Genealogy Chat

I'm just after a quick bit of advice - have been asked what I'd like for christmas !.. I thought I'd go for disc and things that will help with building my family tree. Top of the list is the British Isle Vital Records Index 2nd edition........Is it really as helpful as it sounds ?....(.Most of my reaserch is in Lodon and surrounding areas / Buckinghamshire at the moment.)......where exactly can it be brought from. ? and at what price ? If anyone one has any other suggestions as to what would also be helpful for research I'd be interested to hear.............Esta :)

http://www.genoot(.)com/downloads/BVRI2/ gives a breakdown of records for each county. Be aware that coverage is very patchy. Your parish may have fantastic coverage but if it is for the 1600s how will you know the people are yours?

Esta and Tracey, I have to say I've found less than one percent of my relatives listed. If you look at the BVRI lookups on these boards I don't think they have a great strike rate either. Crista

Hi Guys, Thanks for your comments - maybe I'm having seconds thoughts about the index !!.........It's good to hear what you think.......thank you Esta :)

Esta, What about The National Buriel Index part 2........ Sue

Tracey, try the east yorkshire family history society, they have a lot of transcriptions in book form for sale. Look under publications. http://www(.)eyfhs(.)org(.)uk

Esta, likewise the Bucks FHS has quite a lot to offer http://www(.)bucksfhs(.)org(.)uk

I would ask for census discs! Hours of fascinating searching can be done at your leisure. It might be quick asking for a lookup (and many thanks to those that have done it for me) but you can't beat searching the streets and discovering neighbours, family, wedding witnesses etc. You really will find people you would never know existed. Anne

Hi guys Thanks again for your thoughts.The national buriel index is one I hadn't thought of !! some sort of census was next on my list - I thought maybe 1891 to start with :) ESta :)

Hi If your family strayed into Oxfordshire - I've noticed that the Oxfordshire FHS has Lots of useful stuff in various formats. http://www.ofhs.org.uk/ I must start thinking along these lines, myself! Christine

Esta If you are into Buckinghamshire in a big way how about joining the Bucks Family History Society(cost about £10), you will get about 3/4 magazines per year and with your first magazine you will probably get a library list to include Bucks Census/Burial Indexes etc and any other Bucks info which you could also purchase and as it is done by a family history society will most probably be already indexed. You could do the same for the various London groups you are interested in although this might be costly, depending on how many London groups of interest! The NBI is great if your county is on it in a big way but NBI and Vital Records are very hit and miss. NBI has 83 thousand people on it for Bucks whereas Beds has 356 thousand so you can see the coverage for Bucks is not high but not the worst either. The worst counties are Devon with 4 thousand, Brecon 5 thousand, Montgomery 1 thousand, Isle of Man 7 thousand, Monmouth 9 thousand,Westmorland 6 thousand. For me both were great but for many of my friends no use at all. The Census is safer. Janet