What is special about British Origins?
- Exclusive Data. Most British Origins collections are not available anywhere else on the internet. Our experience and contacts in the UK genealogy community, including our partnerships with the most respected sources for English records, the Society of Genealogists, allows us to make authentic collections available to our subscribers that no one else can offer.
- State-of-the-Art Technology. As the first company to put official genealogical vital records online, The Origins Network continues to pioneer in the technology of online genealogical record search and retrieval. British Origins searches are powered by NameXTM, the most powerful name-matching software available.
Can you tell me more about British Origins collections?
Please go to our About British Origins page where full details about data we currently hold and will be introducing in the future, can be found.
For information on current datasets click the following links:
Census records
Marriage records
Wills records
Court records
Apprenticeship records
Burial records
Militia records
Passenger Lists
General records and images
Is this data available elsewhere on the Internet?
No. Because of the partnerships British Origins has secured with organizations such as the Society of Genealogists and the Borthwick Institute (York), the majority of our data is exclusive to British Origins and cannot be found elsewhere on the Web.
The inclusion of our unique name - searching tool, NameXTM further enhances this exclusivity. More on NameX.
Do I receive any extras with my subscription package?
Yes.
- Monthly & Annual (Total Access) subscriptions: Bonus Origins Experts E-Booklet: Guide to British genealogy research
How can I find out when new collections are added?
British Origins frequently adds new collections. To make sure you know about new information, sign up for The Origins Network Mailing list. You will receive a monthly newsletter with updates of new services and information, plus expert tips and articles on genealogy research. Learn about the Origins Experts Newsletter.
Do you offer more British genealogy information?
Yes. The Origins Network offers several British census CDs and books available for ordering through the Origins Store. The Origins Network has partnered with leading publishers of quality British and Irish historical and genealogical products, including Eneclann, Archive CD Books and Burke's Peerage & Gentry, to help you progress further with your research.
Click here to go to the Origins Store
I already have a subscription to an online genealogy service, why should I add British Origins?
By concentrating on the United Kingdom and Ireland, The Origins Network complements other genealogy offerings, which focus on the United States. Although companies such as Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com have British records, their US orientation means that they don't have the local expertise and access to unique source records that The Origins Network, with our focus on the UK and Ireland, can offer.
Additionally, offerings from genealogical companies, which focus on the UK or Ireland, only give users only half the story. The extent of migration between England and Ireland and the commonality of many names has, compounded with the passing of time, been a cause for confusion even to natives of Britain and Ireland, who need to be able to access source data from both areas to pinpoint their real origins. If you are one of the 20 percent of Americans who can trace their origins back to Ireland, and over 15% with British origins, as well as the many Australians and Canadians of British and Irish descent, you'll need even more help sorting out their roots.
Even if you are already subscribing to one of these other services, a subscription to British Origins is a great addition to make sure your users aren't missing out.
Does British Origins data differ from that offered by the Mormons?
Some source documents indexed on the British Origins database (specifically Vicar-General and Faculty Office Marriage Licence Allegations) have been microfilmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS, or Mormons). Using British Origins you can identify documents on that microfilm, which can then be viewed at the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City or ordered via any LDS Family History Centre. Please note that none of the British Origins data is available via the FamilySearch web site.
Can you help me get in touch with other British genealogy researchers?
Yes. We provide a Discussion Group allowing subscribers to get in touch with others to swap information and stories related to family history.
Click here for more about the Discussion Group.
Where can I get advice on British genealogy research?
We offer several family history articles in the Resources section of the site (see right menu). Subscribers to the monthly plan and above will receive a newsletter each month containing family history articles, along with an e-booklet.
I am new to genealogy, how can I get started?
See our Resources pages for details on online bookshops and useful websites and our How to start tracing your family history article for more help. You may wish to consider joining the Society of Genealogists or find out if there is a family history society in your area.
Can you help me trace my family history?
We do not offer any genealogical services ourselves, other than online databases.
Do you have an affiliate programme?
Yes. We offer downloadable search boxes, banners and text links that can be placed on your site. Please click here for more information.
Can my library offer access to British Origins?
Yes, please click here for our new programme for libraries.
Why did you move to a subscription system?
We have carried out several customer surveys about what changes users would like to see on British Origins. We received a number of complaints from users who were unhappy with the credit system limiting their searches in progress and did not like having to repeatedly purchase more credits. Additionally most of our major partners indicated that their users felt more comfortable with the subscription service standard.
Who do I contact about suggestions for improvements or other feedback
See our contacts page.
How do I cancel my subscription?
To cancel your subscription, please send an email to help@origins.net with your login details and the subscription you wanted to cancel.
How do I subscribe to an additional service?
Subscribers to Irish Origins or British Origins, please note, that unless you have subscribed to Origins Total Access, adding either British Origins or Irish Origins will be a separate new subscription. If you would like to take advantage of our Total Access offer, you must first cancel any existing Irish or British Origins subscriptions and re-subscribe to Total Access.
How does the subscription system work?
Charges are automatically renewed, if a user does not cancel his or her subscription before the end of the allotted time (for example before the end of the 30 day period if a monthly subscription is taken out), the next month's fee will be debited from their Credit or Debit card.
This does not apply to the 72 hour membership option.
How much does it cost to access British Origins?
Updated information on British Origins pricing is available on About British Origins
What forms of payment do you accept?
We accept payment by credit/debit cards VISA, Mastercard, American Express, VISA Delta, Switch or Solo.
What benefits are there for Society of Genealogists members?
As part of our SoG partnership, British Origins offers a special deal to SoG members. They are awarded one 72 hour session (with unlimited searches), per calendar quarter for which they can view all collections from the Society of Genealogists available online. Members also get 20% discount on orders made via British Origins for hard copies provided by the Society (£8 instead of £10.)
These benefits only apply to records for which the Society holds copyright or for hard copies provided by the Society.
Please click here for more information
Is it safe to pay by credit card over the Internet?
All credit card details are transferred encrypted (via SSL) to prevent unauthorised access, and are not stored on our system. Technically this is safer than paying in a restaurant where credit card details may be copied. The use of credit cards for purchases over the Internet is becoming increasingly accepted, as banks, merchants and users realise that this is actually a very secure way to pay for goods and services. Credit card authorisations are performed in real-time and usually take less than 15 seconds. This can increase to a minute or more during busy periods.
How do I identify Origins Network charges on my statement?
These will appear as OMS, ORIGINS, PINNER. (Origins.net is a trading name of OMS Services Ltd, located in Pinner, England.)
Why do I need to get a special program to view images?
Necessity for Compression with Larger Images:
For most applications, because “raw” image files can be huge (tens of megabytes) it is essential to “compress” them, to make them smaller so as to speed up download times and to reduce storage requirements. For example, the original image files for our 1841 census images are around 13 Mbytes, whereas the compressed files which you download are only around one megabyte. Without compression, these images they would be virtually inaccessible online if you only had a dial-up Internet connection.
Need for Standardized vs. Multiple Formats:
We are primarily concerned with two types of images: black & white, or “bitonal” images, and tonal images, which can be full colour or just contain multiple levels of grey (grey scale images). While full colour – and grey scale – images are mostly compressed using the JPEG technique, this doesn’t work with black & white images, which require a quite different technique. Also while JPEG compressed images can be stored as “JPEG” files, compressed black & white images are usually stored as “TIFF” files.
Most image viewers can view JPEG files and black & white images stored as TIFF files. But if you download a JPEG file the image will open automatically within your browser (eg Microsoft Internet Explorer), whereas no browser recognises TIFF files. So if we used JPEG for grey scale images (eg 1841 census images) and TIFF for black & white images (eg 1871 census images), the JPEGs would open in your browser but not the TIFFs – which we do not think would be a good idea. We want to make things simple for you, so that you don’t need to know or care about the different image types. Because the TIFF file format can also be used to store JPEG images we have deliberately chosen to use that format for all our images, so that they are not recognized directly by a browser. You can then use either the AlternaTIFF “plug-in”, so that all our images appear to open within the browser, or a separate image viewer like XnView for Macs.
Non-Proprietary Method Means Universal Access:
Our approach uses non-proprietary image and file formats so that you are able to store downloaded images and view them at any future time without stringent restrictions on what viewing software you may use. We did not want to force you to use a proprietary image-viewing method, which while making viewing within The Origins Network easier, could have made viewing on your own computer problematic.
With non-proprietary formats, you can open images in different image viewers, depending on what you want to do. For example, you might wish to crop an image to select just that part of interest to you; you might want to play around with the image parameters of “difficult” images, to see if you could improve the legibility of some portion. You might want to change the image format to make it compatible with your favourite image viewing software. Sites with proprietary image viewing make these options virtually impossible.
I don't like AlternaTIFF, are there any other programs I can use?
Alternatives to AlternaTIFF; viewers which work with TIFF-JPEG images:
| Product | Applicability | Notes |
| XnView | Windows, MacOS X, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, Irix, HP-UX, AIX | free www.xnview.com |
| Imagistik Image Viewer | Windows | free www.imagistik.com best with Windows XP, otherwise requires Microsoft.NET Framework files - a 20MB download |
| IrfanView | Windows | free www.irfanview.com |
| fCoder iBrowser | Windows | free ibrowser.fcodersoft.com |
| Canon ZoomBrowser | Windows | free with Canon digital cameras and “certain Canon printers” |
| Informatik DocView 10 | Windows | the big brother of Imagistik
www.informatik.com/docview.html
US$49, 30-day free trial |
| ACDSee 7.0 | Windows | US$49.99 www.acdsystems.com |
If you have any suggestions for preferred image-viewers which handle TIFF-JPEGs, especially for Macs, please let us know.
Where do I find help on searching the datasets?
Please see Help on Searching - British Origins for links to help pages for each dataset.
Why can't I login?
Please remember to note down your user details. Note: login details are not case sensitive. If you forget your details, please click here.
If you are still having problems contact us with your Password and/or Email address. This will allow us to quickly identify the problem.
How long will my login details last?
Login details (Email address and Password) entered the first time you register with The Origins Network can be used as often as you like afterwards, provided you use the service at least once in any six month period. You can change your Password or any of your personal details any time you access the service thereafter. If you forget your login details click here to check.
Why do I get warnings about 'cookies' when I try to access the database?
The web site software requires the use of cookies. If cookies are disabled in your browser you will not be able to access the database. There is no risk in using cookies, and the cookies we use do not persist after you exit your browser.
I am having difficulty accessing the database
We recommend using Internet Explorer or Netscape Version 4 or later.
If using a PC please check that you have "cookies" and Javascript enabled.
If using a Mac we suggest that you use Internet Explorer rather than Netscape. There are known problems with Internet Explorer version 4.71 in its handling of Javascript; these were fixed in version 4.72. To find out which version you are using click on Help on the browser navigation bar then click on About Internet Explorer.
If you are using the RISCOS Oregano browser, check that the Proxy for HTTP is set off. Select Choices, then the Network tab, then Proxies: set http off. You should also check that Javascript is enabled: select Choices, then the Misc tab, then set Enable Javascript.
I can't see SoG membership pages or free search results
There are currently some problems viewing some pages if you have Norton Privacy Control turned on - SoG membership pages and free search results.
We are working on this problem but at the moment suggest turning Norton Privacy Control off to view these pages. Privacy Control helps to protect your personal information over the internet so you may wish to switch it back on again after viewing The Origins Network pages. The screens below show Privacy Control settings for Norton Internet Security 2002 and 2005. If you need more help please contact us.
Norton Internet Security 2002
To turn off Privacy Control click the Enable Privacy checkbox to remove the tick (see screen below).
To switch on again click the Enable Privacy checkbox to 'tick' the checkbox and drag the slider to set the Privacy Level.
Norton Internet Security 2005
To turn off Privacy Control click Privacy Control under Status & Settings to display the Privacy Control buttons. Click the Turn Off button (see screen below).
To switch on again click the Turn On button. Click the Configure button to display the Privacy Level options and select the Privacy Level.
How much do Origins Originals cost?
Hard copies of original documents ordered from the index cost £10 each including postage and packaging, payable by credit/debit card.
The Origins Originals I ordered haven't arrived. What should I do?
Please allow up to four weeks for the Origins Originals to arrive, allowing time for processing and for the package to arrive by mail or airmail from London. If you still have not received your order, contact the Society of Geneologists.
When enquiring about a hard copy order, please provide the following information in your message: Your name, address, phone number, date of order, order number (you are advised this when you order), type of record (ie Vicar-General Marriage Licence Allegation, Faculty Office Marriage Licence Allegation etc), date and name(s) of the individual(s) to whom the hard copy refers.
How can I keep the results of a search?
You can save the results of a search, clicking the "File" button on your browser then selecting the "Save As" option. You can then choose a file name and a directory on your PC to store a copy of the results. You can then view these at any future time. You can also print the results page when it is displayed in your browser by pressing the "Print" button. To retrieve a page you have previously saved, click the "File" button on your browser and select "Open".
Can I output the results of a search in GEDCOM?
At present results from the British Origins database are not available in GEDCOM format.