Ancestry vs FMP

[Michael]

I let my Ancestry sub lapse a few months ago since I had neither the time nor the internet connection to make use of it; now I've got both I'm looking to get stuck into some research again, but I'm not sure which one's better - other factors aside I'd be inclined to go with FMP because it had the 1911 census, which I've hardly looked at yet (I know it costs extra though). Does anyone have any particularly strong recommendation for one over the other?

[Phoenix]

I finally succumbed & bought a sub in a moment of madness.

I have used Ancestry - for free - at libraries etc.

This time I went for FMP. While Ancestry has a vastly superior search engine, I am really taken with the address search on FMP.

I can also mop up all the censuses for unusual surnames very easily.

Even when the other providers have the 1911, I'm not sure that they will bother with all the other forms which are its main glory.

[Merry]

I don't have a great need for the 1911 census at the moment. I have Ancestry and occasionally buy some credits for FMP which has been enough for me so far. I would guess I spend about £20 a year on FMP at the most. I can't imagine being without an Ancestry sub at the moment.

[Michael]

Hmm, the PAYG packages for 1911 are 60 or 280 credits and one image costs 30, so that's 2 or 9 and a bit, £7 or £25 respectively. The latter would be enough if I only wanted to look at direct lines but if I start doing side branches I'd need more.

[Merry]

I only needed 11 images to cover my direct line and OHs for 1911. I think I worked out if I got 1911 images for everyone on my tree who was alive at that date (as I have done for all the other censuses), it would work out at over 750 images, so I'm not even thinking of going there!! lol

I use my credits on FMP for the odd burial entry and other bits and pieces I haven't found elsewhere.

[Phoenix]

I was looking at a single street for 1911 at TNA and used over 500 credits very quickly.

I think FMP is probably geared more towards the local, arther than the family historian.

All my immediate ancestors were mopped up very easily indeed, but I'm now starting to put them in context.

If you have only a few images to look at, which you want to keep, then Pay as you go is probably a better option as there is no facility on FMP to save your searches - all you can do is save the images.

[kiterunner]

If you think you are going to be doing a lot of 1911 searches, then you might be best to take out a 1911 sub, but you can take one out for just the 1911 census not including the full FMP sub if you want.

It looks to me as though the price of an FMP sub including the 1911 is now the same as the total of an FMP sub without, and the 1911 sub, in which case you don't save anything by getting the two together? Or maybe I'm reading it wrong!

But if that is right, then you can decide between FMP and ancestry separately from the 1911 question. As for FMP versus ancestry, it really depends on what you will be looking for, for your particular tree. If you have ancestors / side branches to look up in other countries such as Scotland, the USA, and Australia, and / or you want to look at WW1 military records then ancestry has those and FMP doesn't, but if you want to look at the passenger lists leaving the UK and the GRO "Overseas" indexes then those are on FMP. And of course both sites have parish registers, but FMP has most of the stuff that used to be on Family History Online plus Docklands Ancestors, whereas ancestry has the London Metropolitan Archives parish registers, so again, you would have to check to see which site has the parishes that you want to look at.

[Kit]

Michael I took out a 3 month 1911 sub.

Once I've found all I can on the 1911 I'll get an ancestry sub. I can use it more easily and it has more things of use to me.

The only thing is that FMP have a 20% loyalty discount if you renew. Ancestry doesn't.

[Michael]

Thanks for the advice everyone.