best resource for family tree?

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axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
Anyone used any of the family tree web sites?

Most of them get pricey, anyone found any good free resources?
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  • wibblewibble Frets: 1083
    I remember seeing an offer on https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
    looks like the free access offer ends today. How free it actually is I don't know though!


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  • MtBMtB Frets: 921
    Have you done any general internet searches on the surname yet? I did a google search on my family name and found that someone had already done a lot of the legwork for me in their own search, and then made it generally available on the internet. 
    Other than that, ancestry - as above  
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    wibble said:
    I remember seeing an offer on https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
    looks like the free access offer ends today. How free it actually is I don't know though!


    Thanks for that, I just whipped over for a look around. I even found that someone has done some family tree work relating to my grandma's family, but I can't access that without joining up. Darn it ...
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  • boogiemanboogieman Frets: 12314
    My wife did her family tree some years back and used genes reunited to start off with. They match up your family tree with others who’ve got similar names, roots, dates etc but you’ll still need some basic information to start with. She then went to the local registry offices that held older records and parish records were also useful. She managed to get her family history traced back to the late 1600s eventually. 

    Couple of other services that are good resources. My cousin has used Ancestry.com for my dad’s side of the family. One of my wife’s cousins used a company called Sweetgenes to do all the research for him, I’ve no idea of the cost but I can’t imagine it was cheap. 
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  • springheadspringhead Frets: 1583
    I did some family tree research some years back.  It is inevitable that at some point you'll need the Ancestry site.  However some free info is available, I made good use of Free BMD:


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  • I subscribed three days ago and have already found far more info than previous family research. The census info alone is incredible, if you link a census record to a person there’s a good chance the site will find the parents.

    On a personal level, it seems I might be one if the Welshest people ever,  with all of my ancestors (bar one from mid Wales, very weirdly from the town I went to high school) being from south west wales, all welsh speaking farmers, labourers or coal miners. I have yet to to find any connection to royalty or any black sheep! One branch goes back as far as 1620 in Cardigan. 

    To conclude, I recommend the site to anyone with an interest in their family history. A tenner or so a month seems worth it for the info that is available (I have also taken their DNA test. All welsh, no suprises!)
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    I subscribed three days ago and have already found far more info than previous family research. The census info alone is incredible, if you link a census record to a person there’s a good chance the site will find the parents.

    On a personal level, it seems I might be one if the Welshest people ever,  with all of my ancestors (bar one from mid Wales, very weirdly from the town I went to high school) being from south west wales, all welsh speaking farmers, labourers or coal miners. I have yet to to find any connection to royalty or any black sheep! One branch goes back as far as 1620 in Cardigan. 

    To conclude, I recommend the site to anyone with an interest in their family history. A tenner or so a month seems worth it for the info that is available (I have also taken their DNA test. All welsh, no suprises!)
    Presumably the Ancestry site?
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  • Yes @axisus ;
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  • crunchmancrunchman Frets: 11413
    The good thing about ancestry is that someone else is likely to have done a lot of leg work for you.  My mum joined it, and got back to the mid 19th century and found someone that had already been researched by someone else.  She got several generations further back because someone else had already done the research.

    She eventually got back to the early 1600s on one branch, and found someone reasonably notable.  I Googled him and discovered that his wife (only wife as far as I know - so also my ancestor) was the daughter of the BIshop of London, who was from a noble Welsh family.  His genealogy was well known, so I can get all the way back to William the Conqueror and beyond (via King John's illegitimate daughter).
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  • HerrMetalHerrMetal Frets: 533
    The bad thing about ancestry is you might find they came from Basingstoke. 
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  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    edited August 2020
    On a personal level, it seems I might be one if the Welshest people ever,  with all of my ancestors (bar one from mid Wales, very weirdly from the town I went to high school) being from south west wales, all welsh speaking farmers, labourers or coal miners. I have yet to to find any connection to royalty or any black sheep! One branch goes back as far as 1620 in Cardigan. 
    I'm not saying this to try to be funny, but I'm surprised you were able to trace it back that far.  My maternal grandmother was called Davies, also from a line of Welsh farmers (as far as I know) and I've always assumed that with the common Welsh surnames it would be really hard to trace back very far before things get confusing.  Maybe that's not the case after all.

    My father's surname is much more unusual and therefore perhaps more traceable!
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  • Axe_meisterAxe_meister Frets: 4612
    I did the minimum payment on ancestry and did intense search on ancestry.com Managed to trace my family back to 1675. Was really quite interesting. Family were essentially farm hands living next to a windmill near Aylesbury, hence the surname Windmill.
    It was my then great great grandfather who became a coachman travelling between stately homes around London. His son became a saddle maker, and my grandfather a tool maker. My dad started off as a toolmaker, became a profession musician, a publican and a politician, with myself an IT professional. So interesting to see when social mobility happens. Also sad to see records of distant family dieing in war or at a really young age.
    Also traced my wife's family. Funny enough my father in law is the spitting image of Owsom Wells, I even managed to find a family tree linked to a Wells family, who live in the next village along from where H.G. Wells came from.
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  • MagicPigDetectiveMagicPigDetective Frets: 2992
    edited August 2020
    Philly_Q said:
    On a personal level, it seems I might be one if the Welshest people ever,  with all of my ancestors (bar one from mid Wales, very weirdly from the town I went to high school) being from south west wales, all welsh speaking farmers, labourers or coal miners. I have yet to to find any connection to royalty or any black sheep! One branch goes back as far as 1620 in Cardigan. 
    I'm not saying this to try to be funny, but I'm surprised you were able to trace it back that far.  My maternal grandmother was called Davies, also from a line of Welsh farmers (as far as I know) and I've always assumed that with the common Welsh surnames it would be really hard to trace back very far before things get confusing.  Maybe that's not the case after all.

    My father's surname is much more unusual and therefore perhaps more traceable!
    You well that’s what I had assumed. My descendants are all Rees, Evans, Davies, Morris etc However you’d be suprised how effortlessly it has been. Give it a go. Census records have a wealth of info and can easily take you back to 1841. The site also finds potential parents for you, and provides hints, which are remarkably accurate. There are then records of births, deaths, marriages, etc. However as @crunchman says, often others have done the hard work already. In my case I found another tree which linked with a great great grandmother, which went back to 1620.

     I have since googled this person with the surname of Picton. According to 
    https://www.geni.com/people/Sir-John- Picton/6000000022893170509 this can take me all the way back to a Sir living in a castle in 1240. This info seems a bit less reliable but who knows. He might have been of Norman or Flemish descent, but no one is sure. There is even a website by an American dedicated to researching the Picton family. Mindblowing. So much discovered over the course of a week. An addictive new hobby this is.
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  • Philly_QPhilly_Q Frets: 22516
    @MagicPigDetective ;Very interesting.  I may take it up when we go into the winter lockdown....
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  • sev112sev112 Frets: 2739
    Reminded me that I need to cancel my ancestry subscriptiom
    learned loads of really useful stuff such as family members who who were born in the Mile End workhouse in east London.

    was really good fun

    what I really would like is to be able to download my ancestry family tree so I don’t have to pay them £13 a month or whatever it is

    how do people download / store  / save their trees?

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  • greejngreejn Frets: 127
    I have used ancestry and Scotlands people, both good. One strategy is to join for a month, leave a while and then do another session after a few months.
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  • greejngreejn Frets: 127
    Your tree will remain in storage, you don't have to have membership...
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  • paulnb57paulnb57 Frets: 3044


    how do people download / store  / save their trees?

    Im not currently a member on Ancestry, but can still view my tree, I sent a copy of my pedigree to my cousin in Oz, recently by taking a screenshot....
    Stranger from another planet welcome to our hole - Just strap on your guitar and we'll play some rock 'n' roll

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  • Ancestry.com have increased the accuracy of their DNA results. Mine is pretty conclusive!
    Anyone else want to share? 




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