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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.
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.
- 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 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.
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)
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!
Click the button below to check out
Ancestry.co.uk for yourself and start researching your
family tree today...
Ancestry.co.uk - User
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