what is the best uk genealogy website?

Question

For a novice researcher - seems to be between ancestry.co.uk, genesreunited.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk

Answer 1

Ancestry.co.uk has perhaps the most records, but their transcriptions are poor so it can sometimes be difficult to find what you need.



Findmypast.co.uk has all the censuses, including 1911, is strong on parish records and generally has good quality records, though can be harder to find your way around at the start - definitely take a look at the video tutorials.



GenesReunited is worth joining not so much for the records (though their Gold and Platinum are good value and now have better records as they get them from findmypast rather than thegenealogist) but for the family tree matching service - it's free to put your tree up and only £10 to make contact with other people who are researching the same ancestors. This can be a very cost effective way of connecting with distant relatives or people who have the missing piece to your family history.



I really wouldn't bother with thegenealogist. It's cheap but they don't have the records and the indexing is very poor, despite all the claims they make on their site. There have been independent studies conducted by Peter Christian (see The Genealogist's Internet) and others which shows a very high error level for their records. Also when I tried it, you could not access the subscription from different computers - not great when you've got a laptop, a desktop at home and one at work, which you use at different times.

Answer 2

By far the best is http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/freesub/?rcode=adwords

they have a free trial offer at the moment, no card details required.

I have had a subscription with them for five years and can thoroughly recommend them.



For BMD searches, in general for pre 1930s complete, but coverage ever increasing, use this site for ease of searching by county, or whole country (not Scotland or N.Ireland)

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

Answer 3

None of 'em to begin with. Use ancestry at public libraries for free to Chase down bmd index entries, pay for the certs and then go to census with any of the subscription sites..

Answer 4

Scotlands People by a mile - but not everyone has the privilege of Scottish ancestry !!

Answer 5

We have found findmypast.co.uk the best for us.