The good news on the Irish Family History Foundation website's new redesign looks like it is even better than at first presented. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I previously had two very long standing criticisms, on site functionality and cost. How the organisation has now very effectively addressed the first point has been covered in my first post - but it looks like the IFHF has also gone some way to address the second.
I did two baptismal searches last night for couples in Kilkenny, using only the parents' names - no parish and no year. In each case I had 5 children returned. To view the records, in the past I would have had to pay 25 Euros, but in fact I was only charged 20 Euros in each case. This means that each record cost me 4 Euros to view, and not 5.
However, I was again contacted by Bob Forrest this morning, who has also been using the site last night. In his case, a parent search returned 12 children - but he only had to pay 30 Euros. Therefore, in his case, each record was just 2.5 Euros to view.
So it looks like the IFHF is offering significant discounts on the returns of records in family groups. This is yet another very welcome move. The discount is only for records in the pilot advanced search counties, but hopefully it will be rolled out as a general feature in due course.
In light of this, I was amused to see the comment on the payment page suggesting that you may wish to buy eight records in advance at a cost of 40 Euros, to save you having to keep using your credit card - well God loves a trier, doesn't he (or she!)! My advice is to try the parent search first, but only if you know both names fully (i.e. mum's maiden name also). If they had eight kids, you may not actually need to spend forty Euros up front - you may get a discount.
Again, credit where it is due, and thanks to the IFHF for a move on this front also. The organisation kindly informed me last night that Derry records are now online with the new advanced search capability, and that Laois and Offaly are expected to be upgraded soon.
UPDATE: The IFHF has in fact placed the new discount costs for the advanced search on its site at www.rootsireland.ie/index.php?id=advancedsearch. The cost for multiple record purchases in a family group record set is summarised as:
1 record €5
2 records €8
3-4 records €12
5-10 records €20
11-15 records €30
In querying whether such a discount could in future be applied to the main credit purchase system currently in existence, I have received the following answer:
Further down the line we hope to move to a credit based system, where bulk discounts will be applied. For example €5 may get you 1 credit, but €100 may get you 21 or 22 credits or something of that nature.The exact details of these has yet to be agreed between the various parties
Once again, many thanks to the IFHF.
Chris
www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
Professional genealogical problem solving and research
http://twitter.com/ChrisMPaton
Researching Scottish Family History (New book)
I would like to see 100 euro for the year unlimited access instead, I am sure they would get a lot more users !
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping they update some of the counties for which they have records now. Then I'll use them more. One of the counties is Tyrone, which mostly has Catholic records. Of course, in that county, I need Protestant records. *grin*
ReplyDeleteThanks for the updated post. I was using the new site yesterday and I could only find where you could do a search by inputting the father's name. Even though there was an advanced tab, I did not see that you had to actually click on a county first before getting the ability to input both parents names.
ReplyDeleteI just did a search for two different parents in Kilkenny. One was the children born to my ancestor, and I got 4 hits, which I know to be correct. Cost was €12.00.
The other was for one generation back. I do know the mothers surname, but I left that blank as I'm not quite certain of the spelling. (it's either Reed or Reid) I got 3 hits only, (cost also €12.00) which does not fit, seeing that they had 12 children in all. Maybe I need to input the variant spelling of the mother's name to see what else I get. I think the ability to search on both parents names is great but it would be better if we could do it across counties.
www.baker1865.wordpress.com
I think they have added more counties now to advanced search !
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rootsireland.ie/index.php?id=newssinlgeview&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=9&tx_ttnews[backPid]=15&cHash=f3c45d3db39838efae219c008f69a005
Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteThanks for the updated post
ReplyDeleteBut what if you don't want all those records? You end up paying for some you don't need. Perhaps additional filter functionality would help. Still think the costs are excessive.
ReplyDeletePeter
I did say they had gone some way to addressing the price issue - I didn't say they had solved it! I did ask them to see if they could consider a straightforward discount scheme for multiple credits, rather than per family units. The answer I got was that they would look at it. I suspect that means it's been kicked into the long grass!
ReplyDeleteChris