My Family Tree
I'm trying to track this on Ancestry.co.uk.
My mum's sister already did our family that way last year (all the main branches), but I am compiling that of my Dad's side.
Ancestry.co.uk is ok, but I'm not raving about it. The structure is a little difficult to use because I have to make many clicks to be able to see people's siblings. I can't see the siblings and the life timeline at the same time. So if I need to look at someone's timeline and for example, add the same event into that of their siblings then that is probably 8-10 clicks difference. Which gets a little annoying at times. But, you know, it's pretty good, and it does automatically search through all the records and offer them to you as possible matches (but only close matches so that doesn't get annoying). You can't SEE the records unless you pay for it and apparently it's £69/year or similar. But it does have a good privacy/security policy, and the ability to add other people as co-compilators if they have further information, and photos and stories and so on.
Genesreunited.co.uk (poss .com) was recommended to me by Tony who used that for his family tree. I don't know if they search for the records as well as allowing you to see them. But apparently that costs £10/year, and you only need the subscription for 2 weeks and after 3 months you want to say "Stop sending me more records! I have traced my family enough!"
But I'm not even "tracing" it yet. I'm just compiling information that I already knew, and I have picked my Mum's brain for everything she can remember from when she was married to my Dad. My next steps would be
+ pick my Dad's brain about it / invite my Dad to be a co-contributer.
+ ask my Nan for all her information (I don't even know her parent's names or the date she married my grandfather, or when my grandfather was born or anything. I can go wide, but not up)
+ talk to my Dad's sister, because she has an excellent memory and she will know loads of little details like exact dates and stuff. Maybe I could talk to her first. I just also want to still have something left to ask my Nan. Apart from the obvious curiosity, the time I would spend with my Nan finding out more about it is one of the main reasons that I want to do this. I don't see my Nan nearly enough, and I miss her. :-(
I currently have much more information scribbled on a whiteboard or in my head than I do on the Ancestry site and filling it all in is getting laborious. Especially the amount of navigating that I need to do in order to fill in actual life events, and how not knowing somebody's birth year means they don't appear on the record etc. Grrrr.
So, has anyone else done this with any success? Do you think it's worth paying for records in order to begin tracing it? (I'm thinking yes, but not yet).
If Ancestry.co.uk is a bad idea, I am willing to try another website but not endless amounts of other websites. Probably only one more. Has anyone used Genesreunited, or any other websites, and how were they for you? Which one would you recommend and why? And is it even worth persevering with at all, or should I just write it all down on paper? *headdesk*
If you can help then I will be greatful!
Thank you in Advance!