They got me

Who got me? Ancestry. At long last, I've taken out an annual subscription. I'm now on the UK Heritage Plus package.

In the past, when I've wanted to use Ancestry's databases, I've gone to the library or a couple of times a year I've taken what I think of as a 'hit and run' membership... join on a monthly plan, download all I can for a month, then cancel! I'm still catching up on the data entry from an electoral roll download binge in 2007.

Over time, the number of collections of use to me has increased until finally, I've succumbed. No more 'hit and run' memberships for me, at least not in the next year. The major draw cards are the (horribly transcribed) UK census collection, the Australian birth, death and marriage indexes (even with the flaws identified by Geniaus), Victoria Australia passenger records (thanks to Rachel for telling me how to access the images), Australian electoral rolls, London Parish Records, and most recently the England and Wales National Probate Calendar.

While some of these are available elsewhere online and usually with better transcriptions, they are on pay per view sites, or don't include images. I'm sure that other collections that will be of interest to me when I take my time and have a closer look.

Already, I can tell that the way I use Ancestry has changed. I've had a few good finds that I probably wouldn't have made if I was under time pressure to get all the information I could download in a month.

Any suggestions as to what, on Ancestry, an Australian whose ancestors mostly arrived from the UK in the 1850s, give or take, should take a closer look at?!