TAKE YOUR PICK OF FREE RECORDS FROM ANCESTRY AND FINDMYPAST
‘You could end up bulldozing your most bothersome brick walls’
Ancestry and Findmypast are the two most popular subscription sites for family historians in the UK, but many researchers will tend to pick one option and stick with it. The rationale behind this decision certainly appears to make sense at first: these websites offer access to many of the same ‘big hitters’ – such as census and birth, marriage and death (BMD) records – so why fork out extra cash on a subscription to both?
Whatever the reason, this mindset means that you could be missing out on records that can take your research further – a surprising number of which are actually available free of charge. With some careful digging, you could end up bulldozing your most bothersome brick walls.
One important myth to dispel about Ancestry and Findmypast is that you have to part with cash to create an account on either site. In fact, it is completely free to sign up as a member (known as a ‘registered guest’ on Ancestry).
BRANCHING OUT
One of the first tasks that a new user will be prompted to undertake is to simply add a family tree: either by uploading a GEDCOM file or creating one
