Genealogy Chat

does anyone know how i can find a marriage that i think is the right one, as when i look on ancestry there are 2 women, one i,m interested in, and only one man, having researched a bit he obviously married the other woman. Whithout sending for the marriage cert is it possible to find who she married? regards janet

- try other sources, such as the IGI & parish records (if you have access to them). - try searching Ancestry for all marriages in that quarter/district/volume number, as sometimes the page numbers were illegible (shown by a * etc in the page column). Sometimes you can spot a match (eg if her page number was 622, and you find a male with page 62* or _22, etc) - look for her in the later censuses, doing a first name only search (along with age, birthplace etc). - post the details on here, as others may be able to help! - if all else fails, you'll have to buy the cert.

Ancestry and freeBMD are the same and they are far from complete. The only way to be sure is to buy the cert. If you know the maiden name from the birth cert of one of the children you can cross check with 1837online which is a pay to view site. Gwynne

I have often found an odd groom or bride on freebmd - sometimes I have been lucky that by putting in the other partners name it will come up with an obvious mistake, like page no reversed or something. Could you not check out the name and date you are sure of on the 1837 on line for the partner?

I just found one today where the quarter was incorrect - FreeBMD has the bride in September, but the groom - same volume, page etc - but in the June quarter! Checked it out on 1837online and sure enough they were both September qtr. I can understand typos in names, numbers etc - but how do they get the quarter wrong? surely it is the same for everyone on that page that's being transcribed. There again, maybe the whole page has been given the wrong quarter! No wonder we can't find some people...

Hi Richard I think we should remember that FreeBMD is being transcribed by volunteers who give up their own spare time to do this. It is quite easy to get disturbed by the kids, telephone or someone at the door. If you do find a mistake on FreeBMD, report it to the site and they will correct it Jeanette x

Richard - mistakes are easily made. I am transcribing deaths at the moment, and for two of the pages, I put births lol

Hi Jeanette & Tracy! Yes, sorry I wasn't having a go at the transcribers, who I realise put in many hours of selfless work for the benefit of us all. My point was simply, that if you are transcribing a page from the index, then surely the quarter (Mar/Jun/Sep/Dec) is the same for every name on that page. Likewise the year. Doesn't the year & quarter default to the same as the previous entry for each new record on the entry form? Therefore, if one name has the wrong quarter then its seems quite likely that the whole page (and maybe several pages) have been entered with the wrong quarter. Just another possibility to be aware of when trying to match up couples in a marriage! Richard

That is true, Richard. As Jeanette said, it's best to let them know if you find any errors like that. Could have a lot of confused people around looking for lost rellies!