Who's in Charge of this Genealogy Shenanigans in the UK

[mac77782]

Hi new member here!! Rant alert!!  I'm half Scottish Half French and started my family tree in September last year.  I have 2-300 great grandparents on my tree in France in stark comparison to my dozen on the Scottish Side.  What an absolute joke.  In France, you can literally, on websites such as Filae and Geneanet - read through the parish records page by page.  All the records are online.  I pay I think £40 for Filae and searching in France is like night and day from Scotland.  What a rip off.  Not only do you have to pay Ancestry for next to no information, to put the icing on the cake you then .. cause you'll probably find damn all on Ancestry.. have to pay more money to Scotlands People to view one page of a parish book.  What an embarrassment.  Does anyone think,, as clearly I'm not going to get as far with Scotland as France, am I better off actually going to Edinburgh? Can you actually physically look through the books there? I hope that one day someone will index these records online, not for a company such as Scotlands People to get hold of and fleece the general population to get a glimpse at a page, but so they are online on the likes of My Heritage and Ancestry such as they are in Europe.  Talk about daylight robbery and the absolute height of ineptitude.  Ok rant over now 

[snowqueen]

Why would you think records should be free? If they are indexed, then it has taken many hours for people, usually vounteers, to do it. Genealogy is an expensive hobby

[rosie99]

Welcome to rootschat

I hope that one day someone will index these records online, not for a company such as Scotlands People to get hold of and fleece the general population to get a glimpse at a page,

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
Not a company but the Scottish government 

Sorry, Genealogy is a hobby so why should tax payers fund availability of records for us.

[manukarik]

If you go back far enough you'll find lots on line for free (eg Church Records) in the UK. There are limitations with Filae and geneanet, although Filae certainly can help to narrow things down to the correct commune. I've had to spend a long time trawling through French Church records (and actes) that didn't show up in Filae and geneanet. You are spot on though, tracing your family records can be an expensive business. Thank goodness for the digital and pdf versions of bmd certificates which are so much cheaper.

Talking about bmd certificates - everytime I have to provide a certificate for the French bureaucrats it's another £11 or £12 as they insist it's dated within the last 3 months!

Good luck with your research and remember you may be able to access some of the Genealogy websites (Ancestry, Family Search etc) at your local library. I've yet to visit an LDS Family History Centre for access to archives.

[KGarrad]

Hi new member here!! Rant alert!!  I'm half Scottish Half French and started my family tree in September last year.  I have 2-300 great grandparents on my tree in France in stark comparison to my dozen on the Scottish Side. 

Not sure I understand?
I have 2 parents, 4 grandparents and 8 great-grandparents.

How did you manage 300?!

[mac77782]

Why would you think records should be free? If they are indexed, then it has taken many hours for people, usually vounteers, to do it. Genealogy is an expensive hobby

Not free, but it seems way more expensive here to have to pay for each document individually.  I meant why are they not indexed properly thats really what I meant.  Like what you're looking for isnt on Ancestry, which you're paying for, but it is on Scotlands People.  But anyway I have my answer now spoke to Ancestry and the Scottish Government have the publishing rights apparently.  I didnt mean free. I'm not a cheapskate, I'm paying £13 a month for ancestry, £40 I think for 3 months on Filae, £120 to My Heritage.  I think having forked out this money I should be able to see these documents that was I getting at, clearly it's a government thing.  Anyway.. I'm actually not doing too bad on the Scottish side since I posted my rant lol

[mac77782]

If you go back far enough you'll find lots on line for free (eg Church Records) in the UK. There are limitations with Filae and geneanet, although Filae certainly can help to narrow things down to the correct commune. I've had to spend a long time trawling through French Church records (and actes) that didn't show up in Filae and geneanet. You are spot on though, tracing your family records can be an expensive business. Thank goodness for the digital and pdf versions of bmd certificates which are so much cheaper.

Talking about bmd certificates - everytime I have to provide a certificate for the French bureaucrats it's another £11 or £12 as they insist it's dated within the last 3 months!

Good luck with your research and remember you may be able to access some of the Genealogy websites (Ancestry, Family Search etc) at your local library. I've yet to visit an LDS Family History Centre for access to archives.

.
Haha poor you - ye .. andddd I have discovered you cant delete a post here    Getting a bit of heat here but I dont think I worded it very well.  I'm actually not doing too badly now on the Scottish side ((I've discovered I descend from Leod, son of Olaf The Black cant tell you how cool I am finding this)), all I meant was the Scottish Government seem to be fleecing people for this info. It shouldn't be free but it should at least be available if you are paying the likes of Ancestry.  For example, on Filae, you search for Joe Blogs from Paris.  The parochial records are available on either the archives websites (free) or on Filae.  Regardless of where you find the parochial record, you can then scroll through the book. You can't do that here - that's all I was saying. 

[mac77782]

Moderator comment - topics merged

To the person that said.. why should ' tax payers ' (( really hate when people come out with that tripe )) money should be spent on publishing historical records.  I would love to show you my 3 pages of A 3 paper stuck together with about 300 (( so far )) great grandparents in France.  I havent even added the next few generations it is going to be enormous.  In stark contrast to my dozen or so in the UK.  I've never seen such a sh** show, poorly organised, more than likely under funded situation here.  It is virtually impossible to do your ancestry here.  Where as in France it would appear I'm almost going to be back to Adam and Eve.  There is not one blank box in all of my great grandparents back to 1699.  I know what they did, what there jobs were, where they lived.  Each area in France has an archive website.  You literally just go there, type in the year and you can look through the whole book, yep... for freee... online.  Why in gods name can you not do this here.  You search for info on Ancestry, which you're paying for, it's not there.  You then have to go to Scotlands people, pay more money just in the hope that the first one you click on is the right one.  My question remains the same, if I go to Edinburgh or somewhere to the archive offices are you actually able to look through the books there?  So hard just doing it online I've almost given up on the UK. 

[KGarrad]

I'm confused?!

I only have 8 great-grandparents - the parents of my grandparents.

Have you tried using FreeBMD, FreeCen, FreeReg or FamilySearch?

BTW British Genealogy is a website that I used to be a member of. I stopped using it when it was taken over by Forces War Records.