In the not too distant past, researching your European ancestors involved hiring foreign researchers or making a personal pilgrimage to the country in question. My how things have changed! These days you can point and click your way through unbelievable records in the comfort of your own home.

For instance, MyFamily.com, one of the leading media companies for connecting families with their histories, origins and one another, has announced this week the addition of a new United Kingdom and Ireland subscription to its service.

The company offers both free and premium-paid subscription services to it’s network of Internet properties which include: Ancestry.com, the number one online source for tracing family histories; Rootsweb.com, the oldest and largest free online genealogy community; and MyFamily.com.

The new collection debuts with 50 million names extracted from sources such as immigration, parish, birth, marriage and death records from throughout the region.

Featured databases available in the United Kingdom and Ireland Collection include:

4United Kingdom and Ireland Parish and Probate Records, includes 15 million birth, marriage, death, probate, and burial names from historical parish registers in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland ranging from 1538 to 1837.

4England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, a collection of 14 million names including an alphabetical index that is searchable by name, record type, district and county. Going forward, this index will grow to include every registered birth, marriage and death in England and Wales between 1837 and 1900.

4Pallot Marriage and Baptism indexes, an exclusive four million name collection from the England and Wales area indentifing the Parish in which a marriage or baptism was celebrated, the names of the participants and the date of the event. An image of the original record is also available to be viewed online.

4Irish immigrants: New York Port Arrivals Index, an index of 600,000 catalogs the immigration of the Irish during the Potato Famine of 1846-1851 through passenger lists and other immigration documents.

Accessible from www.ancestry.com site, the United Kingdom and Ireland subscription is available for $69.95 annually or $23.95 quarterly. Current Ancestry.com subscribers can add the new annual subscription to their account for only $29.95.

First launched in 1996, Ancestry.com began with 50 million names and has grown by continually adding databases on a daily basis. Paid subscription to the Ancestry.com services now total in excess of 400,000.

Family Trees is written by Nancianne Parks Suber of Natchez. She can be reached by e-mail at

famtree316@aol.com

. Please send all announcements and queries to: Family Trees, 900 Main St., Natchez, MS 39120. &160;