General Chat

FreeBMD has an awful lot of missing and incorrect records even for the years where it claims to be 100% complete. It is especially poor with marriage records. It does have a very handy option to drill down into the areas making up a registration district. It is a pity that this option is not better used.

The BMD index on Ancestry is far more reliable and goes up to 2006.

re: birth records it is worth taking into account that what the record says may not be what it means.

1. it is impossible to tell from the index where father/mother surname the same if this is because people of the same surname married or the mother was unmarried.
2. that the father's name is on the birth certificate does not mean that the parents were married - most often they were but not always
3. a mother may be married to Mr A but have children with Mr. B. After a divorce and remarriage new birth certs can be issued (even years after the birth) conforming to the facts. Then there will be 2 birth records for the same person. Only the latter one can be used for passports etc. and the database has this flagged. However it is not obvious from the BMD index.
4. the mother's name is frequently miss spelt. The Ancestry search algorithm will allow for this but not FreeBMD.
5. Mother's do not always know what their family name was when born or if they do they may be incorrect. This is a far from uncommon situation for records before ww1.
7. The name by which somebody is known is often at variance with the birth registration.

Always cross reference your research.

good luck

If you know where the child/children were likely to be born you can search freebmd.org.uk up to about mid 1960s using mothers maiden name, eg Jones/Jones births but if it is a common name it may not be possible to narrow down. If it is likely to be after 1960s you may have to look on Ancestry etc.

Try freebmd. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

Use a suitable time frame and select births, inputting her maiden name in both surname and mothers maiden name boxes. This only works for births after 1911.

Many, but not all, adoptees have the prefix S on their birth reg number. Formal adoption with a paper trail didn't commence until the mid 1920s

Hi,

Can someone help? I've just found out that my Aunty had one child which she adopted out,she never married, how do I find out whether she had any more? How can I search for this?

Cheers
Bronwyn