Essex registers indexed by Ancestry

[At home in NZ]

Having just read the announcement in the latest news letter I am more than a little peeved. Just how much money does Ancestry want to squeeze out of it's subscribers?? We pay enough as it is.
There are records that lead to Deceased on line and you have to pay to see those records.
Now we get another so called free record set!
It feels to me as though Ancestry can't be bothered to do things properly.

 

[peter]

Ancestry are absolutely wonderful for providing these transcriptions - those of us with Essex ancestors have been waiting so long.

Don't criticise Ancestry, criticise the Essex Record Office, who have chosen to collect £100,000 a year from family historians like me.

Now we get another so called free record set!

Nobody said they were free. Please get your facts right before whinging!

 

[At home in NZ]

get your facts right before whinging!

Sorry if my choice of words offends you. I am not whinging I am airing opinion.

I have always looked upon new records introduced into Ancestry as free because they are included in my annual sub. In other words if I am getting more for my money the extra is free.
However that is not now the case, we now have to pay additional fees for Fold3, Deceased on Line and now these Essex records.

Don’t for one minute think I don’t need Essex records, it just gets up my nose that more and more fees are being added to what is already a costly (for me) annual sub.

 

[peter]

As I said before, it's Essex Record Office that is charging, not Ancestry - if you're going to complain, at least choose the right target. I'm sure Ancestry would have been absolutely delighted to have had the registers on their site, as they do for other counties - but Essex probably didn't want to accept a cut in their income, even though it would benefit users. We're potentially faced with a similar situation in Suffolk - see my newsletter articles on the topic.

DeceasedOnline is a different situation because their records are transcribed and indexed at their own site, and always have been. They're a commercial business providing services to cemeteries and crematoria, as well as operating their own site for researchers. If researchers were able to access their records as part of their Ancestry subscription their business probably wouldn't be viable.

Fold3 is different again because it's a company that Ancestry took over, but decided to maintain as a separate site. You can buy an Ancestry subscription that includes Fold3, but Ancestry don't advertise it outside the US because most of Fold3's records are American.

It seems to me that the difference between us is that I've been a subscriber on and off to Essex Ancestors for the past 10 years, and have probably paid Essex Record Office about £500 in subscriptions during that time. Whereas you'll have the benefit of Ancestry's indexed transcriptions, so you'll save hundreds of hours and hundreds of pounds compared to me.

Aren't you the lucky one!

 

[Pauline]

While I agree that it is very useful to have these indexed transcriptions for Essex, I think Ancestry could be clearer in their description of this data collection. In several places it states "This collection contains images.....", but I can't find any mention of these images being on a separate website with additional charges.

Because this description misled me into thinking that the Essex register images were now available on Ancestry, I was inevitably somewhat disappointed to discover they were not.

 

[peter]

I agree that it would have been disappointing if you had expected full-size images as part of your subscription - though if you'd read my newsletter articles about Essex and Suffolk registers you might have been sceptical.

Ancestry should certainly make it clearer on their website that the images have to be purchased separately - but Essex Record Office should also have picked this up during the 'soft launch' period. Record-holders have to take some responsibility - they can't just collect the money.

 

[Pauline]

though if you'd read my newsletter articles about Essex and Suffolk registers you might have been sceptical.

I did read your articles, Peter, but there's only so much my brain can retain for instant recall.

When I first heard about this collection at Ancestry, I admit to being surprised that Ancestry might have the PR images, but was nevertheless misled into optimism by their description.

 

[At home in NZ]

You can buy an Ancestry subscription that includes Fold3, but Ancestry don't advertise it outside the US because most of Fold3's records are American.

I HAVE bought a sub that includes Fold3 and it is freely available to all. It is the All Access membership and I purchased it from ancestry UK.

Fold3 has a British Commonwealth Military Collection, it is not all about America and I have found records for two brothers who are my 1st cousins twice removed, both served in WW1 in the Cheshire Regiment.

My decision to purchase All Access was based on frustration because Hints for records that look promising weren't accessible.

With tongue in cheek I am looking forward to the day when All Access means exactly that.

 

[Helen7]

I HAVE bought a sub that includes Fold3 and it is freely available to all. It is the All Access membership and I purchased it from ancestry UK.

At the bottom of all my hints pages, I have a link to 'Upgrade to All Access to search Fold3 and Newspapers.com' but when I click this link the price is given in dollars (though still on the ancestry.co.uk site) so maybe they aren't encouraging non-US people to subscribe. I see the 'All Access' subscription appears in my upgrade options on my accounts page, so (as you say) clearly available to all - at a price! Are the newspapers featured in Newspapers.com mostly American too?

 

[At home in NZ]

the 'All Access' subscription appears in my upgrade options

That is how I upgraded and it was definitely in pounds sterling.
newspapers.com has papers from USA, Canada, England, Australia, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland. I must admit I haven't drilled down to see which newspapers and years covered.
They are currently making an effort to get me to upgrade so I can get an additional 355 million pages, a special offer because the NY Daily News is 100 years.old.
I'll pass on that!

 

[peter]

I HAVE bought a sub that includes Fold3 and it is freely available to all

It might be available to all, but it isn't widely advertised. When I click the link to see all membership options I am only offered Essential, Premium, or Worldwide.

Fold3 has a British Commonwealth Military Collection, it is not all about America and I have found records for two brothers who are my 1st cousins twice removed, both served in WW1 in the Cheshire Regiment.

But the records are mostly American, and some of the British military record sets are available elsewhere (eg Findmypast). I've never recommended the All Access subscription because most people would do better to subscribe to Fold3 separately on a one-off or occasional basis (it's $7.95 a month and there's a 7-day free trial). Last time I checked the difference between an Annual Worldwide subscription and an All Access subscription at the UK site was £45.

But if you bought an All Access subscription I can understand that you don't like having to pay for access to images hosted at sites not owned by Ancestry - but it's not really so different from transcription-only record sets like the Scottish censuses, which Ancestry has had for many years. In each case the owner of the images has a business of their own which they don't want to be disrupted.

For the benefit of others, there is a Q&A at Ancestry which explains that All Access includes Fold3, Newspapers.com, and Ancestry Academy.

 

[At home in NZ]

Before I received an option to upgrade to All Access, like you Peter I could only see what was in your screenshot. The upgrade option was presented shortly before my annual sub was due. Perhaps that's why you can't see the All Access option?
or, you are looking at it from the perspective of a new sub rather than an upgrade?

In the link you have provided for the Q&A it says to go to your account options page in order to upgrade. They mean the page 'My Account Options' which is accessed from the drop down in your user name at top right of the screen.

 

[peter]

you are looking at it from the perspective of a new sub rather than an upgrade?

That's right. As a Worldwide subscriber I've occasionally been offered the upgrade when I've clocked on certain links, but it's still well-hidden. And because of the cost I've never been tempted when it has been offered - I wouldn't get sufficient value out of Fold3.