Genealogy Chat

Have I missed something here or have they upgraded ??? - Initial page different and you can now put in spouses name on marriage searches.

That's always been a facility on FreeBMD itself, but I haven't seen it on Ancestry before. An excellent idea! Christine

Something not right with this new format. I looked up a marriage yesterday on FreeBMD Ancestry - and I know it was there. Marriage was Albert Biddulph - married 1903 Leek, Staffs. Yesterday I could click on the record and see that his wife was Annie Lea - which I know to be correct. Today if I do the same search Albert comes up - but I can´t click on the record to see the wife´s name.

Gary highlighted something about this last night

Mine's working fine

Thanks Jess - wondered if anyone else had seen it - have had a quick look for his thread but can´t see it - if you can find it could you nudge it. Have just been back into the Free BMD marriages on Ancestry and it appears y can´t view ANY of the records - so not worth using at the moment.

Found something about it on General Board - seems it is a general problem and not just me !!! Hope they get it sorted soon - I know you can do the same searches on the Free BMD site but I find that so slow.

Elaine it seems to be working fine... Marriages Jun 1903 Biddulph Albert Leek 6b 492 Bowyer Leah Leek 6b 492 HAMMOND William Leek 6b 492 Lea Annie Leek 6b 492 Georgina.

Georgina - did you get that from Ancestry ???? - or from freebmd.rootsweb(.)com

Its not all bad news - have you been into the Ancestry FreeBMD death indexes - now gives you the approx year of birth on the initial page - so you don´t have to look at each record individually to find how hold they were when they died.

Elaine I got that info from freeBMD. Georgina.

The ''spouse's surname'' box on the Ancestry FreeBMD only seems to work for post-1911 marriages (i.e. when the spouse's surname was actually listed in the index). It's not the same as the spouse name search on the old FreeBMD site, which enables you to find pre-1912 marriages where the two names searched occur on the same page. Therefore, you'll still need to use the old freeBMD site for those searches! Richard

Georgina, Yes I knew I could still use the FreeBMD site - what I am talking about is the change of presentation of the FreeBMD index on Ancestry.

Richard, Can understand that - but the problem is at the moment you can´t even view the record to find out who the husband or wife might have been!

Oh I am sorry Elaine I am still half asleep. This is the same entry from Ancestry (only the Beta records are different) Biddulph, Albert 1903 June Marriages Leek Staffordshire Bowyer, Leah 1903 June Marriages Leek Staffordshire Hammond, William 1903 June Marriages Leek Staffordshire Lea, Annie 1903 June Marriages Leek Staffordshire Name: Biddulph, Albert Record Type: Marriages Quarter: June Year: 1903 District: Leek County: Staffordshire Volume: 6b Page: 492 (click to see others on page) Georgina.

its working fine for me now got all numbers back and can see names that go with like before can't see no change Jeanette

Georgina - if you managed to get that from Ancestry, then your Ancestry and my Ancestry must be different !! I know it was there yesterday as I looked it up and printed it out - but I can´t get back to it today!

seems ok to me. normal ancestry exact search BDM- which is at the bottom of the list of availible census years list (not beta bit) View Record Biddulph, Albert 1903 June Marriages Leek Staffordshire View Record Bowyer, Leah 1903 June Marriages Leek Staffordshire View Record Hammond, William 1903 June Marriages Leek Staffordshire View Record Lea, Annie 1903 June Marriages Leek Staffordshire

ANCESTRY,on the main page if you click on, England & Wales, FreeBMD Index: 1837-1983 then on the right hand side of the page click on, New Addition! Ancestry.co.uk have now added a simple way to search the complete images of the England & Wales, Birth-Marriage-Death index. Search the complete England & Wales, BMD Index: 1837-1983 now! their are two boxes, the top one is, Search the complete images, the second is, Search the partial FreeBMD index, 1837-1983 if you click on the second, partial freeBMD, when you search this it gives you the normal info but does not give you the page number? anymore

Ah I see the problem now - you are using different databases! The old Ancestry FreeBMD database (which includes births, marriages & deaths in the single database) is working normally: http://www.ancestry*co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=5963 However, they have added 3 new databases, which appear to be the same FreeBMD data as above, but split up into births/deaths/marriages. These are the databases that seem to be having teething problems: http://www.ancestry*co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=8912 (births) http://www.ancestry*co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=8913 (marriages) http://www.ancestry*co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=8914 (deaths) Richard