Genealogy Chat

Incidentally, the records on ancestry.co.uk of bmds from 1837 to ca 1925 are taken from freebmd, and will always be behind freebmd.


ancestry is not transcribing those themselves, but are supporting freebmd and in return, get access to the records.



sylvia

Records began on July 1 1837, but it did not become absolutely compulsory to register births until about 1875. Before then, many parents did not register their babies, particularly if there was not a registrar with easy reach.

Marriages and deaths are usually registered almost immediately. Births have a 6 week grace period ............ so always check the quarter AFTER the time in which you think your person might have been born.

What happens/ed is that bmds were recorded at the local Registry Office, then those records were sent down to the General Records Office (GRO) which used to be in London but is now in Southport. The records were then transcribed into the registry books at GRO. Occasionally, records didn't make it down to GRO, so they will be missing.

freebmd is a massive project in which volunteers are transcribing the volumes of records from GRO onto the internet .... it is constantly being updated, so you should check back at regular intervals.


BUT you can also check the records for your county to see if they have transcribed the records ........go to www.ukbmd.org.uk, enter your county in the search box to the left, and see if they have their own records. Lancashire is particularly good ..... they even have mmn from very early on!!


I believe freebmd is upto about 1920/25 ......... the Complete Index to all bmds from 1837 is available on ancestry.co.uk ..... but it is an Index that you have to search quarter by quarter year by year (and repeat for the spouse's full name). Ancestry also carries the bmds from 1983 to 2006, which were put online right from the begininning.


Good luck



sylvia

The reason you might not find everything on FreeBMD is, it's only partially transcribed so far. There are records available between 1837 and 2006 on Ancestry but not all are indexed so they are searchable by typing a name in yet. (If you look on the full index on Ancestry, not the Free BMD one on Ancestry, you can look at the images for the index, quarter by quarter, but it can take a while to find things.)

But everything is transcribed from the original records send to the GRO - some people just never got round to registering events (even after it became compulsory) and other records got lost between the local registry office and the GRO.

Thanks for all your helpful comments.

Are Free BDM a reliable source? I can't find everything I need on there but I have found a couple of things much easier than on other sites.

7 pounds seems cheap compared to South Australia where they charge you $38 AUD to get a copy of a BMD certificate.

You cannot see the information anywhere except by buying the actual certificate.


For a marriage certificate, you can find the possible other party by clicking on the page number, then as others have said, you can cross check with a census to get an idea.

But to be certain, and to get the actual date and place of the marriage, you have to buy the certificate itself.



sylvia

What I do is ...check as many census returns as possible and although there are mistakes you can get a "feel" for the person. When your fairly sure its right one go to GRO.uk and order the birth certificates online. With marriages its a matter of elimination. Check for the possible spouse in the records and try to check the name in later census returns. Then send for the certificate. Do you use several different web sites like Free BDM and Free Census to check records?

Hi Peter,

It looks as if you have found the index references on freebmd. Using these references you can order the certificates online from the GRO website for £7 a certificate (or £10 if you don't have the index reference).

Good luck,

Peter

Hello

I apologise now if this info is already somewhere but I have looked and am still at a loss where to go from here.

I have searched for a birth record and found who I think is my Great Grandfather but now all I know is that it was in July/Aug/Sept of 1891. How can I now find out an exact date?

My next query is with marriage records. Once I located the right record how can I find out who they have married and the exact date?

Apologies once again if this is a stupid question. I am new to all this and promise to try to catch on quick!