most accurate genealogy website

[kate]

Can anyone advise me which paid for genealogy website is the best please, I am trying to find out about my fathers family. This probably sounds silly but I don't have a clue about them. My dad never mentioned his family except that his mother died when he was very young. All I know is his date of birth and death and that he married my mother at St. Michaels in Ashton in 1929. He died when I was thirteen, most of the time he was working then he was gone. Why don't we ask questions when people are around ? It wasn't until I started doing my family tree that I realised half my family was missing and there is nobody left to ask.

[Son of Nomad]

Kate - the only subscription site I have used is Ancestry.com and I don’t know of another site that has so many records. It also does very useful searching and linking. The annual subscriptions are quite steep (to my way of thinking) but you can take out a monthly subscription as well. Perhaps other researchers here can tell you about other sites.
I also have found that a number of free sites have been very useful over the years: for Ashton and Tameside births, marriages and death records, try www. cheshirebmd.org.uk,  for the rest of Lancashire, try www.lancashirebmd.org.uk though more recent records have not been put on yet – you would have to check for where they are up to.
I also find the American IGI site very useful as includes free access to British censuses; you can find it at familysearch.org. Hope this helps.

[Fudge]

Kate If you live local and want to test different sites the Archives at the rear of the Library have Ancestry and find My Past and you can use them free also they have people a couple of times a week to help you search to get you going also there are B M D For the Churches and if you check the marriages it will give the Fathers names as well I will send a private message Fudge

[kate]

Thank you Fudge and Son of Nomad for your advice, and thanks for your message Fudge you are really kind. I live in Sheffield Fudge just over the big hill from Lancashire, but we do have a  local library where I can access Ancestry for a small price. I have used it but my problem is really a lack of a starting point for my father he just never mentioned having any family and I just thought he was an only child.
I did have a subscription with Genealogist but they didn't have a lot of records, I will have a look at some of the other sites.
Thanks again.

[Albert]

Hi Kate you could try Tameside council site and look at the cemetery records ,not all up to date but worth a try

[Vanessa]

If you use Cheshire BMD, the free online index, you will find all the births marriages and deaths in Ashton, under Tameside, put your father's year of birth in the search engine with his first and surname and it will show you what his mother's maiden name was. Go back to the birth index and put in both the father's and mother's surnames, use the year of your father's birth plus and minus ten years in the search engine, this will bring up all their children. Once you have a year for the eldest child go to the marriage index and search using his father's and mother's surnames, this should bring up their marriage if it took place in the area. Always remember to use the area Tameside.

[kate]

Thanks Albert and Vanessa, your advice will be very helpful. I can't get out much due to health problems so I can have a root round online. I never knew how to use the BMD indexes like that until now, I will try it out Vanessa thanks again.
Kate.

[Too shy]

Can anyone advise me which paid for genealogy website is the best please, I am trying to find out about my fathers family. This probably sounds silly but I don't have a clue about them. My dad never mentioned his family except that his mother died when he was very young. All I know is his date of birth and death and that he married my mother at St. Michaels in Ashton in 1929. He died when I was thirteen, most of the time he was working then he was gone. Why don't we ask questions when people are around ? It wasn't until I started doing my family tree that I realised half my family was missing and there is nobody left to ask.

None of this is particularly difficult, Kate.  Providing you can get back as far as the 1911 England and Wales Census (the most recent census available to us), you can then keep going backwards into history. You have to be prepared to get hold of the various certificates as you journey back (which can be a bit tedious at times) but, bit by bit, you will arrive in the early 19th century. Let us know how you go on.

[Son of Nomad]

....... and those certificates cost £10 a time at present. Kate, if you get stuck with your searching just put a question on here. There are folks with of family history experience who will help.

[Too shy]

Contrary to what you seem to be suggesting, SON, obtaining bmd certificates can be an invaluable way of making the essential links between our ancestors. On more than one occasion, I have had to obtain sets of birth certificates to determine which might be the correct ancestor I was trying to investigate. Each to his own.

[kate]

Thanks everyone for your advice, I have sent off for a certificate because I hit a brick wall and in this case as Too Shy says it really is the only way to prove it is the right person. I have been up so many blind alleys, much as it hurts I have had to pay. I will let you know the outcome and more than likely be asking for more advice.