ancestry vs findmypast

[Excaliber68]

Any recommendation as to which is best a] for parish records coverage and b] for use of on-line family tree building

Thanks

[andycand]

Hi

You need to look closely at what parish records each of the sites have, Ancestry has some, FindMyPast has some, Familysearch.org has others but many are not online at all. Both Ancestry and FindMyPast have 14 days free trial that might be worth using first.
As for family tree building I wouldn't recommend an online site at all, I would use software on your own computer. If you want to post your tree online in order to make contact with others then you can upload only the information you are happy for others to see, and, as many others have discovered, copy.

Andy

[CV-S]

Hi,

Andy has very valid points. I just want to add that you can of course make your online tree private, which makes it impossible for others to copy your work or see confidential information.
To answer your question, from my experience, the Ancestry online tree facility is excellent to use.

[MargP]

When I first started some 10 years ago, I did a trial with the 3 main ones and found Ancestry the best, I have a public tree, in this way people can contact you if they are doing the same research,and you can not see living people that is marked as private
 
Through Ancestry, I am now in contact with several cousins from a cross the globe, who I did not know existed, they have given me invaluable information and photo's, we have also had a family reunion on my hubby's side, I think that this far outweighs any negatives that have been mentioned.

If you do with Ancestry be careful when uploading information from other people, I always check it out first, then add it to my tree manually.

Margp

[fastfusion]

Excalibar,

may I suggest that you start with anc, knowing that you can search the "search engine" of FindMyPast; and that if you need material from the latter you can always buy a sub or credits.

neither of the two have complete records, and one way to find which has which is to go to family search.org adding the name of the parish or place in UK you seek...  generally it will tell you which site has the particular records...

or just put a post up and the kind folk of rootschat can always find a solution...

fusion

[groom]

The advantage of having a tree uploaded to one of these sites is that the latest edition is there if the worse happens and your computer suddenly crashes. Wherever you keep your tree though, make sure that you back it up regularly. I now have a private tree on Ancestry. People can still contact me if they think they are related, but after having several photos copied and used on trees where there was no connection, I would never have a public tree.

[Excaliber68]

Thanks all
I'll run the tests suggested
I was veering toward FindMyPast, but, although searching for a test ancestor found in the expected Suffolk parish, the parish was not listed on FindMyPast as being one of those covered which seems odd!

Take all points re online trees. Last time I was doing FH stuff (I put down for 6 years) I was using FamilyHistorian...but I now have a Mac...and thought online made some sense

[fastfusion]

Excalibur...

if u put up the parish you are expressly looking for ...  either myself or one of the other folk will tell you exactly what status the records are in and where..... (if you read some of my posts on my profile you will see what sort of discriptions I in particular give.....)

doesn't matter how many you list..... I will endeavour or someone else will get you the relevant info

 

[Excaliber68]

FastFusion

You are very kind. For now, Offton and Barking, Suffolk

Thanks

E