Find my Past - Free weekend


Recommended Posts

If anyone wants to dig around all the information on Find My Past, but don't feel like paying, they are having one of their free weekends.

From midday on Friday 6th until midday Monday 9th you can search all the records, at no cost.

  • Upvote 7
Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks. This is excellent news. It will be good to try out this site. I use Ancestry a lot but quite a few Family History Societies and County Archives are now releasing electronic copies of their parish records to Find my Past not Ancestry. Most libraries have free access to Ancestry but most do not have this access to Find my Past. Looking forward to some interesting research as my ancestors moved around a lot!

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Most libraries have free access to Ancestry but most do not have this access to Find my Past.

I think the system is that City Council libraries have Find my Past, and County council libraries have Ancestry. I prefer FmP.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

This free access is very popular. Just tried it and the site hung up 4 times. I have used it to answer one question. The death of my grandmother in 1817 was not reported in the Nottingham Evening Post or the Guardian Journal. Rather odd as grandfather worked in the newspaper office. The list of newspapers on the site is impressive.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks. Her name was Ellen Newton and she died in January 1917. It could be that not all of the local paper has been digitised.

The free weekend was very useful in other ways. I found the trade union membership record of my grandmother's eldest brother. This means that the records from the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University are being digitised. Very useful.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 6 months later...
  • 4 months later...

I tried this out today to see what they had on the 1939 war census. The spelling of my father-in-law's name was wrong on the free preview. I was stunned at the cost of pay as you go credits to look at just one family. I guess it did cost a lot to digitise all this data so there has to be a fee but I question why it is so high. Having had a good look at the site I still prefer Ancestry and Family Search. A friend who subscribes to the site gets a bit annoyed when they do the free sessions but I suppose it is their way of advertising.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

I was intending trying to find my birth mother, but I can't be bothered. I might get more than I bargained for.LOL

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Will do Lizzie. I've got sufficient baggage already. LOL

Link to post
Share on other sites

My husband wishes he had found his birth father before it was too late - he only found out about him after he had died. He spoke with a neighbour of his birth father who said that he (the father) had a photo of 2 babies on his bed side table.... His birth mother had died when he and his twin brother were only 4 months old and in those days, the father wasn't able to keep them so they were eventually adopted.

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...