I used Geni to fill out the Norwegian part of my tree. It is very popular there. They are a world tree, so you are not creating your own private tree. They have a nice "how are you related to "x" feature. Their search is mostly through MyHeritage and Family Search and I don't see it worth it for that. Only if you want to see if other people have solved your problem. After the first year, I didn't find it useful any more. On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 5:43 AM, Greg Lovelace <greg@part-of-the-tree.com> wrote: > Margaret Lovelace wrote: > " I received an email offering a discount on GENi but it was still $119 for > a year's subscription. I subscribe to Ancestry. Is it worth the money to > belong to another search data base?" > > Margaret and other cuzzins, > I can't say much about Geni because I really have never used it. I can say > that, most of the time, even in my business, I use three or four websites: > Ancestry, to which I have a world subscription (pricey, about $300 a year) > GenealogyBank, for newspapers, a subscription service) > Fold3, mainly for the military records there (a subscription service) > FamilySearch, which is the free service from the LDS church. > > Mostly I use Ancestry and FamilySearch, I also have a subscription to > FindMyPast, which I rarely use. > > I highly recommend using FamilySearch, which is adding records all the > time. > There is a trick to using it, though. The majority of records that are > digitized have not yet been indexed, so just using the records search box > (as in Ancestry) will only scratch the surface. The better thing to do, > after trying the regular search, is to use the catalog search: > Search (at the top of the page) > - click on "Catalog" on the drop-down menu > - begin to enter a place in the "Place" box... as you type, choices will be > suggested. If you want to look at, say, Bourbon County, KY, start typing > it > in, and eventually, "United States, Kentucky, Bourbon" will show up. Click > on that, and it will enter into the box. > - Click on the down arrow for the box that says "Search these family > history > centers:" and choose "online." > - click the search button > You'll be presented with a list of record groups which have been digitized. > For my example, here is the list: > > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Cemeteries ( 1 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Census - 1840 ( 1 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Census - 1850 ( 1 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Census - 1850 - Indexes ( 2 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Church records ( 2 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Court records ( 4 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Court records - Indexes ( 1 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Genealogy ( 1 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Guardianship ( 1 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - History ( 4 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Land and property ( 3 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Maps ( 1 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Military records - World War, > 1914-1918 ( 1 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Minorities ( 1 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Naturalization and citizenship ( > 1 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Newspapers ( 2 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Officials and employees ( 1 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Probate records ( 4 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Taxation ( 1 ) > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Vital records ( 13 ) > There is a little arrow for each on the left, and the number in parentheses > indicates how many different sources there are in that record grouop. In > this example, click on the arrow next to " United States, Kentucky, Bourbon > - Court records ( 4 )" and it will show: > > United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Court records ( 4 ) > Bourbon County, Kentucky Circuit Court case files, ca. 1780-1880 > Author: Bourbon County (Kentucky). County Clerk > > Order books, 1786-1866 > Author: Kentucky. County Court (Bourbon County) > > Record book, 1794-1800 > Author: Kentucky. Court of Quarter Sessions (Bourbon County) > > Record books, 1803-1823 > Author: Kentucky. Circuit Court (Bourbon County) > > Each of these is an active link to the records. For example, look at the > first one (Circuit Court case files). You will get a description of the > record set. Down below that, you'll see a list of "Film Notes", each > referring to a film number (the FHL microfilm number for that set of > records; eg, Circuit Court case files, #1-545 --- ca. 1787-1795, film > 2241501). You will see a little microfilm icon at the end, which indicates > that the records there are only available on microfilm. However, if you > page down through the list, you'll eventually see a camera icon. The first > one I find is Circuit Court case files, #23008 (cont.)-23153 --- ca. > 1848-1852, film 2370552. The camera icon indicates that the records have > been digitized. If you click on the camera icon, you will be presented > with > a series of thumbnail images of the frames on the film. There is a toolbar > on the left, with a plus sign (zoom in), a minus sign (zoom out), and two > other icons. The first is a single rectangle which you use to toggle > between the thumbnails and a closeup of the highlighted frame. If you > click > on this rectangle, the thumbnail you have highlighted will be enlarged, and > the icon will change to several small triangles, signifying the thumbnails. > Clicking it again will go back to the thumbnail view. This microfilm has > 2582 frames, and at the beginning you are looking at image 1 of 2582, as > shown in the black bar just above the thumbnails. This interface is > similar > to the "filmstrip" on Ancestry. > Once you play around with this, you'll see that you can scroll down, enter > a > frame number, or go through one image at a time. It's a very nice > interface. I always look for an index first, and then page through. It > takes a while to get the hang of it, but after using it, I think you'll > find > it very useful and intuitive. > > You might need to create an account (free, just supply your email address, > and then they do not bombard you with ads or anything like that) and sign > in > to see some records. Give it a try. > > Peace, > Part of the Tree, > Greg > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > LOVELACE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >