adding too much information (name and approx date of birth is often enough) as that can lead to 0 returns.
Only add more information if too many results are returned.

If unsuccessful in finding a family under the man's name try a search using his wife's forename and the husband's surname.

Cheers
Guy

[downside]

Been desperately trying to find 2 families on the 1911 census but just get '0 results'

I can't understand why I cannot find certain individuals when I use one set of search criteria but then find then when I use a slightly different set of search criteria.  They must be using some kind of complex algorithm where one value has precedence over another.  As a general rule LESS IS MORE.  I have found that by gradually reducing the the number of search fields I tend to finally get my target family.

I know there are some hopeless mistakes like:

Rihcard = Richard
Peckham, Sussex = Rackham, Sussex

I find if I search by Surname and put just a county not a village or town in the Where Born fields it tends to work when all else fails.  Unfortunately it does return a lot more results and if you have only 90 minutes to play around with that can be a factor, but it does seem to work.

[BettyofKent]

I've found that if I search using two forenames, ie Charles Albert, no results are returned, but if I search for Charles, the search results include Charles Albert.

For all it's foibles, I still prefer Ancestry.


Betty

[Gartag]

Thanks for all the advice folks, I'll definately only put in minimal info to start with.  Regarding the practice  was going to do that without logging in.   The other week I was getting '0 results' on every search in the 1911 census but the same criteria after the time was up gave me 5 results but I couldn't see either transcripts or images without paying the dredits.

It is possible I suppose I reversed a couple of letters or something (gregroy instead of gregory) but I don't think so.  This time I'll do the searches with out logging in, copy and past to word if I get any results.  When I've done several I'll log in and copy them back eactly and I should get the same results.

We'll see.  Cheers all.