ancestry or 1837?

I'm thinking of subscribing - which has the greater coverage?

Martin Brown...

You can try Ancestry for ~ Ł7 for one weeks access and 20 census sheets
download and full indexed search on 1861 thru 1901 Censuses. If you are
just starting out that is by far the better buy.

BMD access is free as is the 1881 and 1901 Census after a fashion.

Some of the Genealogy software packages include a month's free
membership of Ancestry. If you work carefully you can strip mine all
their relevant data back to 1861 using that months free access.

Just remember to cancel your subscription before the month is up and
follow their cancellation instructions to the exact letter.

Peter Goodey...

Are you talking about civil registration? If so, don't pay ancestry just
for that. It's only the FreeBMD database and not as up-to-date as FreeBMD
itself.

Michael Corby...

So what does 1837online give me that those don't?

Charani...

1837online is an index to all the civil registrations that were made
between 1 July 1837 and 31 December 2002.

FreeBMD is currently up to about 1910.

Ancestry is behind FreeBMD.

If there's specific entry you're looking for, I have some spare
credits atm, so I don't mind having a look for you. I can't do an
extensive search though because I don't have that many credits left.

Michael Corby...

Thank you so much for the generous offer. I appreciate that this costs you
money:

I need a married name for Stella GRANGER baptised 15 May 1921 at Drayton
Bassett church in Staffs. Her parents were living in Leicestershire when
she was baptised, so I suspect a marriage is likely to be in Leics. I have
no marriage date, nor spouse's name.

Charani...

Stella married William BOND Loughbro' Vol 7a Page 339 in the June qtr
of 1943. As you rightly suspected, the marriage took place in Leics
:)) I've save the images of the index pages if you want them.

Michael Corby...

You're a gem.

Charani...

Michael Corby...

Yes please.

Charani...

On their way :))

Michael Corby...

It certainly does :-)

Charani...

Great

Thanks again,

Charani...

YW :))

Mike.

Jill....

I would subscribe to Ancestry - with occasional use of 1837online when
absolutely necessary.
With Ancestry - You can follow a great deal more of your family through
1851 - 1901 census's for no more cost - so you can fill in a lot more of the
cousins and brothers and also rule out potential family lines.
FreeBMD is better than the ancestry BMD's as we all know its more up to date
but its there to compare with
1837online census I have found to be VERY full of many many more errors than
even ancestry for all lines of my families. and you still have to keep
paying

Work out by every other route before resorting to 1837online - that way you
cut it down to the barest minimum cost instead of using up credits because
they are there.
ONe of the FH magazines are doing 10 free credits this month and there are
various offers like that around the year -- used wisely you can save a lot
of money
only my opinion which is worth not a lot :~))

Many thanks for your generosity, Charani.

Charani...

YW :))

David J Grimshaw...

Correction on what Brad has stated concerning the index's at 1837 online.
The index images are availble from 1837 to the 4th Quarter of 1983.
They are not available from there on however from 1984 to December 2003
the index's is searchable for a given surname and will return all of a
given surname just do not try Smith or Jones as you will pay for it big
time.
If you have an uncommon surname then fire ahead, ideal for One Namers.
As for the Smiths and Jones I would recommend useing Forenames as well
for the 1984 to 2003 search.

Hope this helps.

Martin Brown...

Coverage between 1911 and 1984 but with limited indexing. You should
also consider searching the microfiche BDM at your nearest large public
library. I find microfiche faster for searching a decade than
downloading multiple pages from 1837 even on broadband. YMMV

Also worth looking to see if any local efforts have indexed other BDM
info fully. Some parts of Norfolk, Lancashire and Durham are good.

Martin Brown

Serena Blanchflower...

FreeBMD is a work in progress and isn't yet complete. It does have
the great advantages though of being both free and fully searchable.
1837online is complete (for records from 1837 - 2003) but isn't fully
indexed; only the first and last names on each page are indexed, so
you have to search through it to find the entries you are interested
in. You also have to pay for each image you look at.

Mike.