This weekend Ancestry are giving free access to their military* records until midnight on 11th - it looks like you have to registser (but it does not mention credit card details). They are calling them Wartime Records, so may just be the 2 world wars. Not to be outdone, FMP is offering free access (it looks like to all records, but not newspapers) from midnight tonight until midnight on 11th.
Thanks so much for this. I checked the Merchant Seamen records on FMP and found my long lost uncle! Picture added to my family album if you are interested. He looks so much like his siblings and has the same eyes as my grandfather and mother.
It may be me, but FMP are not letting you download images only save them to your tree (that's if you have one). Is that because it's a free weekend maybe. Bit frustrating for those of us that have a sub, it won't even let you print a copy!! Have queried it with them on Facebook.
I don't remember exactly how I got there but there was a print icon in the bottom right corner. I also took a screenshot just in case.
Every time I click on the print icon it starts to load it then goes back to the image. Anyway at the moment I'm using Windows Snip to get a copy. Just thought it was rather strange.
FMP say those features were disabled for the free weekend to optimise website performance. More like it was done to get more people to subscribe so they can get downloads of the records they may have found.
I must admit that I had problems accessing FMP yesterday - very slow, it was. Probably because of it being the first day of free access. However, today has been a lot better.
Yes, I kept getting the dreaded '501 oops something went wrong at our end' I've had it a couple of times today too.
I have trouble logging on to their 'new & wonderful' page. It seems more interested in having people join up or start a tree,. How many trees can a person have? I cannot even find merchant seamen. edit, just found it
It's a great opportunity but isn't that d**n FMP note that appears each time you look at something, annoying!
A very helpful person on Facebook, not from FMP, directed me to 'My records' where you can access everything that you've looked at before and download a copy. Deja vu TD's 'Bookmarks'!! It's at the top of the page where you go for Search, 1939 Register etc.
I've spent most of the evening either getting an 'Oops' message or 'Sorry we had trouble getting those results'. Frustrating.
I refound the two photos I'd ffound years ago- not too many of mine had a photo included it seems, but I got distracted anyway & just continued looking for family things.