Genealogy Chat

I have found 2 2nd cousins through this site after 5 years researching on my own. To me £10 a year is well worth it.

I haven't got a clue what I paid. Wether it was £5, £7 or £9.50 I can't remember. I don't think though that at 2.6pence a day that it's a very bad deal. After all, at under 80pence per month, they do provide a very nice service. I don't know what everyone else does with their internet time, but I spend £14.99 a month on mine to surf unlimited hours, looking at 'stuff', most of the time, pointless 'stuff' that you could get for free in a library! If you look hard enough, for long enough, you can find someone on this site that lives round the corner from where any one of your ancestors were. They're usually just as keen to help you as you would be them. It could cost you a lot more than £9.50 just to take a bus to wherever that records office may be and they could save you the bother. Have you checked out the prices of the subscription on other geneaology sites? This isn't that bad and i'm sure, if their 28,599,491 members started complaining, the price would soon come back down.

I don't think anybody would mind the increase if the technical problems were dealt with

has anyone seen how many members are registered. Noticed one member tonight whose number is over 2,500,00 . Even if only half renew thats an awful lot of subscription money going in to the site. But i still feel happy paying my renewel fee. Joan

In case you are wondering about renewing membership, I put the following thread on the general board a while ago, and have just nudged it. 'I asked GR what access I would have to the boards if I did not renew my membership and was told that I could still reply to emails sent to me; that I could view the message boards but would only be able to post on the success and trying to find boards. I was also told that I could put a GEDCOM onto the site and could use the search facility. ... for your information, thought you might be interested ... Joy' By the way, it says somewhere on the site that your names stay on the site's database for ever. Joy

My sister joined for £5 and encouraged by this she showed me how to log on. We were flabbergasted to find it had gone up to £9.50! Some rise.

hi debbie,i dont find doing something i like a problem when, thing are not running ok,it could be with not knowing all the hi tec detail ,that saves me from the problems other members have, regards tony

Tony Your telling us that when everyone else is having a problem with this site, your's always runs smoothly? very odd. And it is a very good site but it shouldnt go up that much when there are so many problems on here. they just cant cope with all the members, and they should be able to sort something out by now.

dont no whot all the fuss is about, its saving me plenty,and the wife knows where i am every night, i am on a land line and have had no problems with the site slowing down , i just wish i had set the site up, we are on the best site , and a easy site for learners like my self on computers, just nipping out for a pint, tony

Chloe, I also belong to Forum sites, there the messages stay and anyone can read a messaage from 5 years ago. I had just had a 2nd cousin contact me we had been looking for his granddad since we started (5 years), now we know they weren't more than 10 miles from us, that was not from this site. This site is good, but it's the people that make it good and it is for the UK which the others are not. I don't mind the subscription, when I belong to Friends and Genes I paid out £10 but I can't do both. Irene

There are other forums out there. Free ones at that. Ancestry and Rootsweb are just two examples. People help others there. You can post your interests on there too. Put your tree on the net for free.... people can email you for free.... I don't understand the increase, considering that Genes don't do any of the lookups themselves.

Thank you Debbie Scott and Twinkle you seem to understand what I was getting at. I use to belong to Friends reuntie as well, but can't afford both so decided this was the site. Lots of old friends on this site have long gone and I miss them, it use to be lots of laughs, not meaning its not now but it was like old friends. First thing in the morning and when I got home from work you would see me on here. This site is good but who has made it good our goodselves who use it and help others. I did say last year I wondered how much more it would go up. Now we know. So come on Genes explain why the increase. I am in two mind to renew or not come June. But that will mean if anyone wants to contact me they won't be able to as they don't tell the messenger that the person they want to contact are no longer a subscriber. Irene

GR doesn't actually do much. They provide free forms which you can get free elsewhere. They allow you to put your tree online - again, available elsewhere. The membership fee is for the boards and messages. It's effectively £9.50 (or £7.50 for us oldies) to be allowed to email someone or offer our services and advice. There's no reason for the price hike except greed. I bet GR's expenditure hasn't doubled in the last year.

i think value-wise it aint bad-although i have to admit that in a way,the members run it-not gr!if it was not for the members input this site would die,so please dont let it go above a tenner-if anyone important is reading this!lol! maybe in recognition of this fact,they could sometimes have a few prizes or compititions for members?6months free membership,or software for most helpful member?just a suggestion-it would not hurt thier purse-strings much!

Hi all, I don't think the actual amount is the issue here. It is very reasonable, £7.50 for a years membership. Irene's initial message was about the amount is has increased! I agree with her. It is almost a 100% increase in a year. That is milking it for all it's worth!!! If the membership numbers are true to the amount of members there are, that's over 2million people x £7.50!!!! That's a hell of a lot of money! The site is often unobtainable, or extremely slow - even with broadband. Surely some of this money could channeled to larger servers, better equiped to cope! Debbie

Quite interesting googling to look for news about them. One article dated this month includes: 'In the last 18 months, two Friends Reunited offshoots have emerged. Friends Reunited Dating is looking to tap into an online dating market in the UK, estimated to be worth £50m a year. Meanwhile, Genes Reunited is a geneology site that helps people trace their family roots and reunite with lost relatives. 'Genes Reunited now generates revenues of well over £1m. And 35,000 people sign up to the site every week.'' Joy

See I am on Broadband, first it was going slow, and just a minute ago I had another error in message. I got kicked off. If they are going to charge a service then they should make sure it runs just like clockwork. If I have a problem with any other site, which is not that often I dont mind as I am not paying for it.

PS Most genealogy sites are free by the way (ie cyndislist, GENUKI, rootsweb) ... am still arguing with myself! :) Joy

The person that founded/invented the 'World Wide Web' gave it to the people....He said that it should be free to all. Having said that, I agree that under a tenner for one years fun and research aint that bad but yes GU should spend some of the profit on speeding it up!! Im broadband and it's MOST of the time like going back to dial up :o((( Gerri x

Its an absolute bargain, whatever the price! And I'm with you Marion - its saved me a fortune in shopping as I get stuck on here instead of going out spending money!! Ellen.