Ancestry or Genealogy?

[by jove!]

Hi! I am just setting out down the family tree road and need some advice!
There's so much info available but am a bit confused about which route to take. I want to take out a subscription and have looked at several sites with this in mind. The two favourites being ancestry.co.uk and genealogy.co.uk. Can anyone advise which to go for? Have tried comparing the two but personal recommendation would be preferable.
Also I'd like to get a Family Tree Maker 2006 but don't know whether to choose the deluxe at �32, includes 90 days with ancestry, or the collectors at �62 which includes 180 days with ancestry. Or in fact do I really need to buy one at all? I could make do with a freebie somewhere; or perhaps not!
Thoughts please, I'm struggling at the first fence here!!

[CheekyChops]

I can only speak for one of them, I have had a subscription with Ancestry for 3 years now and wouldn't be without it. There is no way I would have got half as far without it.

I also have FTM 2006 which I paid �11 for. I already had the Ancestry subscription so I wasn't bothered about the free trial. I think the more expensive versions of FTM come with free CD's but check these, quite often there is not a lot of useful info on them. The parish records for instance are usually centered around London and son;t have much coverage of other counties.

As for free programmes, you can download PAF from www.familysearch.org and Legacy from http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/ and both are perfectly adequate programmes.

[spudqueen]

I also have a subscription with http://www.findmypast.com/HomeServlet
I prefer them to ancestry on some things. Sorry to make it even harder to decide!

[Hammond Egg]

Ancestry is most useful for census records up to 1901, though there's a running problem with the records being mistranscribed.

However if you know the name of an ancestor who was alive, and living in England or Wales, in 1901, (or in Scotland up to 1861) you can get details of his siblings and parents from ancestry - and you can work back through censuses as far back as 1841 (though the 1841 census wasn't comprehensive)

Findmypast.com is very good for trawling through records of births, marriages and deaths - and some other things if you pay extra; if you use that, don't get the ppv option, you'll exhaust your credits in no time at all; get a 12 month subscription which will give you free rein. However it's a bit of a pain trawling through it looking for individual records unless you know exactly when the event you are looking for happened, - to do that use either ancestry, or freebmd.org.uk; with that you can put in a name and a date range and you'll get links to all people who fit in. Their records, though, go up to only about 1915; they are steadily being updated.

I'm not familiar with genealogy.co.uk, or any of the family tree maker CDs.

[La Diva]

Before you pay out any money to anyone, you could try www.familysearch.com. This is the website that is maintained by LDS (Latter Day Saints/Mormon church)�.and don�t worry � you don�t have to become a church-going member to use it!!

Their website also offers a great FREE family tree maker. And I�m sure you�ll find their records a great starting point- just don�t believe everything you see there (some of the records on there have been mis-scribed) so make sure you get proof of BMDs from another source.

I�d definitely recommend it.

[shineybomb]

I use Ancestry.co.uk and have subscribed for 3 years too. It is an excellent site and I really would not have gotten anywhere without it. All my birth, marriage and death references have come from there so I can order certificates to gain further information and all census information has come from there too. I do not find there are a lot of mistranscriptions although there may be some.

I have never used genealogy.co.uk though so I cannot compare them.

I also use FTM deluxe which I got for Xmas - it is fantastic. Before I had this I had papers and computer files all over the place but its so much easier to keep everything all together in one place so I would definately recommend getting one of the FTM packages. If you have plenty of time to get cracking with your tree you might as well go for the deluxe rather than collectors edtion. I would definately recommend taking up the subscription afterwards anyway

[shineybomb]

I would recommend that you also go to www.rootsweb.co.uk, click on mailing lists and join mailing lists for the names you are searching and areas your ancestors are in too.

These email lists (like a message board) will give you lots of help and advice, look-ups if you need them, new websites which others have found and I have even found 3 distant relatives on there too.

[by jove!]

Hi!
Thank you everyone who has taken the time to reply to me. I appreciate it.
After much thought, I have gone ahead and bought FTM 2006 Collectors for �50 which gives me 6 months free subscription to Ancestry. It seems like it was a good buy! I have now made a start with the information I 'know' and looking forward to many months/ years of searching. All the links you pointed me to have loads of info so I have bookmarked them all!
Thanks again for your help!