FMP World Sub - findmypast.com

[kiterunner]

Findmypast World Subscription !!

I've only just seen this, so I don't have all the information about this yet.

http://www.findmypast.com/

There is a limited time "pioneer" offer of 4.95 US dollars per month for this sub, which includes the US, UK, Ireland and Australasia.

That would be just under 60 dollars for a year, which is less than 40 GBP.

The normal price is going to be about 250 US dollars for an annual sub. There are also 6-monthly and 1-month subs available, with 20% discount opening offers.

I can't find an up-to-date price list for the UK site but I paid about £100 for an annual sub earlier this year. The Australia & New Zealand site annual sub is currently 69.95 AUD full price or 62.96 AUD with an introductory discount, and the Irish site annual sub is currently 59.95 Euros. The US only sub is currently half-price - 4.17 USD per month instead of 8.33 USD. It doesn't show a yearly rate but this would work out at about 50 USD instead of 100 USD.

So, it looks as though the introductory offer would be a bargain if you want access to the US, Australasian and Irish records, even if you already have a UK sub.

The Australia / NZ site is also offering a world sub but it only has a 10% discount - currently 224.96 AUD discounted from 249.95 AUD.


What I haven't managed to find out yet - if anyone knows the answers, please post!
1. Is the US site world sub only available if you live in the US? (Please say it isn't!)
I believe I now have the answer to this and it is open to everyone.
2. If you take out a US world sub, can you use it on the various national findmypast sites, or only on the US site? This may seem a trivial point, but the US site has a completely different search facility from the UK one (at the moment).
3. Can you upgrade an existing UK or Australasian sub to the world one?
4. Does the world sub include all available records for all countries (i.e. is the UK part of it the equivalent of the Full subscription, or the Foundation one?
At the moment they say only 90% of UK records are available but they are still adding records.

Link to the US site:
https://www.findmypast.com/

It is worth bearing in mind that all this means that you can try out the new search facility for UK records on the US site, for free, and see if you find stuff that has never turned up using the UK search. It is a completely different interface but I don't know whether it uses the same cogs and wheels underneath it all!


(Something that occurs to me from looking at all these sites is that findmypast now seem to be offering an "introductory discount" for new subscribers which is equivalent to the "loyalty discount" when you renew a sub! Words fail me.)

[kiterunner]

Hmmm, although it shows the price as 4.95 USD per month, when you click to subscribe, it says it will take one payment of 59.40 USD to cover the year.

Worth pointing this out in the terms and conditions:
"When you subscribe, it is on a continuous membership basis, meaning that your subscription will automatically renew unless you cancel it. You can cancel it in the "my account" area. If you do not cancel the continuous membership within FIVE DAYS of the expiry date, we will automatically renew your subscription and will take the next payment two to three days before your current subscription ends. We will send you an email at least 10 days before your subscription ends, to remind you of the automatic renewal. This is to make sure we don’t cut off your access to findmypast.com. You can turn off continuous membership at any time from the “my account” area. You must opt out of the continuous membership before the expiry date if you do not want your subscription to automatically renew. We cannot provide refunds for a continuous membership subscription which has been renewed in this way."

[kiterunner]

I've bitten the bullet and signed up, and as far as I can see, it doesn't actually let you view images of the GRO marriage indexes yet, only transcriptions, but it doesn't show the year of a marriage on the transcription, so it could be quite annoying if you were using it as your only site for research. But it does say BETA at the top of the home page so I'm sure they will be improving things! The images for GRO birth and death indexes are available, and the years for these are shown on the transcriptions, so I expect it will be sorted out soon. I've sent them an email mentioning it, anyway.

[kiterunner]

If you've been waiting to be able to search the parish registers on FMP using spouse's name or parents' names, you can do this on the US site! Just put the spouse's or parent's name in the "keyword" box. I don't think it works if you put both parents' names in at once but it's a great improvement on the UK search in that respect.

[Kit]

The Aussie price is totally ridiculous. The Aussie dollar is roughly at parity with the US dollar. I hate that prices are so exorbitant here. I never buy aussie ancestry either, a world UK sub is only slightly dearer than the middle aussie package.

But thanks for the info Kate. I'm like you and subscribed earlier this year but this way I'll have access to everything until July next year.

[kiterunner]

I think the search facility on the US site is the same as the one on the Aussie site, Kit, though I don't know whether all the Australian and NZ records have been added to the US site world sub yet.

I've found the new search is pretty good on the whole but not so good on some of the Australian records - I think it was Government Gazettes or some such, where I suspect they have been indexed using OCR software word by word and so if you search for a name such as John Smith, it comes back with every entry that has a John and a Smith on the same page. But I suspect we will miss certain features of the old search on censuses if the UK site switches over to the new one. At the moment you can use both searches (for UK records) because even if you only have a sub on one site, you can search for free on the other and use the results that you get to go back to the site you are subscribed to and view the record.

[GenieDi]

Thanks Kate, just gone for it, haven't had a sub for ages.

[Kit]

I haven't used the aussie site Kate, it's just the inflated prices we get here in Oz that annoy me.

I've had a quick look at the aussie records but I'm finding it a bit hard. i have found out that my 4g grandfather was buying land basically right up to when he died. I didn't realise he went out west with some of his kids.

Off to look at UK records and to try the parish records with parents names. :)

[Mandy in Wiltshire]

I've got a full sub on FMP that runs out in October. I might sign up for this one under my other email address and let both subs run side-by-side until October, then not bother to renew my full sub. I get the loyalty discount now but I still pay over £100 for an annual sub.

I mostly only view UK records so it doesn't make any difference to me whether I access them through .com or co.uk. I could buy an Ancestry sub with the money I save... ;)

[kiterunner]

I used the same email address to subscribe to the US site as I use on the UK site, Mandy, and it all went through o.k.

[Janet]

I've just taken the bait too. Thanks, Kite. Now for the learning curve.

[HarrysMum]

My UK FMP full sub is due to be renewed on 14th Aug...so I'm going to give this a go and see what happens.

As Kit says the Australian prices are far too high. Our dollar is now higher than the US$ and yet we pay loads more. ???

[Kit]

Not on the US site Libby. I paid less than $58. :)

It's not just ancestry Libby. My friend bought her son some lego from the US and paid shipping here. The same lego here was over $100, she paid $50 US plus shipping.

[JayG]

I haven't subscribed but can you search the PR's on parents names without one & how do you do it please?

[kiterunner]

I haven't subscribed but can you search the PR's on parents names without one & how do you do it please?

Yes. Search records - Vital Records (Birth Marriage and Death). Then select Where - Collections from United Kingdom and you get a message about resetting the filters or something; when that has gone, put in the name (or just surname) and dates you are looking for, and put both parents' given names in the keywords box and click on the Search button. If you get too many results, click to select a "record collection" or "record set" from the list on the left. More likely you don't get enough results, so try variants on the names or just try one parent's name instead of both, then when you have lots of results, select the "record collection" or "record set" to start narrowing it down. If you post up an example of what you want to search for I could give some more specific suggestions of how to do it.

[JayG]

Thanks Kate, i'll have a look.

I'm looking for children of George & Ann Fisher who married 1792 in Acton, Cheshire. I already found 5 baptisms for their children in Acton & Maplas but not sure if i've found them all.

The children I have found so far are
Edward 1794
John 1797
Thomas 1798
Samuel 1801
Ann 1803

[kiterunner]

Okay, I kept getting "an error has occurred when processing your request" if I put in the date range, so doing it the long way round:
Collections from - United Kingdom,
Last Name - Fisher, optional keywords - George Ann
found nothing
so trying again but just George this time,
Record Collections - Births & Baptisms
Record Set - Diocese of Chester Parish Registers of Baptisms; Diocese of Chester Bishop's Transcripts of Baptisms (tick both of these)
Then you will get 176 results but it includes babies called George as well as those whose father is George and also we need to find the right date range - this would have been easy if it didn't keep generating errors, but click to Order By - Birth Year and then again to get Birth Year Ascending, then page 3 of the results starts at 1791.

Ummm... can't remember what you get to see if you haven't subscribed at this point and when I click to view the transcripts (when logged out) it breaks! Well, it is a beta test site at the moment. If you have registered but not subscribed you could try the above steps and see if you can see which of the results are what you are looking for. I seem to remember you have to be careful to click "back to search results" instead of using your browser's "back" button or you lose your results list. Also I think it keeps taking you back to page 1 instead of the page you were on. Some work still required...

[kiterunner]

Hmm, that was quite nasty - it kept trying to make me go to the UK site and pretending to give me the option of continuing to the US one but doing nothing when I clicked on it. Managed to get back in now but I thought I'd better log back in.

Now I realise you might be better to sort by First Name instead of Birth Year as it will let you jump past all the Georges more easily. But it does look as though you would have to have a sub to see which of them had a mother called Ann, sorry. Hopefully they will fix the keywords part of the search so that it actually works properly for more than one word, since it does say "keywords" and not just "keyword". If they fixed it then I think you would be able to do the parent name search without subscribing.

[kiterunner]

It seems somewhat perverse to try to force people to go onto their local FMP site regardless of whether it offers a world sub or not, don't you think? If I want to research my ancestors / relatives who emigrated (in either direction) I will need the US site because the US records aren't available on the UK site. I know ancestry does the same thing, but you can actually search for / view records from any country on any ancestry site as long as you have the right sub, and the one registration will allow you to log onto all their sites. Hopefully this is an indication that FMP are going to do something similar with their sites - though if so, I wonder what will happen to those of us who have more than one sub with the same login details!

[JayG]

Thanks Kate, i've followed what you said & managed to get 27 results using George as a keyword & 1792 - 1820 as a date range. If I enter George Ann as keywords I don't get any results. I've got a normal FMP sub so am checking on there for the full parent info. Haven't found any others, only another couple having kids at the same time.