Genealogy Chat

Hi Kerry, I found I could get a 14-day free trial with Ancestry by registering online, but decided to phone them about something (can't remember what) and they told me that if you register by phone the free trial is 30 days. The number is Freephone 0800 783 1334. As a new user I am kicking myself for not signing up earlier. Good luck Duncan

To obtain a certificate you need the info you just found on the BMD's (including the district, volume and page number). Go to the GRO site (google GRO and it'll come up) and order the cert from there.

Only by buying his birth certificate from GRO online for £7 - that will give his parents names. You need to look through the complete bmd index (have you done that for this chap as the freebmd is not complete) for the sister.

Sorry to ask again I have just been an ancestry and found my Robert Potts Ridley in first qtr of 1907 who i think could be the chap whop adopted my Dad. Can I find his mother from here and siblings. All I want to know is did he have a sister called Lily? Can anyone help. PLEASE????

Can I just buy a birth cert without knowing his mothers name? All I have is his place of birth and a possible month of Jan/Feb/March

I think your first challenge would be to find his mother's cert. I suspect that you will end up needing to go through the original images, which can be time consuming, but if you know her surname and her mother's maiden name it can be fairly straightforward. Searching Ancestry can become an art in itself, but once you work out how to use it...things get easier. From the main search page, select to go into the BMD's then from the complete BMD's select the one you want, put in a surname and a year + range and away you go. Be sure to make note as you view each one so you can keep track of where you're upto with it.

Many Thanks for your replies. Will try and see where I get with it. Can anyone give me tips on how to use it best? I am mainly trying to find info on my late fathers side, have his birth cert and adoption cert with names. With his mothers name would it be easy to find his mother's siblings and parents? regards Kerry

It very much depends on which resources you're wanting to access. The BMD's are free on Ancestry as is the 1881 census. All you have to do is register with them. They usually have trials for thirty days or whatever too. But if you're going to subscribe to them properly then it's worth looking at going in through Lost Cousins, apparently you can get an Ancestry membership via a link on there for £55. (not tried it myself) That all said, Ancestry has been invaluable for me.

There are huge numbers of threads about this on this board if you search. Personally I wouldn't be without ancestry... and that seems to be the concensus

Difficult to advise specifically, without knowing what sort of info you are after............howver, generally speaking, Ancestry is the best by far......... The one thing I would say, is.....don't under any circumstances purchase units through GR.....not good value!! Reg

Can anyone please advise me the BEST place to find information? I don't want to pay subscriptions to things if they aren't going to be of any use. What is the best?? Regards Kerry

It depends on what information you are looking for and in what area/country. I know a lot of people here use ancestry, myself included. I personally only use it for census info, as most of my ancestors come from scotland, for which I use scotlandspeople, a pay-per-view site. But many others use the BMD records. I've never looked at these myself, as i've said, ive never had any need to, but from what ive seen people find on there, it seems to be good.