Genealogy Chat

After reading on a thread yesterday that the National Burial Index is available to buy on CD I had a look at the site. Being suitably impressed by how comprehensive it appeared and thinking it would save me a lot of time travelling to and mooching around graveyards, I decided it was worth £39.99 and that I would buy it. Fortunately, before entering my details, I clicked on Lancashire in the list of counties and saw that none of the towns or villages my ancestors lived in was included. I recommend that anyone else who is considering buying it do the same. Amanda

I bought a report showing burials from the Somerset and Dorset Family History society just for one of my surnames. In that area about 70% is covered for Somerset but very little for Dorset. It is very patchy. Sue

Hi Amanda I had exactly the same problem. I expected at least to find each town's major cemetery on but huge areas were not represented. It was really a waste of money. Cath

I'm glad some people have found it useful as it has the potential to be a fantastic resource and one that can be shared with others (I don't really mean that and would only think of using it for my own reseach, if anyone from the company that produces it is reading!). Unfortunately, for Lancashire, it's more than scant as most of the county is missing. Amanda

Amanda, A lot of monumental inscriptions for Lancashire have been copied onto microfilm and you can access them at the Records Office in Preston. I have seen the ones for Coppull and Chorley and they're quite thorough. Cath

Hi Thanks for that, Joan. I'll look into it as I prefer to have my own copies of things if they're affordable. You never know when you might want to use them. Also, thanks Cath. Amazingly, those are the areas I need to look at. I've been to Preston loads of times and talked to the staff about burials, but these resources have never been mentioned! Best wishes Amanda

Susan Are the reports expensive? Amanda

I paid the £40. I thought it would be fantastic. I haven't found a single relative on it. I've use it to search for other people's relatives on Genes Reunited and not found them either. It seems to be waste of money. But if anyone wants me to look for a relative, I will do so. Don't hold your breath though. Regards Margaret

The Family History Federation's site has some NBI records which you can search for free. You have to pay to view the information but charges are very reasonable. This is the url for any who are interested http://www.familyhistoryonline.net/database/index.shtml I