Find my past - free this weekend

pedroeibar1

Their link is here - I have not looked yet, but if you have to give a credit card no. make sure to cancel in time if you intend to discontinue!

pinkypinky

Terms and Conditions
T&Cs
Free access lasts from 12:00pm midday (GMT) on Friday 7th November 2014 until 11:59am (GMT) on Monday 10 November 2014. To access the records you will need to be signed in at Findmypast: you can register for free using your name, email address and country of residence. The free access excludes the UK Electoral Registers (2002-2013) and the UK Companies House Directors (2002-2013) record sets. Current Findmypast Local subscribers (whilst they have an active Britain, Ireland, US & Canada or Australia & New Zealand subscription) will be able to access all World records (except those listed above) during the free access weekend. Current Findmypast World subscribers (with active World subscriptions expiring after 11:59am (GMT) on Friday 7 November 2014, excluding Findmypast Library accounts) will have an additional three days added on to their subscription. Free access is subject to our fair usage policy: each account may view up to a maximum of 1,000 records per day.

Tl;dr
If you're already an Ireland subscriber, the world package will just be available to you this weekend, no need for an extra subscription.

Jellybaby1

I used to have a subscription to FMP.ie. So does this mean I can log in with my previous account details and have World records free this weekend? Please say it is so.

Hermy

That was the impression I got from Claire's piece on it - hope so.

shanew

They seem to have added plenty of records since I was last a member of FMP UK - several interesting finds in Merchant Navy records, and Bishops Transcripts already..

Hermy

shanew wrote: »

They seem to have added plenty of records since I was last a member of FMP UK - several interesting finds in Merchant Navy records, and Bishops Transcripts already..

Same for me. I found a merchant navy record with a photo of the individual.
Also some newspaper records that weren't there the last time I looked which make a likely Scottish connection much more certain.

However, currently there seems to be a problem with the site as it finds nothing when I search.
I hope this is resolved by morning as I still have work to do.

Jellybaby1

I have been on the site for hours and still can't find two people in my tree, one has a birth but no death, and the other has a death but no birth. I've been trying to find them for years but still no joy.

Also, anyone know how I can find births in India, on FMP, father was a British soldier who may have been from Northern Ireland and mother was Irish?

Hermy

Well the problem, whatever it was is no longer there. It's now finding 1000's of entries for any given surname instead of zero.

@Jellybaby1
I assume you've seen the British India Office Births & Baptisms 1712-1965 at FMP.

Also, there's India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947 at Ancestry. If you haven't already I can search it for you.
Like you my relative was a soldier in India and the birth details of two of his children that weren't on the Ancestry link appeared on his service record although there is still one child for whom I don't have birth details.

whomitconcerns

Must give this a look. Thanks op

Hermy

Hermy wrote: »

Well the problem, whatever it was is no longer there.

Feck - the gremlins are back!:(

Hermy

No gremlins - methinks me exceeded the fair usage limit!:o

Brennans Row

A search of the British Army service records produced good information regarding a Crimean War veteran, a lead that I have following for sometime.

pedroeibar1

I got fair usage out of FMP over the weekend.

Positives
Newspaper archives – their search function is much better than the Irishnews archive and I quickly found an article that I once found on the latter and annoyingly could not ‘re-find’ on the Irish site. However key word searches were ‘loose’ when more than a couple of words were used. Also, I did not compare availability of different titles on both FMP & INA.

The Petty Sessions ledgers were great – I found a few records that filled in a knowledge gap and explained the most likely cause for a subsequent event.

BMD searches – did not use them much, but found their UK BMDs faster than Familysearch and the filters seem to provide more accurate results.

Directories - Thoms directories/almanac very useful, e.g. I found that one person I’m researching shared his premises with several others, many of whom were in the same profession, a sort of ‘chambers’.

Negatives
On the Newspaper archive the keyword was not highlighted and it was hit and miss if the appropriate column was highlighted, so had to search page.

The Military records were totally frustrating. I spent an age unsuccessfully looking for two individuals, one from each, WW1 and WW2. I’d hoped to flesh out some info but did not do so. I have the correct names, etc, and on one I have medal roll info from ancestry.com & using that still could not find him on FMP.

Multiplicity of entries – one named individual could lead to 14 references to for e.g. Burkes Landed Gentry.

It was not always obvious when filters were on/off

Would I subscribe for a year? No
Would I use a ‘pay-as-you-go’ subscription? No (search results are too ‘wooly’ and not precise enough, so your credit would soon be gone.)
Would I use a month subscription – Yes.

Much better effort this time by FMP to win customers, so kudos…..