FindmyPast launches new UK subscription tiers

FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk) has announced a series of three new subscription tiers for all future subscribers.

The Starter package costs £8.95 a month, or £72 a year, and allows you to access English, Welsh and Irish civil registration records indexes, and British and Irish censuses (varying coverage), as well as somewhere to store your family tree online (even once your subscription expires).

The Plus package is £12.95 a month, or £120 annually. It offers all the above, plus British and Irish parish records, British wills and probate, British and Irish electoral registers and directories, British and Irish education and employment records, Specialist Irish records, British and Irish migration and travel records, and Military, Armed Forces and conflict records.

Finally, the Pro package at £15.95 a month or £156 a year offers all the above, plus various US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand collections, and access to PERSI and newspapers, including the British Newspaper Archive offerings for Britain and Ireland.

COMMENT: It's worth noting that most English and Welsh civil registration BMD indexes are available freely at FreeBMD (www.freebmd.org.uk), most historic Irish BMD records are available at www.irishgenealogy.ie for free (with additional indexes freely available on FamilySearch up to 1958), and the surviving Irish censuses are freely available at www.genealogy.nationalarchives.ie. So the Starter package offering to me seems a little light really in terms of what you're getting for your money.

FindmyPast itself highlights its Plus package as the recommended one - which I would concur with - although it is unfortunate that the British Newspaper Index collections are presented with the most expensive Pro subscription option.

For professional genealogists, as always, do check the site's Terms and Conditions (https://www.findmypast.co.uk/content/terms-and-conditions), as there are slightly different terms for those using the site in a professional capacity.

If you are doing Scottish research, just bear in mind also that FindmyPast describes some of its collections as British, which are actually English and Welsh only (e.g. British wills and probate, and British and Irish Civil BMDs). If Scottish research is your aim, do take a look at the collection descriptions first. Note also that, for reasons beyond its control, FindmyPast, as with Ancestry, only offers transcripts of Scottish censuses (images accompany the English and Welsh equivalents), and does not include the 1911 Scottish census. The 1939 Register offering similarly does not contain returns for Scotland or Northern Ireland (which are held by separate agencies to that for England and Wales - the NRS in Scotland, and PRONI in Northern Ireland) .

Chris

My next 5 week long Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course commences Nov 6th 2017 - details at https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.