Frequently Asked Questions about the transfer to findmypast.com

An online partnership between the Federation of Family History Societies and findmypast.com was announced in a press release on 1st September 2007. This page attempts to answer some of the questions that may concern users and to reassure them that business will carry on as normal on the current service until all the data to be hosted by findmypast.com has been transferred and made available on their website.

Some 10 million records from National Burial Index became available on findmypast.com at the end of November 2007.

Any remaining credit will be available to be used on the new service.

Who is findmypast.com?

Findmypast.com (formerly 1837online.com) was the first company to make the complete General Register Office (GRO) birth, marriage and death indexes for England & Wales available online in April 2003. It is part of the Title Research Group, which has been providing professional genealogical services for over 40 years.

Following the scanning and indexing of over two million images from the GRO, this UK company launched the first web site to allow the public easy and fast access to the complete indexes, which until then had only been available on microfiche film in specialist archives and libraries. In April 2007, findmypast's parent company Title Research Group received the prestigious Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2007 in recognition of their achievement.

Findmypast.com has subsequently digitised many more family history records and now offers access to over 500 million records with a few dating as far back as 1664. This allows family historians and novice genealogists to search for their ancestors among comprehensive collections of military records, census, migration, occupation directories, and current electoral roll data, as well as the original comprehensive birth, marriage and death records.

Why transfer the data to findmypast.com?

The Federation of Family History Societies and its publication company will not be able to invest sufficient time and money in the considerable resources that would be necessary to enable FamilyHistoryOnline to continue as a viable alternative to other commercial sites.

The hosting of FamilyHistoryOnline by findmypast.com is providing greater access to this valuable information and bringing the data to a wider audience worldwide. It will also produce greater returns to the family history societies who own this data, and they will be able to use this income to support their educational, project and other work.

When will the transfer to the findmypast.com website take place?

The transfer started with burial data which societies and others made available on FamilyHistoryOnline. The transfer is taking place in stages as these organisations give their individual permission. The first records transferred became available at the end of November.

Work is proceeding with other data in collaboration with the family history societies, and the transfer of existing data should be completed by the first half of 2008. Until then, all the data will continue to be available on FamilyHistoryOnline.

Once the transfer is complete, a new FamilyHistoryOnline home page will enable you to visit the findmypast.com site to access the hosted data.

Will all the data be available on findmypast.com?

We hope almost all the data will be available on findmypast.com in one form or another. However, in some cases the census indexes and transcriptions from family history societies will no longer available because findmypast.com have already made those indexes available and support them with images. Much of this society information will continue to be available in other formats, such as CD-ROM and some organisations could seek alternative ways of continuing to make it available online.

The data that will not be transferred will include:

  • Strays (records of people found out of place), particularly census strays that can now be found more easily by searching the full national sets of census indexes
  • Very small databases where the cost of the transfer will outweigh any possible financial return to societies
  • Databases where the data is in a very difficult format
  • Databases where the contributing family history society, organisation or individual does not wish to sign the new agreement with the Federation of Family History Societies.

What will it cost to use findmypast.com?

Findmypast.com offers a choice of ways of accessing the data: pay-per-view or subscription. Payment can be accepted online by credit card or by ‘BT Click&Buy’, and vouchers are available from an international network of stockists including libraries, archives, family history societies and by mail order. There will be a review of the costs of viewing individual records to bring them into line with other datasets. The lowest price for a findmypast.com unit is normally 9 pence compared to 6 pence for a checked index record on FamilyHistoryOnline.

What will happen to the voucher I haven't fully used?

You will be able to continue using the FamilyHistoryOnline vouchers until the end of the current service. At that point, arrangements will be made to convert the outstanding balance on partially-used vouchers to findmypast.com credits. You will be notified in advance of how to activate your credits, so please make sure you keep your email address correct and up-to-date by using change details under the account menu tab when you are signed on. You will also then be able to exchange any FamilyHistoryOnline vouchers you have not started to use for findmypast.com vouchers. However, findmypast.com vouchers will not work on the current FamilyHistoryOnline service whilst it remains in operation.

You will not lose out financially from the final transfer of the service to findmypast.com They have dealt with this situation very capably in previous situations and they plan to make similar arrangements in this case.

Were other alternatives considered?

Discussions were held with a number of organisations, and these were invited to submit their proposals as to how they would host the FamilyHistoryOnline data. More detailed negotiations were then held with the short-listed companies, based on the proposals they had made, before findmypast.com was finally chosen.

Will support still be available?

The team that runs FamilyHistoryOnline on a day-to-day basis will continue to provide email support related to the existing service until it closes. Given pressure on their time which will include supporting the transfer of data it may be difficult to maintain the previous level of service so your understanding will be appreciated.

The findmypast.com support team will provide email and phone support during UK office hours for the FamilyHistoryOnline data they are hosting as they provide for their present service.