What does FindMyPast have ?

[aramsay]

I have a long-time membership to Ancestry, but have recently wondered what different archives might be available on FindMyPast.

I had a quick look at their website, but you have to create a user-i.d. for a free trial, which I don't want to do.

Could someone give a quick summary of the most useful archives they provide, for Great War interest ?

Thanks.

[MrEd]

I haven’t used ancestry a lot - only the free trials - but I have found the war service records to be a bit better resolution and a bit easier to read from FMP than ancestry - I have found more and filled in more gaps with FMP but that just probably me, others are probably the opposite.

I just have a normal FMP subscription 

[charlie962]

I agree with MrEd.

I'd add that FMP were more disciplined in their transcription and their search engine I find better.

Very useful records on FMP not on Ancestry include Hospital Admissions and ICRC PoW cards.

Charlie

[303man]

I have both and FMP is my go to first, Ancestry search is awful in comparison..  

[michaeldr]

44 minutes ago, 303man said:

 Ancestry search is awful

Agree 100%

[MrEd]

1 hour ago, 303man said:

I have both and FMP is my go to first, Ancestry search is awful in comparison..  

yes that’s a good point and I had forgotten how bad it is, FMP search is very good and you can narrow down right into specifics, which is helpful

Edited 20 October , 2022 by MrEd

[John(txic)]

Yes, resolution is better.  Also, they have the WO96 militia records which can give a man's service before joining the Army proper.  The Medical Records are also a fantastic resource: ditto RFC records.

[KernelPanic]

8 hours ago, 303man said:

I have both and FMP is my go to first, Ancestry search is awful in comparison..  

Couldn't agree more!!

FMP also has search capabilities with the British Newspaper Archive, although I don't find their search engine as useful as the one on the main BNA site. But you can always search in BNA and then look up in FMP.

In Ancestry's favour, I've found their family trees very helpful, and they have images of the WW1 medal rolls, which FMP does not, only transcripts. Unlike Ancestry, FMP does not have access to various WDs, although good luck wading through Ancestry's classification scheme and searches!

[rolt968]

One other point about soldiers' records in FmP. If a single page in a soldier's record refers to a different soldier FmP index it to the different soldier. Ancestry does not.

FindmyPast has "British Army and Militia Records 1760-1915". See here: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/british-army-and-militia-1760-1915/

(Some WW1 regulars had served in the militia before the regular army.)

[charlie962]

2 hours ago, rolt968 said:

One other point about soldiers' records in FmP. If a single page in a soldier's record refers to a different soldier FmP index it to the different soldier. Ancestry does not.

Hugely useful!!

[John(txic)]

Oh - and another thing.   FMP also has random documents (HQ Casualty Returns etc.) which may sometimes provide an answer as to where a man was being treated, or died.

[TEW]

21 hours ago, rolt968 said:

One other point about soldiers' records in FmP. If a single page in a soldier's record refers to a different soldier FmP index it to the different soldier. Ancestry does not.

FindmyPast has "British Army and Militia Records 1760-1915". See here: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/british-army-and-militia-1760-1915/

(Some WW1 regulars had served in the militia before the regular army.)

Yes and I've found that annoying. The random bits of recycled paper in a man's service record with details of other men are on a separate filmstrip. I wanted to see what the sheet was used for by the records office and why it's in his file. With FMP you can't tell which is the reverse. Therefore once I've found a relevant one on FMP I have to track it down on Ancestry so I can see the whole service record in context.

As I have worldwide Ancestry available in the library 5 minutes away on foot I have a FMP account and pay up for a month's subscription every so often.

TEW

[rolt968]

5 minutes ago, TEW said:

Yes and I've found that annoying. The random bits of recycled paper in a man's service record with details of other men are on a separate filmstrip. I wanted to see what the sheet was used for by the records office and why it's in his file. With FMP you can't tell which is the reverse. Therefore once I've found a relevant one on FMP I have to track it down on Ancestry so I can see the whole service record in context.

As I have worldwide Ancestry available in the library 5 minutes away on foot I have a FMP account and pay up for a month's subscription every so often.

TEW

In general I agree with this, but one or two documents which I have found like that seem to have been mistakenly put in the soldier's record in the first place.

 

One other point: FmP have the WW1 Scots Guards soldiers' records and also the Scots Guards enlistment register.

 

Edit: This started as two posts. The system has combined them!

Edited 21 October , 2022 by rolt968

[TEW]

Yes, I've also seen some Sick/Wounded lists which are blank on the reverse so quite why they were included in a SR is a mystery. Placeholder perhaps?

I suspect the Arnside fire and fire brigade damage helped muddle sheets up into wrong SRs. Same as you find a single sheet sometimes for another man within a SR.

 

If you include Non-WWI records then FMPs parish records are a bonus to me.

TEW

[Gunner Bailey]

I generally think the military records in Ancestry are better than FMP. One thing I do like about FMP is that you can search the census by address, backwards to the occupants. Not available on Ancestry.

[MrEd]

1 hour ago, Gunner Bailey said:

I generally think the military records in Ancestry are better than FMP. One thing I do like about FMP is that you can search the census by address, backwards to the occupants. Not available on Ancestry.

Yes this is a good feature and I have used it a lot when I have known the address a relative lived at but haven’t known their spouse etc 

[rolt968]

Particularly useful if you are researching regulars: FmP has Baptisms, Marriages and Burials in India.

[nhclark]

On 25/10/2022 at 07:18, rolt968 said:

Particularly useful if you are researching regulars: FmP has Baptisms, Marriages and Burials in India.

My summary is that while Ancestry gets worse FMP gets better, although I still have both. On the latter the India records are invaluable, as are the newspapers (although the coverage of the latter lags behind the British Newspapers site). Over the years the search engine on Ancestry has got worse and worse; fortunately I've saved the starting search pages for quite a few individual datasets - two examples relevant to this Forum are Medal Cards and Medal Rolls. It is still worth doing this if you haven't already. This cuts out a lot of trawling through pages of results.

I find it very annoying that half the time I find something new apparently on Ancestry it is actually hidden from me and requires a Fold3 subscription over and above Ancestry itself.

I haven't checked for a long time, but Familyrelatives.com used to be the only place you could look at the GRO overseas BDMs (such as regimental births) on-line, and they are/were quite well indexed by pages. For regulars leading up to the Great War and earlier these have been most useful to me. These indexes have the index numbers you need to order overseas BDM certificates from the GRO.