ChatterBank4 mins ago
Searching for ancestors
Hi,
I'm trying to find ancestors back from my great grandfather on my mums side. I know his name and he was born in London, but that's about it. How can I trace back further.
I've tried different census sites, but they charge a lot.
Does anyone have any good sites that don't charge yet give me more information than just a name.
Also has anyone had any experience of the 1901 census website. When I looked at the payment tables, it seemed like they charge you as you go along, depending on which pages you visit. I looked as though it could become very expensive if I searched too much.
Thanks in advance.
Answers
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Certificates cost �7 now.
The census for 1881 can be viewed for free at www.familysearch.org but all the other censuses that are available (1841 - 1901) are on pay per view sites (with a few exceptions). You usually get name, address, occupation, age, place of birth etc
The best site is www.ancestry.co.uk - you pay about �70 per year for this but I'm sure anyone who uses it will agree that it is well worth it. You can also take out a quarterly subscripton or pay about �7 for 20 searches.
The 1901 website is also good, last time I used it you bought �5 of credits and then paid about 50p for each search result you looked at and about 75p to look at the actual page. I can't rememberthe actual prices as I have Ancestry now. The credits don't last very long so you need to use them in about 48 hours or you lose them.
Tracing your family history is a really interesting hobby but as you have discovered, you need to pay to get most of the info (unless you go to your Libraray/Records office as mentioned in the other reply) and it can get very expensive - I don't want to even think about how much I've spent on mine!
The cost, currently, is about �40 a year, but money well spent if you are doing a serious study. Their address is The Society of Genealogists, 14, Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London. EC1M 7BA.