As with the Australasian site, the Irish site world subscription prices are currently higher than the US based site's equivalent which is offering an introductory 'pioneer subscription' for approximately £38 Sterling for 12 months access, though this is a temporary offer. Unlike the US site, which specifically allows professional genealogists access to the records via the regular subscriptions, the Irish site seems to be following the British site's example, stating "You can only use the website for your own personal non-commercial use e.g. to research your own family history", as well as stating that "If you persistently offer lookups to other people and provide them with records, or use a personal subscription for professional purposes, we also reserve the right to stop your access. In all these cases you will have no right to a refund." The Irish site also states "Buy credits to carry out research for others: If you wish to carry out research for other people (even for free), you must purchase PayAsYouGo credits to view records." I am unclear from the site though whether regular PayAsYouGo credits are acceptable for this, or whether you need a Corporate Package of credits (as with the UK site). If you require access for professional research, the US site is the only one facilitating this through a regular subscription - and it is cheaper (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/us-findmypast-site-allows-professional.html).
It is frankly bewildering to see such a variation across the sites when it comes to the Terms and Conditions for professional use depending on the portal you use to access those records. Nevertheless, it's great to see worldwide access being offered via another FindmyPast platform. The UK site can't be too far behind now...
(With thanks to Aidan Byrne @8thRDF)
UPDATE: Thanks to FMP Ireland for getting back to me and confirming that professionals can make use of the regular PayAsYouGo credits for research on the Irish site - there is no corporate credit system for this. This is significant as the UK site's corporate credit system is much more expensive for a minimum credits package for professional use, whereas FMP.ie has much smaller packages if you only wish to make occasional use of the resources.
Chris
Check out my Scotland's Greatest Story research service www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)
Chris, Thank you for continually providing these helpful updates. Can you clarify whether or not the different FMP sites carry the same records, or for example does the FMP.ie site carry UK records that would not be available on the American site?
ReplyDeleteThank you. Jennifer
The holdings on the FMP.ie World subscription appear to be identical to those on the US sub, going by the record count given for each collection on the respective sites - e.g. on FMP.ie if I select the UK as the country for whose records I am interested in, it tells me that there are 375,771,131, "Life Events". Doing the same search on FMP.com reveals the same number, except here they are called "Vital events".
ReplyDeleteI've actually been able to use the same log in details to access both sites. My log in details are the same for the separate subs, so when I sign up, it asks me which site I wish to visit, and shows me as having a full year's sub no matter which one I sign into - although my FMP.ie standard sub actually expires imminently! I think this basically means I am signing into the same database just using a different front portal.
Anecdotally, I have heard that the UK overseas BMDs are not yet accessible on the US site, which seems to be the case still, although some British Overseas Marriages seem to be included (NB: these indexes are actually freely available at FamilyRelatives.com also). One other person mentioned being unable to find Canterbury records, though I've just tried that and seem to be able to find them OK. It may be records are still in the process of migration - there has actually been little announced by the respective companies in terms of new additions to their sites. Each only lists the records from their territory in a source list - e.g. Ireland lists its holdings at http://www.findmypast.ie/articles/world-records/full-list-of-the-irish-family-history-records but doesn't provide a list of holdings from the other sites. Similarly the US site only offers the 1940 census from there for now, and so that is all it describes at http://www.findmypast.com/content/the-1940-census
There is one slight disadvantage that I can see in the new set up - on FMP.co.uk you can search for a marriage and put in a partner's name, or do a census search and look for households with a second name. Unfortunately, the new set up only allows for single name searches, although a partner's name will be returned in the returned results - but it may mean doing a bit more scrolling through to find the result of interest.
Chris