Genealogy Chat

for any newbies, this is how expensive your hobby can be when you are hooked. I was sorting out/filing family tree records today and got all the 'wrong' certificates together ready to advertise as unwanted. I have -6 birth,2 Death and 2 marriage - all for the wrong people. That is £70 worth of certificates no good to me!!!! Collected over about 3 years. Ann Glos

So check out your sources before you order the certs! Mind you, Ann, there are many more expensive hobbies you could be spending your time on! Helen

Tell me about it! I've only been doing it for 2 or 3 months, but even when all the information seems to point to a particular event, it is so disappointing to receive a certificate that is so obviously not the right one. I found myself researching a whole family based on the info from a birth certificate, only when I received one particular persons marriage certificate (which I am certain to be correct) did I realise that his father didn't match on the birth certificate and I had been looking at the wrong family. Same with a death cert, info from my father about his grandfather directed me to search for a death in 1936 - found it, ordered the certificate, discovered it was a totally different person with the same name. Still searching for the death of my relative!!! So all in all, certainly not a cheap hobby!! Sam

Shame you can't have some sort of a "look" online b4 you actually part with your cash for the cert, so you could check if its the right one. Spose tho that would remove a valuable source of revenue for the people who run it. My problem with my fathers family is that I only know names and not dates so finding anything is problematical, Ah well! Lisa

There is an exchange page on www.are.we.related(.)co.uk. You have to register but it's free. Not many on there yet as it's new. you can even put your right certs on there for people to share info if need be. Happy hunting. Kim

They have also now got as section on are we related ,the same site for 1837 leftovers, ie saved pages from your 1837 online searches. Which could prove useful. Kim

Ditto Many a wrong turn I have taken and many a family I have stolen lol However that's half the fun. In one instance I filed away this family of certs not knowing what to do with them. They laid forgotten for 2 years and low and behold one marriage brought them out - they were mine after all LOL!! Keep it ALL untill you are 98% sure they are not yours : ) Much happiness Debi

That is why I have kept them, some of them I know are definitely no connection but some of them could still be. I now put a checking point in so that wrong certs only cost me £3 and they don't send them. (Had one this morning, what was worse with that one was I knew it was the wrong one almost as soon as I pressed the 'pay' button. Yes Helen, i tell hubby still not as expensive as golf!!! Ann Glos

http://www.ukbdm(.)co.uk/ is a good site but it's not just for unwanted certificates! Mind you, I think the search facility will have to be improved as the database increases. Surname search only is time consuming if you are searching for Jones or Thomas.

I have listed all my certs on BMD exchange,which means other people can see your names and contact you if they want more info. There is also a place to click if you have an unwanted cert.

You can also make contact with the owner of b/m/d certs added to are we related

AND DONT DO WHAT I DID - order the same blessed cert TWICE !! I forgot to check my list and thought they were still in the 'wanted' column... Sue