Seems like an ideal lockdown pastime – Ancestry.co.uk is free to use this week – no payment details required

Not normally my thing, but I had a look, started adding a few people and got hooked! If you take up the 14 day free trial (add a payment method, but can cancel) things really start to snowball as you can pull in trees created by other users.

Thanks for that.

Getting back to 1877, I’ve discovered that one of my friends from childhood and I, share a great great grandfather. The father of my Great Grandmother, and his Great Grandfather.

Strangely, both families moved from Blyth, Northumberland, to Gateshead (my side), and Wingate Co. Durham (his side). Then somehow ended up back in Blyth, for me and him to grow up together about 50 yards from each other

Great shout, I’ve fancied giving that a go for a while!

I’m not sure I’m doing it right… it seems like you just search for individuals and add them to your own family tree? I expected to be able to search for yourself and it would trace your family tree back?

@spicer – it’s not a precise science as there are differences in how the data is stored in different places (for example using initials instead of full names) and errors / inaccuracies in the underlying data. As you add people and relationships to the tree you should get ‘hints’ (shown as a little leaf) which lead you on to suggestions extra information for that person and for other people that you can review and decided if you want to add them.

It’s slightly addictive.. I’m back to 1640 on one branch (albeit whipping through at a rate).

Ah, thanks for the explanation. I might fill in a few more and see if I get any ‘hints’ then!

I was going to try this but the link seems to of changed since last night. The 7 day free access seems to of gone, I can only see the free 14 day trial now that needs your payment info etc.

@andy4d on the front page there’s a “Start Searching” button (FREE access to all UK records until Sunday) which should take you there.

Not sure if I’m doing it right either

I can find records of births deaths and marriages but then when I ask for more info I get taken to a page where I need to pay to access further details?

Not sure how this helps me build a family tree for free? Perhaps that’s the idea though

@jamesgarbett what are you clicking on? If you click on the hints ‘leaf’ for a person you should get a list of potential matching data which you can review and add if it matches. “Ancestry Member Trees” items do require a full membership (but are included with the 14 day trial) but the other items shouldn’t.

Getting back to 1877, I’ve discovered that one of my friends from childhood and I, share a great great grandfather. The father of my Great Grandmother, and his Great Grandfather.

In researching our family tree we discovered that our 6x great grandparents were also our 7x great grandparents, ie our parents are something like 7th cousins once removed 😬