Re: ancestry.co.uk alternatives?

Fenny wrote:

[snip]

I've mentioned them before. I have a subscription with them.

As for comparisons. It's a while since I've used Ancestry, so I'm not
completely up to date with what they offer. The biggest niggle I have
with www.thegenealogist.co.uk is that their census data is split by county
by year and is not complete. So, if you want to look up someone who lived
in Lancashire, you select Lancashire census for any single year. Some
counties only have partial entries or no entries at all for certain
censuses. And if you don't know where the person lived, you can't do a
countrywide search.

Have you told them this? As someone that worked on these kind of
systems, it's often the case that they'll make a change if a few people
ask for it. Just a thought. :)


The parish records are patchy - like the census, they only cover some
places and you have to search by area.

I have found some interesting stuff in their London directories, but I
don't know whether these are available elsewhere online.

The BMD index gives the required pages by quarter. The layout of the
results is easier than either Ancestry or 1837online, because they are
laid out in 4 columns by year and the links turn from blue to red once you
have looked at them.

Developing web sites that disable the functionality of links changing
colour once they are viewed is, IMHO, criminal! It's unhelpful and
unnecessary. Cynically speaking, are they trying to get people to visit
the same page more than once so that they can charge more? Anyway, if
you do get in touch with them, you might ask them to change their
styles.css file by changing the line that reads:
a.view2:visited {color: #2F63AB}
to:
a.view2:visited {color: darkred}

(or something like that)

That'll fix it. :)

Once you load a page, it's easy to go to the next or
previous page of the index.

The annual unlimited sub is about UKP65, but for the number of straight
BMD lookups I've done, I've had my money's worth. I just wish I'd known
about it before spending a packet with 1837online.

The restriction to a single computer is a PITA, because I can't work when
I'm staying with the family, so I lost 10 days at Christmas. As Ma is
interested in the research, it would be nice to show her some stuff
online. As for the lookups, I tend to take the view that if I'm only
doing odd ones here and there, it's no biggy. It may turn out to be a
lead to a long lost relative of mine.

Hmmm - this must be "fixable". I might take a look if I get a moment.
;)

.

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