Hi Karen Any Ancestry database with the word "select" in its title is a familysearch database Most records on familysearch can be ordered for free from the LDS (takes around 28 days) Or you could check scotlandspeople and most likely find and pay to download it (sadly Scots records pre civil registration are rather sparse in details) There are virtually no passenger lists into the uk before 1878 ============== Findmypast have the same census as Ancestry (different transcriptions) (both only have transcripts for Scotland census 1841 to 1901) Both have the GRO indexes (different transcripts) Findmypast have the Chelsea pension records and the BL newspapers For Naturalisation records check the National Archives online catalogue Whilst Findmypast have some records Ancestry don't, Ancestry have far more than Findmypast But it would depend upon what you seek, whether one is better than the other for any individual researcher I would recommend searching the newspapers which is one Ancestry don't have but are a mine of information Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 12/06/2014 21:47, Karen Isaacson Leverich wrote: > First, I got a free one month subscription to FindMyPast, that I > turned on this morning. While I have several of my own lines that > originate in the UK, I've never had success (nor tried very hard) at > making connections "across the pond". But I'm doing a variant on a > "house history" by researching the families associated with the land

Thanks to everyone for their comments and advice on my first ever dabble into UK genealogy. I can believe FindMyPast to be a useful resource but probably won't subscribe at this stage of my research. I did head over and explored a bit on ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk. For those not familiar with it (me!), it seems to be a "pay as you go" site, rather than by subscription, which was well-suited to the limited nature of my query. Though getting dinged every time I look at a page of search results and even more when I looked at an image tended to discourage my usual appetite for anything and everything associated with the family I'm researching. I'll probably put a few more quarters in the meter (if only they were quarters, LOL!) and do some more exploring, once I get used to the concept. Or (as someone suggested) just order the microfilms to my local Family History Center and then scroll away. We'll see. :-) I did feel good fortune was on my side when I read the following on their description of Birth & Baptism Records in the Old Parish Registers, given I was interested in Dundee! *INFORMATION IN AN OPR BIRTHS & BAPTISMS RECORD* *Do not expect too much from OPR birth & baptism records. The amount of information recorded can be variable and most entries contain very little detail.* *At best:* name of the child, whether legitimate or not, date of birth and/or date of baptism, father's name, mother's name and maiden surname, place or parish of residence, occupation of the father and names (and sometimes occupations) of witnesses. Occasionally, as in, for example, Dundee, witnesses' relationship to the child (if any) may be recorded. Cheers! Karen