Genealogy Chat

For my unusual surname interests, I search on FreeBMD specifying all types, all dates, and only giving a county. I then copy and paste everything into Word. The problem is that as more records keep being added, I find myself having to do this every couple of months. It takes a good few hours, notwithstanding the fact that FreeBMD times out on me 90% of the time. Am I doomed to forever cut n paste or is there a blindingly obvious way round this?

Hello I've never tried doing it, but there is a save-this-search facility on the site. I think it's supposed to allow you to pick up new results. In which case, I'm not sure why I haven't been braver, myself! I tend to put the results into Excel, because you can re-sort if you need to and the search works at least as well as in Word. Also, if you are doing any actual keying, the newer versions of Excel offer you an auto-complete on the basis of what's already in the list. You don't have to use it, but it does save keying time for repeats. Christine

Highlight the area you want to copy with your mouse held down o ver the bit you want and then select "print" from "FILE " on your browser , and choose "print selection" instead of "all "(think its the second one down) . You can then print your results. Kim

Thanks for your replies. I had tried the 'save this search' option once, and lo and behold it timed me out. I was hoping there was some zippy little gimmick that would allow you to save directly as a spreadsheet or table - alas not, it seems! Ah well, it's still easier than saving thousands of 1837online images!

The saved search does make life a great deal easier. Choose a time when the system is quiet if timeouts are a bother. The odds are that after an update there may only be a handful of new names, so that when you do a search for new entries you don't have all the old ones. The main snag with the searches is that you have to view them online, through the freebmd site. Happy playing. Brenda