Genealogy Chat

Thanks for this thread. I recently found a birth entry on Ancestry BMD that I swear was not on several months ago. Have just paid a researcher from Liverpool Records Office to search the Church records etc to find a missing marriage but no luck. Showing up with 3 month old baby in the 1891census... Liz

A very interesting book that gives an insight into the errors in the BMD index is 'A Comedy Of Errors' or the Marriage Records Of England and Wales 1837-1899. Written by Michael Whitfield Foster ISBN 0-473-05581-3 Compulsive reading.

Just to add my thoughts, and I'm starting to discover that my ancestors were doing things that I hadn't even considered, like having a child out of wedlock but the father keeping the baby, not the mother, and then not registering the birth! ..that's when you start crying tears of frustration ;-)

There have been several times where i have typed in a name for a birth, death or marriage on Ancestry and it hasnt come up. but, when i've gone through the index itself, page by page i've found the the name i'm looking for. The only problem with this method is that it is time consuming as you need to know the approximate year that the entry was registered Regards michelle

As stated in the last post many records did not make the GRO index. It is possible to apply to most register offices for a certificate, the registrars will have access to the ORIGINAL register and as such they can often find a record which does not exist in the GRO index. Note though that the office you need is the office local to the event, not just any register office. A cert costs £7 from a local office and although each office varies slightly they search a number of years each side from the year given (typically 2 or 3 years each way but some do go further). Kate A marriage MUST be registered, there was no option not to do so. Births and deaths require an informant to notify the registrar, (hence non registered births) a marriage is conducted in the presence of a registrar so there is no requirement for an informant. Registration of the marriage is part of the ceremony, (signing the register itself).

And most important of all ( must have said it a 100 times} The GRO/1837/Free BMD are NOT original records ! Registration is via the local registrar, not GRO. There are thousands that never got to GRO which can be found locally. From Yorkshire BMD 'Q. I've found a record here which is not in the GRO records, why ? A.We work from the original records. Once every three months the records held at the local offices were transcribed and sent down to the GRO where they were then re-indexed. At each stage of this transcribing, copying and re-indexeing, errors could occur. Hence the local records are always going to be more accurate and more complete.' Even the indexes have been re-typed with more errors . There are even differences between the 'original ' images of 1837 and Free BMD !! Bob

The most common reason for a 'missing' birth record is because the child was recorded under its mother's maiden name and not the father's surname. If you list details perhaps we can help you. Rose

Sylvia, Ancestry has the full GRO BMD indexes as well as the partial FreeBMD database. There are 3 separate databases:- 1) The complete BMD index and images 1837 - 1983 2) The partial FreeBMD indexes 1837 - 1983 3) The complete BMD index and images 1984 - 2004 Yes the FreeBMD index does not have a lot after 1911 yet. Penalties for non-registration of births were introduced in 1875, however it was the local registrars responsibility to ensure registrations. The registrar was paid per registration so the system was open to abuse. There are various estimates on how many births were not registered ranging upwards from 5%. I don't think there was a fee for birth registration but there usually was for baptism leading to many bulk family baptisms to save on costs, often several years after the individual births. In order to qualify for Parish Poor Relief the recipient often had to be baptised in that Parish. Paul

The bmd records on ancestry are taken from the freebmd site in the uk. The freebmd site is a site very much in progress ..... if you go to freebmd you can see how many records they have, and how many are still missing! There are for example huge gaps between about 1910 and 1930! So one reason for missing records is because they have not yet been transcribed ....... so keep on going back! Second reason could be that your relative(s) name has been mis-spelled, either on the original record or in transcribing. Third reason is that in the early days registration was not copulsory, and many children were not registered. Sylvia

If it's an earlier birth, it might have gone unrecorded. I think registration wasn't compulsory until about 1880. I have a puzzle over the marriage of my great-great grandma - she had an illegitimate child, then ten years later is described as the wife of one Searson Norris. With such a distinctive name, you'd think he'd be easy to find in the marriage index, but there's no sign of them. (Well, there is a Searson, but it's the cousin of my Searson.)The couple in question had two further children whose births are recorded, but this is in the 1860s/early 1870s so if they did marry they may not have registered it. (Or they may just have lived unmarried.) Although registration was brought in in 1837, I understand that it cost money even then, which people didn't always have a lot of. Some people were also under the impression that an entry into the parish marriage index counted as a registration of marriage, which it didn't, and so might not have realised they had to register it. On the bright side, I don't think all BMD records are fully transcribed yet. You can view the original printed indexes on Ancestry, but again not all of these have been scanned in, from what I can tell.

When doing a BMD search through a reputable site such as ancestry, if it is impossible to find a bith or other record, what are the possible reasons? For example, if a family member was certain of a hospital and visited, but no record may be found. Assuming the information input is correct, is it possible for someone to be born and not recorded?