FindMyPast.co.uk - www.findmypast.co.uk
Value For Money
FindMyPast.co.uk - www.findmypast.co.uk
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User Reviews
Value For Money
Enabling Of Contact With Distant Relatives
Having been researching my family history since the late 1960s I have used a variety of research sites. However, this year is the first that I have used FindMyPast which, through access to the 1939 Register has allowed me to find and contact relatives in England of whom I new little about. Through these contacts I have been able to add further to my family history; and, I have been able to provide them with all the information I have found about the family in England and Australia. Historical photographs have also been exchanged which has further enhanced the experience of family history.
There are times where I find getting rid of unwanted hints a little frustrating but overall FindMyPast has been well worth the investment.
Value For Money
Second Year And Counting !!!!
We are now in our second year with FMP and have been pleased with the ease and speed in which we have been able to progress. Everything is so easy to understand and there are so many avenues to explore, we have no regrets whatsoever, plus we are learning so much about our ancestors.
Value For Money
Extremely Useful Site For All Family Historians
I love the fact that you can find your ancestors who were around in 1939 and the occupations they had at that stage. After 1911 it can be so difficult to trace some people and it's certainly helped me solve problems. I also love the newspapers that I've found invaluable. I only have the Uk subscription but as most of my family were born and remained in the area that's enough for me.
All the other regular records are available, all the censuses which we all need. Sometimes other sites have records which are not so accurate.
Value For Money
Very Good Site.
FindMyPast is an easy program to use. If anything, they throw too much information, too quickly at you for novices. But, if you have the time, inclination, and dedication to organize and follow it all, it is a GREAT site.
Like any program, the more proficient you are with a computer, the more you'll get out of this site. Study a good book about ancestry research and how to organize it, then get plenty of the recommended forms ready before you begin.
As with any ancestry program, absolute accuracy is nearly impossible to verify - especially once you get into the 1700's or older. However, if you want as much information as possible, with the least effort, FINDMYPAST IS THE PLACE FOR YOU!
Value For Money
Easy To Use
The search mechanics are efficient and, compared to some family histoty sites, easy to navigate. I have been able te extract a huge amount of data for the families that I am researching, using official records such as the Gro index, to validate my findings. Census returns are well transcribed. The 1939 register is indispensable, even if the transcription quality is sometimes poor. However, a bit of intelligent thought and lateral thinking allows you to get round even that.
The family tree maker is esy to use and navigate, with the possibility to export a gedcom file.
All in all I thoroughly recommend Find my Past.
Value For Money
The Past Can Explain The Present
As a newcomer I found the site easy to navigate. I love the way the family tree is presented and the amount of detail that can be attached to it. I am always impressed by the availability of census forms and the images of birth, marriage, death and military information which contain details that often lead me down another route. Since I subscribed the amount of records available has increased and I have discovered new facts that I had not previously known.
Value For Money
Have Found Records Not Found Elsewhere
Find my past is a fantastic back up website for researchers. I always use this website when I can’t find records elsewhere as its search engine is not as broad and unnecessary. From the 1939 register point of view, nobody can beat it. They need to improve search facilities, especially on marriage searches, to easily include spouse’s name. You can put this name under “key words”, but it’s not obvious to a newbie.
Value For Money
A Programme That Works
Worth it for the records alone. List of people on your site could be better. It is a bit of a nuisance . Still a good site to be for research, especially Ireland.
I would recommend Find my past to anyone. There is no perfect programme but this is close.
Value For Money
Easy To Use
I have been an amateur genealogist for many years compiling not only my own tree but also those of friends. I find this site excellent for diverse information not available on other sites, cross referencing information from various sources and also its vast quantity of online documents. I only use it for UK records at the moment but am thinking about updating my subscription to world wide records. This site, like most others sites, is easy to use once you have spent a few hours finding your way around. I would strongly recommend this site to both seasoned genealogist and those just starting out. But a word of warning - once you get started the bug bites you and be prepared to spend hours just trying to find one more thing before bedtime!
Value For Money
Family History Research
great site for family historians.
would like to see when time allows for earlier records that are still and microfilm
to be listed and if possible transcribed.
Q&A
To those who have commented on the Data Sets that FMP have and are adding as a positive, I would ask you do you actually trust the results that the new site gives you when searching?
No matter how many unique data sets FindMyPast will have now or in the future, if you cannot trust that the search results are correct then how can you say it is still a good site for genealogy research? The new site does NOT give consistent results over a large number of their data sets. In fact some searches are downright misleading and wrong (0 results when in fact there should be many results). Also features from the old site have been proved to have been removed from the new site. So yes, the current score is NOT a true reflection of the new "improved" site.
All search results are purely a guide as to where to start looking. I have found the new site far more user friendly, I like the fact that I can change a detail of the search at the top of the page without having to exit and re-search for that detail. I find that it is quicker & crashes & freezes less than the old one too. The newspaper searches, which are the best and most useful part of the site, seem to be better than before.
I find ancestry extremely frustrating as it throws up too many completely irrelevant searches yet the answer I am looking for with all the correct info will appear a long way down the list, while FMP seems to have managed to stick to the facts that I have inputted. I also like the fact it hasn't gone the way of ancestry in that it doesn't perpetuate other people's errors by assuming that if a large number of people have repeated a mistake then it can't be a mistake, FMP just sticks to the data.
There will always be people who don't like change. I think many of these comments reflect that fact, and I think the score for FMP is reflective of the service offered & received. I'm sure the moaning will stop once people get used to it, I think it is far less clunky than the old site & actually found someone I didn't on the old site or on ancestry despite 30 years of looking! The way the search results are listed makes it much easier to pick out an individual even if they are somewhere you are not expecting.
Do you not think that the current rating on Find My Past of 4.2/5 is grossly misleading? The company itself states that the old site is gone forever and therefore the position now should be influenced only by comments relating to the new site, the majority of which are 1 star (2 star at best).
Quite frankly, I think that the rating for the new site should be 0. I spent over a week trying to do an address search for the 1881, 1891, 1901 & 1911 UK census'. The only one I got a positive response to was the 1901 census, the rest returned 0 results. Having the names of two families from that census I went on to Ancestry and found one of those families there in the 1891 census at the same address. 0 result from FMP!
Not only the lack of results was frustrating but the fact that one now has to waste time applying filter after filter to obtain the information that was readily available on the old system is also very frustrating. I also tried the new system out by redoing searches that I had previously done on the old system to see if I was over reacting, I wasn't. Again, the numerous filters made the whole process extremely tedious and time wasting.There is an old saying that perhaps they should heed, "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it." I am a seasoned researcher and have been a subscriber to FMP since 2008 and I have always sung their praises, up until now that is. I will not be renewing my subscription when it falls due next month. Dingdongdi