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Ancestry.co.uk Review

Ancestry.co.uk is our favorite UK-based genealogy website! Read the reviews and user reviews here to find out more about Ancestry.co.uk.

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Star Ratings:

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Editor's Overall Rating:
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Ancestry.co.uk offers three membership packages, all of which come with a free 14-day trial. You may cancel your subscription at any point within the free trial period without being billed, but you do need to provide your credit details in order to access the free trial. The packages on offer are as follows:

  • Essentials Membership
    • Annual - £6.95/month (billed in one annual payment)
    • Monthly - £10.95/month
  • Premium Membership
    • Annual - £8.95/month (billed in one annual payment)
    • Monthly - £12.95/month
  • World Membership
    • Annual - £12.95/month (billed in one annual payment)
    • Monthly - £18.95/month

You can also pay as you go with 12 record views for 14 days at a charge of £14.95 with a prepaid voucher. The differences between the above membership options are discussed in the "Joining Ancestry.co.uk" section later in this review.

 

Features of Ancestry:

  • Ancestry.co.uk is a subsidiary of the largest genealogy website in the world, Ancestry.com. As it shares all of the features of its parent site, it provides access to more database information than any other genealogy search site, including the following:
    • Roughly 9 million names are added to the database each week!
    • Roughly 25,000 family stories are added by members weekly!
    • Roughly 200,000 photographs are uploaded weekly!
    • Access to Ancestry.com's 4 Billion name records
    • World membership which provides acces to a number of international records (including US, Canadian and Australian records).
  • Uploading an existing tree file to Ancestry from a family tree software program that you're already using (like Family Tree Maker, PAF, or Legacy) is easy. Ancestry directly supports the data files from the following software products:
    • Family Tree Maker (.ftw)
    • Family Tree Maker backup file (.fbk)
    • Personal Ancestral File (.paf)
    • Family DataBase (.fdb)
    • Legacy 3.0 (.leg)
    • Zipped gedcom & images (.gedz)
  • Use the "Shoebox" facility to better manage records or entries which you may wish to come back to later. Simply save an entry in your 'shoebox' and return to it at any time when you have had time to evaluate it further.
  • Extensive Search facilities allow you to narrow searches down through names, locations, dates and record types so that only the most appropriate results are returned. Similarly, the search facility allows you to be vague in what information you search by so that even the slightest shred of information can set you on the road to finding your next 'lead'.
  • Create beautiful pages that showcase your documents, photos and charts. You can print your pages at home or order a professionally printed, coffee-table quality book. All this, and more, using the MyCanvas digitisation software.
  • Display up to 9 generations of your family tree in a poster suitable for framing. Ancestry.co.uk also provides a number of other printable documents which can be given as gifts or kept as keepsakes of your research.
  • Ancestry.co.uk has a community area in which you can share research or ideas with other Ancestry members or contact those members with research interests similar to yours. Let other researchers or family members find you.
  • Access to the Ancestry.com message boards which are public postings from members of the community about research localities and surnames. There are currently over 17 million posts on more than 161,000 boards.
  • The "Member Connections" Service allows you to get in touch (anonymously or otherwise) with other users who are performing the same or similar searches as you. Not only does this help you in your search, but it also means you might just get in touch with a living relative from elsewhere in the world!
  • Keep a profile on Ancestry.co.uk to inform other users of your progress with your search, store information about yourself and your family history, and allow other users to contact you about similar searches that you may be interested in.
  • Search the Member Directory to view another member's profile and contact them anonymously.
  • Family trees can be stored in the OneTreeWorld section and accessed easily. Submit your family tree to the OneTreeWorld section to make it searchable by other users, and use the family trees submitted by other users in your research.
  • Free Monthly e-Newsletters keep you up to date about new record collections, advice from genealogy experts and read success stories from other Ancestry.co.uk users.
  • Regular Improvements to census documents and records to improve image quality and make them easier to read and evaluate.
  • Expert Connect allows you to enlist the support of an expert genealogist to complete a range of activities (small or large), from taking a photograph or a location or gravestone, to completing a section of a family tree.
  • Take part in the Ancestry.com World Archives Project to help preserve historical records for future use and research.
  • A new feature on Ancestry.com is the learning center which is perfect for the beginner. Friendly videos are available which can make a somewhat daunting task feel simpler and easier. The UK videos are hosted by Tony Robinson!
  • Articles explain how to get the most out of different types of documentation (immigration reports, census documents etc.) and how best to utilise them for your research needs.
  • Complete FAQs and Technical support, available by phone and email.
  • Ancestry Store - browse and buy books, magazines, software and more from the Ancestry Store.
  • Ancestry Blog - keep up to date with the news and improvements at Ancestry.co.uk directly from those behind the scenes!

 

Joining Ancestry.co.uk:

Joining Ancestry.co.uk really couldn't be easier. You just enter your first and last names and your email address to set up a free account. In order to have full access to the features available on Ancestry.co.uk, you need to upgrade your membership to either UK Essentials, Premium or World membership, which differ as follows:

  • UK Essentials Membership
    • Create, grow and share your family tree online
    • Learn family history hints and tips at the online Ancestry Learning Centre
    • Search key record collections - Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes and Census information
    • Monthly e-Newsletters to keep you up to date with developments at Ancestry.co.uk
    • Get help from the world's largest online family history community
    • Access the largest online collection of British WWI military records, including pension, service and medal records.
    • Access further collections, including British Phone Book records, newspaper archives and university alumni registers.
  • UK Premium Membership
    • All of the benefits of Essentials Membership, plus...
    • Access to pre-1837 parish and probate records
    • Explore the Irish record collection
  • World Membership
    • All of the benefits of Premium Membership, plus...
    • Access to the complete Ancestry collection, including records from the US, Canada, Australia and much more.

 

Performing a Search on Ancestry.co.uk:

A basic search to Ancestry.co.uk allows you to search by the following parameters:

  • First and middle names
  • Last name
  • Birth year
  • Death year
  • Birth location
  • Death location

A more advanced search allows you to search by the following criteria:

  • All of the above
  • Residences
  • Relatives
  • Marriage year
  • Gender
  • Race/Nationality
  • Keywords
  • Use Exact or Ranged options
  • Prioritise a particular collection (e.g. UK Records)
  • Limit Search to particular records (e.g. Census, MIlitary or Card Catalogue)

 

Editor's Verdict:

Ancestry.co.uk is the UK subsidiary of the world-leading genealogy site, Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com (our No. 1 rated site in this category) has for many years, been at the forefront of the Internet genealogy market, providing a comprehensive and excellent quality service for its users. Users of Ancestry.co.uk have access to all of the same, high quality materials as users of Ancestry.com have, but simply access the site through the UK portal. Additionally, the UK site has a number of alternative membership options that allow UK users to tailor their use of the site to a specific need or budget. Ancestry.com, as arguably the most comprehensive online genealogy site in the world is the perfect tool to help you complete your family history research, and Ancestry.co.uk simply opens up this quality material to a wider UK audience.

While Ancestry.co.uk has access to all of the same data that users of the Ancestry.com website has, we were particularly impressed by the additional features offered to UK users by Ancestry.co.uk. Ancestry.co.uk allows users to learn the origins of their family name and those of their ancestors using Ancestry Family Facts feature. The stories surrounding the origins of surnames are often fascinating and make for very good reading. Furthermore, you can use Ancestry.co.uk's Historical Records database showing the Royal Naval Division Casualties of The Great War from the UK (1914-1924), and also the new WWI Medal Rolls Index Card Collection (1914-1922), the most complete listing of individuals who fought in the British Army in WWI. We were particularly impressed, finally, with the UK adapted Learning centre videos, intended to make understanding the process of family history research easier. The UK videos (hosted by Tony Robinson) are not simply copies of the US versions, but are UK specific, focussing on UK record collections, as well as general research advice.

Ancestry.co.uk offers three membership options, which allow users to tailor their approach to researching family history according to which resources they require, or their budget. Essentials membership is ideal for newcomers to the online genealogy world, allowing users access to Birth, Marriage and Death indexes and census information from the UK. For a little more, users can access more in-depth information, such as pre-1837 parish information and Irish record collections, with the Ancestry.co.uk Premium UK membership option. As with Ancestry.com, the most expensive membership package includes full access to all documentation and records featured anywhere on Ancestry.com, internationally.

Ancestry.co.uk received a "Gold Award" rating in a recent review by "Web User", one of the UK 's leading Internet magazines. Ancestry's rich tree building and content features (photos, stories, personal profiles etc.) as well as extensiveness of records and the ease of searching such resources, were singled out in the review as being particularly impressive. If you're a UK user, membership of Ancestry.co.uk is certainly an excellent option in terms of both value, and providing access to a wide range of resources with which to research family history. With a 14-day free trial, we certainly think that there's little to lose in checking out Ancestry.co.uk, and seeing what it has to offer!

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