TheGenealogist - 14 day trial - have you tried it?

[Billyblue]

Our QFHS library has a sub to this and I attended a workshop on it about a year ago.
It's main strength is in UK information, but I didn't find it particularly user friendly.
I think unless you used it consistently then it wouldn't be worth the fees.

If you know how to use it, as our tutor did, it is amazing what you can find.   
Dawn M

[gazania]

I have a  subs to this site.  It is a case of horses for courses.  I needed to read a lot of pre 1858 probates  which helped me make the big break through with my maternal branch.  It worked out for me a cheap way of accessing wills plus some other worthwhile records.  I would try before you buy to see which records you need that are not accessible on the "other" big sites.  Good luck, Gazania

[carol80]

Do not like it. Cannot find my family. I found one lot on 51 as a family then found a son in 1901, nothing in between, before or after. Will keep plugging away for a few more days but I would never pay for it. Findmypast is better.
                                         Carol

[smudwhisk]

I have had a subscription for several years, primarily for the non-conformist registers, Fleet marriages and latterly PCC Wills.  I don't find parts of it very easy to use and the search on their digitised books is now almost useless since they changed it, it wasn't that good previously.  I have occasionally used it to search for addresses on the Census I've not found elsewhere, but not much.  Now ancestry has the data sets I've mainly used on there, I shall not be renewing this year.

It still has some datasets not found elsewhere, but I don't think it would be useful as someone's sole subscription.  Add to that all the images are pdf, which means if you have problems with the clarity you can't easily darken/lighten them as you can with jpgs.

Many of their data sets are transcripts or simply scans of published books, many of which can be found elsewhere on the web for free.

I'm afraid I wouldn't recommend them.  Even the ancestry new search and the new FindMyPast is better than thegenealogist, although some people probably wouldn't agree with me.

[Deirdre784]

I tried it last year but apart from one previously unknown child (found a baptism record by chance) I found nothing on there of any interest, and found the site quite user-unfriendly 

[LizzieW]

I've a sub but don't use the site that much.  Occasionally I can find people on census that seem to be missing on Ancestry or FindMyPast.  I've made a note to make sure that I don't automatically take out another year's sub when it's due.  The one thing I do like is that if you do a search for someone, the list it brings up usually shows address and place of birth which is useful for skimming through the list and ignoring the names which are not relevant.

Of course, if FindMyPast doesn't improve, I might just stick with The Genealogist.

[firefox1960]

The Genealogist is great resource - but one has to realise that familiarity with it's functionality is the key, and the more you use it the better that becomes, I found the search results excellent.
I particularly liked the  master search and keyword  capability - which has a prompt as to what detail you can pop in the Keyword box.
The search speed is good and one is able to target searches specifically also.
The range of data sets is very good also with more been added on an ongoing basis.
The none conformist records are of great value also. The big plus for me was the fact that at the genealogist they actually listen and guidance and help is always a short phone call away, as they really do value their customers and their opinions.

[trystan]

Just saw via Twitter today that they've launched 80,000 unique records of British & Commonwealth Prisoners of War (all ranks) captured in the First World War.

Trystan

[mark_bayley]

Hi Everyone, I'm Mark Bayley, head of content at TheGenealogist. We are a family run business, set up by my parents, Sue & Nigel Bayley, who also set up S&N Genealogy Supplies in 1992.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with how the site works, the three major tools are searching by:
Keywords - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_M0pV-R-ks&list=PLd3J_KOv--SxbcFWJpVGzdU60B0LlUBN9
Family Forenames - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQgTGapQ0Fo&index=2&list=PLd3J_KOv--SxbcFWJpVGzdU60B0LlUBN9
Street - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyrtCNfPdPA&list=PLd3J_KOv--SxbcFWJpVGzdU60B0LlUBN9&index=3

We also have a handy SmartSearch feature (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0U1mx8Sm4c&list=PLd3J_KOv--SxbcFWJpVGzdU60B0LlUBN9&index=4)

We thrive on our users' feedback and are constantly improving the site based on this. In answer to your comments, we have recently launched a new JPG option on our image viewer (you’ll notice a “beta” link at the top when viewing an image.

This year we’ve launched the National Tithe records. We are the only site to have these unique records showing land ownership, tenancy and use of land. More recently (4 days ago) we launched our WW1 PoWs collection, covering all ranks, which are again unique to our site. Other recent additions are our new headstone project and our newly released Essex and Worcestershire Parish Records are transcribed by societies and in-house teams from the original images, not from published books. By the end of this year, we will have launched many more unique record sets.

We have had a lot of emails recently from users switching to our service, full of praise after finding ancestors which they could not find on other sites. I think you just need to try TheGenealogist’s interface for a bit to get used to it and once you do, it’s great at finding records. I’d really recommend watching the above YouTube videos, to show you how our site can help you with your research.

We're running a £50 cash back offer at the moment, making a year's diamond subscription cost just £69.45, so now has never been a better time to try us out (You can view more details here: http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/CBORCA143).

We may not have the huge marketing budget of other sites, so not as many people have heard of us. But we provide a personal service and are dedicated to our users.


Happy Searching!

Mark