Genealogy Chat

Can you tell me please.. How do you transcribe someone who appears on 1837 as Male or Female Smith? And how would I find this person on Free BMD? Sue

we can only transcribe what we see, so if the index say male smith thats what we transcribe. I would assume that this is young child registered early before a name was choosen, it could've been registered as it had died very young, or p'haps the mother had died and someone else registered the birth

Thanks both Shelli and Philip - Shelli - you've given me something to think about - i'm going to order the certificate - just hope that it does give me his mothers name! Philip, hav'nt found him on free BMD but it's possible he has'nt been transcribed yet. Sue

Having transcribed for quite sometime, the Male and Female entries are more frequent before 1900 than after. I expect things were getting a bit better or they were naming their children irrespective of the life of the child. The saddest I have had to transcribe were the 'Unknown' deaths. Do you think that still happens? Nesta

Sue if 1837 has got male/female then freebmd should have the same when it's transcribed if it's not already there.

Nesta, It still happens. Any other Northern Ireland users should know of the case if Carrie. Paul

Thanks for replies everyone - I have checked FreeBMD today and both my 'Male' babies have been transcribed - I could have saved some money had I thought to ask the question first, lol! Although having said that there is something quite strange about seeing the actual hand written pages in front of you, knowing that someone put pen to paper all those years ago to record a long gone relative - Sue.