Time to branch out?

It’s Start Your Family Tree Week again. How’s yours?

Mine has grown a little, it’s less lop-sided than last year’s. But I’m going to be doing a bit of tree surgery and root-nourishing over the festive season.

Is yours too bare? (Tomasz Steifer via Wikimedia Commons)

If you’d like to join me in a spot of genea-gardening, here’s a good place to start – FindMyPast Ireland has a week of tips and a competition on social media (you do use Facebook, Twitter or G+, don’t you?)

And to help there’s still time to take up the offer of 50 free credits, worth over £5, or up to 10 free views of original documents, at FindMyPast UK, along with useful tips.

You can also get 50 more FMP credits via the Lost Cousins newsletter, making a fantastic total of 100. If you subscribe, you’ll get regular tips and news of offers. And until the end of the year you can use the site for free. There’s also a free downloadable PDF ancestor chart with Ahnentafel numbers.

Another place for helpful SYFTW tips is Genes Reunited, which also has downloadable charts and family question sheets. They’ll be running competitions, too, as British GENES points out. (Thanks, Chris, for explaining the FMP credits so clearly here.)

I still can’t find one great-grandfather in the 1881 census. I know he was alive then, but as a mariner he might have been at sea on census day. Maybe I’ll track him down this week?

If I find any other special Start Your Family Tree Week tips this week I’ll post them here. And please let me know if you spot any.

Happy tree-growing!

Stop press: More (40) free FMP credits, this time in association with Who Do You Think You Are? magazine. And 50 more via FMP UK’s Facebook page. Thanks to Tamara McCloskey for the tip.

And another 40 (that’s a possible 230 in all, phew!) with the details here on British & Irish Genealogy. Thanks, Mick Southwick.

A big thank you to all the above – they’ve already helped me find out more about my more elusive family members.

Two great places to go for the latest in UK and Ireland genealogy news, including offers like these, are British GENES and British & Irish Genealogy.

Some of these offers have now expired, but Julie from Anglers Rest has pointed out another, expiring on February 2nd, here. It’s for 40 credits. Thanks, FMP!

FMP Ireland has another 50 credits to celebrate Irish Family History Day. You could use them to look up some of the ‘twenty-one million Birth, Marriage and Death records’ they’ve added. Expires on January 31. And you can use the same code to get 50 more on FMP’s US site.

… and there’s more! To celebrate Australia Day (January 26 – watch this space for a special post), ancestry.com.au is opening up its convict and criminal records for free, unlimited access. But be quick – this only lasts till Monday 28th January.

About rebelhand

A Rebel Hand is: about Nicholas Delaney, Irish rebel of 1798, transported as a convict to New South Wales, roadbuilder, innkeeper and farmer. My great-great-great grandfather. Other ancestors transported to Australia, like Sarah Marshall, John Simpson and James Thomas Richards, pop up as well. This blog's also about the historical background to their lives, in England, Ireland, and Australia. My respectable Welsh ancestors sometimes get a look in.

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