F Y I
Ancestry are offering free access to their records from Oct 1st - Oct 15th.

Thanks for your heads-up !
Here's some more detail as to whats available & when:

"From October 1st-15th, we’re making another top collection free every day. From Australian electoral rolls to World War I documents, you’ll have access to all kinds of records, many of which are usually only available to our Worldwide members.
With each free collection, we’ll provide a tutorial right here on our blog. These helpful articles will give you a taste of what you can find in the records, and suggest some quick tricks you can try in a quarter of an hour.
Don’t worry if you miss a day – after they become available, the collections will be free right up to the 15th. And of course, we’ll leave our tutorials up indefinitely, so you can keep coming back and trying our tips.

Here’s a full list of the collections we’re making free each day:
October 1st – US Social Security Death Index
October 2nd – Ireland, Griffith’s Valuation, 1848-1864
October 3rd – California Marriage Index, 1960-1985
October 4th – Bavaria, Germany, WWI Personnel Rosters, 1914-1918
October 5th – 1920 US Federal Census
October 6th – Australian Electoral Rolls, 1903-1954
October 7th – Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997
October 8th – Sweden, Births from the Swedish Death Index, 1947-2006
October 9th – US WW I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
October 10th – England & Wales, Birth Index, 1916-2005
October 11th – Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage & Death Announcements, 1851-2003
October 12th – Quebec Vital and Church Records, 1621-1967
October 13th – 1930 US Federal Census
October 14th – 1901 England Census
October 15th – US Obituary Collection"

see http://blogs.ancestry.com/uk/2011/09/30/15-free-collections/?o_iid=49153&o_lid=4915...

The only problem is when signing up to the free access they ask for bank card details which I do not agree with giving over the Internet as I still don't trust its security even with all sorts of protection, firewalls, etc in place.

I agree in principle with you on this one, but in this instance theres no signup etc, just click on the links and view, similar to their other promotions which have occasionally comeup over the months. You can see and print any associated photodocs too. However as soon as you veer away from the exact specified collection then yes you'll be asked to signup.

Basically, why not take a look upto the 15th if & when they "release" a particular collection that may interest you ?. It can't hurt and may help.

Seeing Bavarian Army WWI, I had to look did I not. Yes, Adolf Hitler is there.

Roger

PS So is Heinrich Himmler.

"Just don't mention the War"...

Just a reminder that from early tomorrow, Monday 10th, free access on Ancestry to England & Wales Birth Index.
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=8782

About England & Wales, Birth Index: 1916-2005
Country wide civil registration of births, marriages and deaths commenced on 1 July 1837 in England and Wales. Registration took place at local civil registrars who in turn reported to the Registrar General at the General Register Office (GRO) in London. This national index to vital records is an essential source of genealogical information for family historians.

Since the original birth, marriage, and death registers are not open to the public, access to the information on one of these certificates is obtained by first searching the national birth, marriage, and death indexes that have been created by the GRO for this purpose. The indexes for the three events are divided into volumes by year following which entries are listed alphabetically. Once an entry in one of the indexes is found, you are then able to use that information to order of copy of a death, marriage, or birth certificate from the GRO. Information that can be obtained from the birth index includes:

Full name of child
Maiden name of mother
Month and year of registration
Registration district (each county in England and Wales was divided up into registration districts; jurisdictions are organized and appear as they existed at the time the record was created)
Inferred county (the county is inferred based on what counties the registration district covered)
Volume number
Page number
Note: The district listed is the district where the event was registered, not necessarily the location where the event actually occurred.

This database contains only the birth registers of the civil registration indexes from 1916-2005.

I'm VERY interested to view this file, as my brother in law was born at the Dilke in 1950, and I've seen this record on FreeBMD etc.
Born at the same time was his twin sister, but she sadly died later that day (she was not stillborn). I don't know why but I've been unable to find her Birth Records at all !?. I don't know how such short lives were recorded, if at all. Hopefully they were recorded but for reasons unknown were omitted from FreeBMD ?.
Similarly I've found no Death/Burial records. It's believed her body was placed to rest in an existing family member's grave at Lydbrook Churchyard, but again we don't have any further details.

Just a reminder that from 7am tomorrow morning Friday 14th the 1901 England Census is available free to view, no credit cards etc, on Ancestry.
Sadly this is only for two days, Friday & Saturday, so if you're interested then get on early to minimise possible delays as I suspect this will be a very popular attraction for their server to cope with.

Use this link
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=7814

Happy Hunting !

Happy hunting huh Jeff. I have spent several hours today looking up my lot on the 1901 Census. I thought the Site would be at least slow but not so. I had the bare bones of that Census from elsewhere but not the full detail and have been delivered a body blow. One pic. under Soudley will have to be removed and another amended. Time to write to der management. There I was thinking that I had the whole thing nailed down 1715 to now.

Roger

Hi Roger,
re the site's speed, I'm a nocturnal bird and know from the last few nights Ancestry seems to slow up considerably later on, possibly server maintenance but also as thats when the Colonials wake up?
(I worked here for a US owned company for many years, just as we were looking to finish at 6ish after a 10 hour day they'd start keenly bombarding us with emails & phone calls..) I think you were wise (or maybe not...?) to start earlier today, I'm sure tonight/tomorrow will be worse. I'm just abt to sit down for the long slog myself

Re your findings, what can I say ?, I'm just the messenger as it were.
Hope your weekend gets better, at least its a beautiful warm day, my strawberries are coming into fruit again, the washings dry, it must be err, mid October...