Genealogy Chat

Another Ancestry Free Weekend.
From tomorrow Saturday 23rd till Sunday 24th.

Suppose that means the site will be clogged up & paying members won´t be able to get access.
The site has been very unreliable all week. Can´t see it getting any better before Monday.
Good job our ancestors are all dead & will still be where we left them.

Many people are and have been having problems for months now, so this will just add to it.

Gets my goat, every Bank Holiday, when subscribers have time to do reasearch, they are in the main unable to because of all the freeloaders!!!!

I wonder why people have to be so rude and patronising towards others who can't afford the luxury of Ancestry's inflated fees?
Ancestry is just the same as any other company, attracting new members is more important to them than looking after existing ones.
This is hardly the fault of the 'freeloaders' who are fully entitled to take advantage of the offer.

I save up to buy my annual fee. I am a pensioner on a fixed budget. I do not smoke, I rarely drink. So the fee is my gift to myself.

Not rude, just get fed up with the free weekends, which clog up the site I pay for.....

And as they now do so many, I doubt if they actually get any new members. All people have to do is wait a few weeks until the next one. Or go to their local library and use the Free access there.

Patronsing? Do you own a dictionary, if so look the word up. There is nothing patronising in my thread. Just a fed up comment.

have to agree with DazedConfused.
I´m a pensioner too & also have to save for my Ancestry membership which costs me about 2 pounds per week.
I don´t drink or indulge in a hectic social life either.
I also have to save up for any certs I need, or any other expenses. This is my only hobby, so don´t think i´m being unreasonable to expect to be able to use the site when I want to.

Dazed & wisecld - so I suppose you refuse to do any free lookups on FMP when they have a freebie.

Thanks for the heads up, Jean

To be honest, no I dont do free lookups on FMP.
I paid for access by their very cheap offer a couple of years ago & renew at the cheap price evey year.
I rarely use it as I find the searches very confusing.

Never seen Dazed and confused do any look ups....maybe she does not like as she calls them freeloaders.

I have Ancestry and FMP and dont have any of these so called problems everyone else is supposed to be having.

Being a pensioner means you dont normally work, so a couple of days out of the week should not be a problem.

Oh look Ancestry is working perfectly ok for me .....freeloaders cannot be using it :-D

I've been using Ancestry for months and not had any problems with it, but my sub has just run out, so I shall be freeloading this weekend. I've been using it on and off today without any problems so doesn't seem to be unduly overloaded.

Do we not pay for libraries btw, and so by extension for the 'free' use of Ancestry there? But most libraries will be closed over the bank holiday ( as they are in the evenings) so freeloaders are left with no alternative but to take up the offer if they can only research when not at work but cannot afford subs at the moment.

I am also a pensioner .......................... and we in other countries get nowhere near the subsidies etc that you guys in the UK get, such as free bus passes, help with the cost of heating, free prescriptions, free hospitals, etc etc.

Nor do our libraries offer free use of Ancestry, so far as I know.



My subscription to Ancestry is now a gift from a family member


I do not have a sub to FMP ................... I occasionally do a search for free on FMP (NOT on one of their free for the weekend offers), and try to sort out whether the site actually has anything of value to me that could lead me to ask for a subscription to that as a gift from another family member (who is always asking).

Nada so far :-)



Even my sub to GR is a gift.




and yes, I understand exactly where DC and wisechild are coming from.



I have had problems with ancestry the last 2 or 3 days .................... getting "this page is not available". Ten minutes later, it is available :-S


Overall, I think Beverley's comment was rather patronising in and of itself, and ignorant of the true facts.

I am also a pensioner, my genealogy site subs are one of my treats (although I do have the odd drink, I smoke, and have a quite active social life)

I have had no problems this weekend (or the past few months) accessing Ancestry. Don't understand what people are whinging about.

I endorse BeverleyW's comments in that business is business. If something's offered for free then why should people be castigated for taking up that offer?

I do wonder how many of us who have, or have had, Ancestry for a long time made use of the 2 week free trial when we started out? I know I did :-)

Surely it's better for genealogy as a whole that new people are encouraged to pursue it by having a carrot dangled in front of them? ( which of us would turn down a discount or a free weekend on a site we don't currently subscribe to?) ....many of those people who try it will be bitten by the bug, and who knows one of them just might be the person to knock down my brickwall in time?

Just call me Pollyanna ;-) lol

I have to disagree with you, Sylvia. We pensioners in Canada get free prescriptions and free hospital.. Actually everyone in Canada gets free hospital not just pensioners. We also get free access to Ancestry at our libraries, at least we do here in Ontario. Although you're correct that we don't get free bus passes or help with home heating.

Margee ...........................


we don't get free prescriptions here, unless we are below the poverty line (ca $15,000 per annum in BC, that's about £7,000) ....................

otherwise, we have to pay full cost of all medications, until you reach a maximum per year under the province's Pharmacare programme ......................... that maximum for us has never been reached!


OR claim back the cost from Extended Health Insurance, if you have it.


We do have Extended .................. it costs us about $2,000 a year, and has a $1,000 deductible before they will start refunding anything .................... refunds are usually 75-80% of the full cost.


I agree we get free hospital, and free drugs while in hospital ............. not otherwise


Actually, I'm quite glad that Pharmacare does NOT cover OH and I ...........

.................... they determine which drug you are allowed to have based on cost (ie, cheapest), and that often is NOT the one that your doctor has prescribed, or even the one that works best for you.

They even determine when you can refill a prescription ....................... eg, if you are going away, and your medication will run out while you are away, they CAN say "no, no, no"

I had a run-in with a pharmacist at my local drug store a few years ago because I wanted to do precisely that for a 4 week holiday when I only had 3 weeks' worth of medication .............. she refused to give me the refill.

She said something about "you can't expect Pharmacare to pay for your holiday" ??????????????? :-S :-S :-S :-S

I had to do a rant about the fact that we paid the full cost of the prescription and therefore I thought that Pharmacare could not stop me getting a refill 1 week in advance of the allowable.



I've never actually checked at mu local library to see if they have ancestry ....... they may well have!

RR .......................

I can't remember whether I used the free trial or not!


If I did, I continued with it after the trial.



I do remember picking up somewhere the idea that Ancestry should be notified on day 10 or 11 of the 14 day trial if you were not going to continue ......................


it can take them 3 days to get their act together, and they send the charge to your credit card immediately at the end of the 14th day ...................


and, of course, you have to give them your cc number and etails to start the free trial :-)

Yes I did the free trial with them, cancelled before my two weeks were up and joined GR .....well soon went back to ancestry :-D

Then took out the 1911 census only (6 months) with FMP... When that finished took out the full sub

I took out the sub or credits to the 1901 Census with the site itself



and I did the same when the 1911 Census was available.



and then waited for them to be available on ancestry if I wanted to know any more.



I can still access the 1911 site from http://www.1911census.co.uk/



and all the records I looked at back in 2011/2012 are still stored under My Records on there.

Sylvia - re Ancestry at libraries - your local one does have it - I think you can access it at home if you quote your library card bar code. The 3 municipalities to your north also have it, but I think neither of your neighbours to the east do.

thanks mg!



I have a sub, and will always have a sub, so I've never checked it out.