Findmypast

Decent enough for what I needed, found my gran's marriage record on the phone on the bus. Search could be quicker though, had to retype a surname three times. Price is a bit steep for a few days.

I purchased access to probate calendars to look for a great uncle's will, which was the main reason I signed up. The search itself took a good while to return results for the surname I was after, and I had to repeat several queries before I found the entry. Once I did, the transcription was accurate and useful. It would have been helpful if the search had been a little quicker.

Needed a copy of my nan's birth record for a passport thing and this was the quickest way to get it. Signed up in like two minutes and found it straight away.

Bought a bundle of records for my nan's side of the family and got loads of results straight away. The scans were clear on my phone and I saved them all to my account. Saw a lot of stuff I didn't expect too, so I'm chuffed.

I had been quoted a fair sum by a local researcher to look into my wife's ancestors, so I thought I'd try doing it myself. The site turned out to be considerably cheaper for the same sort of records and I could work through them in the evenings. The search could be a little more forgiving with spelling variations, which took me some time to work around.

The search part is fine and the records were what I expected. What stood out was how long it took to cancel my subscription when I wanted to stop, I had to ring up and wait on hold. Found the records useful at the time.

Compared to the free archives I'd been using, this gives much more useful search results for old parish records in the midlands. The transcriptions are a bit hit and miss so you do need to check the originals. Still, I'd take it over spending a day in the record office.

I needed to check service records for a relative who served in the Second World War for a local history talk I'm giving. The collection is strong and I know the sources well, so I could cross reference quickly. The search pulled up what I needed without much trouble.

I bought a year of the British Newspaper Archive to look up a local story about my granddad's football team. Searching is decent once you know what keywords to use. Some of the scans are a bit blurry and the OCR text misses things, so you end up reading the pages yourself.

Honestly it's brilliant for quick checks when you're out and about. Searched a surname on my phone while waiting for the bus and the app loaded fine. Pulled up a couple of marriage records in a matter of minutes.

Compared with a free archive I'd used before, this was a lot more expensive for the same records. The search did find what I wanted but I would have expected a better price for the amount you get. I'd only use it again if I couldn't find the record anywhere else.

Got the 1911 census download for a uni project and honestly it was dead easy to find my nan's family. App was a bit slow on my phone but the results loaded fine on the laptop.

I looked at three sites before picking this, mainly on price and what they covered for Lancashire. This one had the best coverage of old electoral rolls for my area, and the subscription cost was about the same as the others. Searching was straightforward once I got used to the filters, and the results were laid out clearly.

Signing up was quick and the free search found my great grandad's census entry straight away. The bit I didn't love was that the certificate I ordered took a few days longer than the site said it would.

I'd already tried two other sites before this one, and this turned out to be far more useful for my Welsh ancestors. The other sites had the census but barely any parish records for the valleys, so I ended up spending more with this one. Worth it in the end because the records I needed were there.

I needed to trace my great grandad's birth details for a family tree project and the site was the obvious place to start. The census records were easy to search once I got the hang of the filters, though it took a few goes to find the right entry for him in 1911.

I'm afraid the records I was hoping for weren't there, and I'd been led to believe they would be. The site is perfectly usable but I did find it rather expensive for what I got.

I'd always wondered about my family history and finally decided to look into it properly this year, so I signed up here to start. The first few searches were a bit confusing until I worked out how the record sets are split up. Once I had that sorted it has been really useful for tracing my grandparents' moves between towns.

Honestly the records are really good and I found a few things I'd been stuck on for ages. The app freezes sometimes when I'm scrolling through results on my phone, which is annoying. Still worth using.