The Genealogist

http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/

The Genealogist is a British-based subscription website which is competing with the other big players. Like Ancestry and findmypast, The Genealogist offers BMDs, all of the British censuses (1911 is in progress, with images at high resolution), parish register transcriptions and directories. The Genealogist did have exclusively British records, but have just begun to add some Australian directories and biographical info.

Generally you can get much of what The Genealogist offers on other sites, but they do have a variety of records, some of which will be exclusive to this site. I've not seen the Landowner records (England and Wales 1873, Ireland 1876, Scotland 1872-3) on other sites, nor the 18th and 19th century electoral registers for various parts of England. They also have wills indexes for various parts of England, and non-conformist records which aren't necessarily easy to get elsewhere. They also have a very extensive collection of directories, and claim to have their data checked by experts.

Another difference from the other major sites is surname mapping, which extends over a long period, so you can see where most people with a particular surname lived.

Subscription levels vary. The Gold subscription is unlimited, and they have introduced a Diamond level which includes the 1911 Census. Lower levels of subscription are run by credits, so when you've exhausted your credits, you need to resubscribe.

The Genealogist is owned by the online shop S & N Genealogy, and you can purchase parish registers, census transcriptions and other genealogy products via their online shop.

Have a good look at The Genealogist to see if what they are offering covers what you want. There's nothing worse than taking out a sub to something and then finding you can hardly get anything out of it, but if you don't have any other subs, and they have the records you needt, this could be a genealogy goldmine for you. I have subscribed to this site before, but do not currently.

Patrice Connelly
November 2010, updated August 2011