Can i ask what web-sites people use .    I don't want to put all of my details on a site that i am then charged to look at !

This isn't something I do, but one of the guys I work with has been doing his for a good few years and spent quite a bit of money on it.  I know one of the sites he uses is genes reunited.  I'll ask him what others when I'm back at work.

I use Genesreunited and Ancestry.  Have paid a subscription to Ancestry at the moment because I dip in regularly. 

I subscribed to Genes Reunited soon after it started up years and years ago but didn't get very far with that alone.  A very kind CDer then allowed me to 'borrow' her Ancestry sub and once I got on there I was hooked and found it extremely addictive.  I now have my own subscription to Ancestry although I don't use it as much at the moment.  You can buy "buy as you go credits" which might be the way forward for me soon when I have exhausted all census and BMDs searches but while I am still dipping in on a regular basis doing quite a few searches at a time it's not cost effective.

The good thing about Genes R is that you are sharing information with other people who may have got a bit further than you.  The problem with Genes R is that you cannot rely on the information being correct, for example, one member had my great great grandmother as married to a man that I knew she couldn't have been married to which meant his great grandmother must have been born out of wedlock.  He wouldn't accept this and got round the problem by just deleting all my relatives from his tree and retained the false name to make his great grandmother look legitimate.  So, you need to look up the details yourself to ensure they are correct which is why people pay for subscriptions to sites such as Ancestry.

The upside to Genes R is that any contacts are connected to you.  Last year I was contacted by a cousin of my mum's that she can't remember but this cousin had so much information on shared relatives that we didn't know and he was able to put the record straight on some family details.  I found another of mum's cousins by googling and finding a website set up by her.  Imagine my face when on one part of the site there was a photograph of my great great grandparents who I knew nothing about, not even their names, before I started this hobby.

IGI is a free site run by the Mormons who transcribe the parish records.  These records are very useful for pre-1841 census and I have recently traced one of my husband's lines back to 1698 using it although I need to confirm a couple of the links at some point myself because although there is a lot on the site there is a lot that isn't and it would be easy to do a lot of work only to find that the missing information means you are tracing the wrong family.

When your searches snowball and you start collecting a lot of information it's worth investing in something like Family Tree Maker.  Mine was a Christmas present.  This is a programme on a CD that you install on your pc and file all your information on, it's great.

Like I've mentioned, I have found family history very addictive but great fun.  I surprised my OH recently by informing him that far from his family originating from London, (his dad was born there and moved to Herts in the 50s'), his family actually came home because the family line I have traced back to 1698 all lived in a cluster of villages not far from where we live now.  I visited a tiny hamlet 4 weeks ago and passed the pub his ancestors would have visited and stepped inside the church where their christening, marriage and funeral services would have taken place through the 1700s and 1800s and likely centuries before that. Loved the experience.

I recently bought a TomTom with my hobby in mind because I intend to visit my own ancestral origins which are dotted about the country from Bristol through to Yorkshire and into Scotland and many places inbetween.

I have learnt so much but have so much more to learn regards the researching part of this hobby.

I'm sorry this is so long and apologise for anything that doesn't make sense but it is late :-)

> I visited a tiny hamlet 4 weeks ago and passed the pub his ancestors would have visited and stepped inside the church where their christening, marriage and funeral services would have taken place through the 1700s and 1800s and likely centuries before that. Loved the experience.
>

My sister and aunt have recently been invited to visit the cottage where my great grandmother lived.  It is now much extended but the original two up two down rooms remain including the bread oven she would have undoubtedly used.  I am visiting my sister this weekend and am very much looking forward to hearing about it and seeing the photographs.  It is a wonderful thing to feel this connection to our forebears isn't it :-)

>It is a wonderful thing to feel this connection to our forebears isn't it 

It's quite strange as well.  I have found out some dreadfully sad things about some of my family, family I did not even know existed in terms of where they lived or even their names.  Yet, when I uncover information I feel a real sense of sadness. My own grandad was put in a home at 2 yrs old along with his older siblings because his mother had died and his father had to go to war. I had to gently let my mum know that actually, his mum didn't die at that time, my grandad's parents went on to have another 4 children. 

The Old Bailey online is a great source of information too if you have relatives in London like I had.  One of my grandparents (x? off top of my head) was a milkman in 1840s and he was witness to a theft which is detailed online.  He must have fallen on harder times about 20 years later because he was convicted of receiving stolen property, the property being bales of hay for his horses.

> is that you are sharing information with other people

Well some people are very generous but others don't put their full family tree on there and are not always willing to share what they have found out - they will take but not give sad to say.  There is a community section on Ancestry too where you can find other people researching the same names as yourself and contact them. 
IGI is fine but not to be relied on either - parish record transcriptions can be wrong.  I have used the local Morman church family history room and ordered microfilms to check actual records for myself.  It is a minimal cost.  Check out local family history centres too if you family comes from the area.  One part of my family was a mystery until I joined the society that just researches one family name - a 'one-name' society.  The family trees are all online now - once again someone will do a look-up for you or it is a small cost to join - someone has to cover the costs of running it.

ancestry seems to have it all.i@m going to ask for a birthday gift of a subscription to the site.i love finding out about the family.mostly my late partner's,though there is still so much to do.my ambition at the moment is to get down to kew and look up some stuff i need to know about his g.g.grandfathers.it's wonderful to see original documents and you can order certificates online i believe.try to make sure that when you look up census forms you follow the right family link.i once got all exited about the family branch i had found -loads of them,only to discover months down the line that it was the wrong family!it's a fantastic pastime-there's always more to do and time gets eaten up by it.the more you find out the more you want to find.

I have my tree on Genes & Ancestry. I think Ancestry is better as the middle name is included, so matches are much more likely to be closer. Both are free to include the tree but if you want to contact people through the site you have to be a member.
I use free bmd for searching and have found a fair bit this way.
It's does get addictive(bit like dog showing LOL).

I haven't put my tree on Ancestry because I know if I did I would be reluctant to drop the subscription when I don't need it anymore.  I do put most family members on Genes but because of some strange people that have contacted me I am very very careful who I allow to view it.  I think I have got to a point now where I have more to offer on most of my lines than others can help me with.  Quite a few of the Genes trees I have viewed have had mistakes and when I've pointed the mistakes out they don't respond.  I would hate to think that I had mistakes in mine, I would most certainly be grateful if people put me right and would not take offence. There are also those people who are only interested in 'name collecting' and will add all your family regardless of the distance of relatedness (is that a proper word or a Cherylism?).   I haven't got any living relatives on my tree to protect their privacy but this narks some people as well. Tough, but still annoying when they get annoyed with me.

Having said all that, those people I have  been in contact with who are relatively close i.e. second, third cousins, have been delightful contacts and we have shared lots of details, tips and family tales.

What I need more than anything now is a secretary to organise the mountain of paperwork I have, such as census records, BMD certificates, pedigree layouts, emails, etc.

I haven't put my tree on Ancestry because I know if I did I would be reluctant to drop the subscription when I don't need it anymore.  I do put most family members on Genes but because of some strange people that have contacted me I am very very careful who I allow to view it.  I think I have got to a point now where I have more to offer on most of my lines than others can help me with.  Quite a few of the Genes trees I have viewed have had mistakes and when I've pointed the mistakes out they don't respond.  I would hate to think that I had mistakes in mine, I would most certainly be grateful if people put me right and would not take offence. There are also those people who are only interested in 'name collecting' and will add all your family regardless of the distance of relatedness (is that a proper word or a Cherylism?).   I haven't got any living relatives on my tree to protect their privacy but this narks some people as well. Tough, but still annoying when they get annoyed with me.

Having said all that, those people I have  been in contact with who are relatively close i.e. second, third cousins, have been delightful contacts and we have shared lots of details, tips and family tales.

What I need more than anything now is a secretary to organise the mountain of paperwork I have, such as census records, BMD certificates, pedigree layouts, emails, etc.

Thanks for your replies .

I use Genealogy.com but it is used mainly by people abroad although there are many in this country on it . I use the ' message board ' but it is under used unfortunately .
When you go on it , it senses that you are in the UK and tries to put you onto Ancestry but i click to stay on Genealogy.com .
I found a half-Aunty in New Zealand and i have left a message for info about my Nana's tree - no reply yet but you never know .

> Quite a few of the Genes trees I have viewed have had mistakes

That is true - I put things on there and then tell anyone who contacts that I haven't fully checked it out yet.  At least one can state one's sources.  One has to be careful not to give information about living people either - one has to be vague.  We have had a case of someone putting full names and dates of birth of our children and my husband on open internet - it is put into ancestry community and copied onto the Rootsweb site.  I was lucky that another distant relative clocked it and told me.  My husband gave the information freely years ago before it was possible to put all this online.

I have now seen the photos including an old photograph of my Great Grandmother outside her cottage with a rather nice black Cocker Spaniel on her knee. Called Sally apparently :-).  So, unbeknownst to me, this is in my blood!