Genealogy Chat

I have just wasted another fiver searching for a marriage which I know exists but doesnt appear on the index of 1837. Is it just me this happens to - am I doing something wrong? I thought all entries should be on there but I have never yet found any of mine on there, though I have found them through other records.

Hi, no you are not alone on this one, i have been searching for a birth that i know hapened in 1895 but cant find it on 1837. I wasted £10 looking for this and other things, very annoying! I thought the records were supposed to be complete.

Are you sure you are changing the box which says 'births', which is always what comes on first when you sign in, to 'marriages'. I know when I first used the site, I wasted money by forgeting to do this. Kath. x

Hi Heather Same here. I have found very little on 1837, and have spent a fortune. Much better to search for Scottish Ancestors on Scotlands people. Found nearly all thoes. Ann

1837online is really best used when you have a good idea about when an event took place, and you just want the reference numbers in order to order a certificate. It can be very expensive if you are trying to look through several years for an event. If this is the case then it is much better to look through the same St. Catherine's index at a library or local LDS family history centre where it is free to search through as many years as you like. Kath. x

Hi Heather, I`ve had similar problems, and it`s so frustrating. On one occasion the rellie usedeither his mother`s maiden name or a new dad`s name (still not sure) so the marriage wasn`t under his birth name. Another rellie married in a place that I`d no idea they had ever lived. And there`s always those that never married . Have you tried looking for the partner`s name first, providing you know it, of course. If it`s any consolation the difficult ones are the ones that give the greatest satisfaction when you get the breakthrough. Keeping my fingers crossed for you, Jay.

Hi Heather, Just a thought , having read Alyson`s message , if you are searching for an unusual name, then you really can have problems. My Mullineux`s have had every variation under the sun, and Balderson became Baldwin. It was a pure fluke that I found them most times. If the name is unusual, then you have to be creative. Your best bet is the LDS or Records office. Jay.

My search was for my sister's partner. Mum called Jezard, Dad called Best. So I thought go for Jezard!! I know the son was born July 1927 so I went a few years before - no luck then back to 1919 still no luck. I cant understand how people say the 1837 is complete. Certainly this is about £30 Ive spent in the last 9 months and I have come up with zilch. I have even fed in dates I know where people have married/born and even got zilch on them!! Oh yes, I have definitely been clicking on the right box by the way!

Found a birth on 1837 when I ordered it my money was refunded(i think) from records office.Have sent e-mails to both to find out why still waiting reply.

How do I buy shares in 1837 !?!? Sounds like they are really making heaps of money. They are smart enough not to have a search facility like Free BMD, because they would lose their profits !! Smart business. I won't use it though.

Margaret, Usually money is refunded from the Records Office if you have put in a reference checker, like a fathers name for instance, & the cert you have ordered has a different fathers name. It doesn't always work though, I received a cert with the wrong fathers name even though I used the reference checker! Di

Perhaps we all ought to email them having a moan. Though I suppose it wont make any difference.

I have to say that I have found a lot of births, marriages and deaths on 1837 without too much of a problem. Money refunded for certificates that prove to be the wrong person has nothing to do with 1837 but is from GRO. Ann glos

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Thanks Diane I think your right I was hoping I had found right person born in wrong place.

i was looking for a birth on 1837,i knew the excat date as the ladys brother told me but it wasn't on there so i looked on freebmd and sure enough there it was--very annoying

Hey it's not really fair to blame 1837online if your names aren't there... they simply publish the scanned images of the pages "as-is". There are of course many errors and omissions on the original documents. It's therefore best to use 1837online (or the St Catherines House Index at the library, which is the same thing) as a finding aid rather than a definitive source. If your names are not on the index, then have you checked with the relevant local register office, as they may be able to find a certificate even if the details were missed off the index? Before about 1875, registration wasn't enforced so some births were never registered. Most marriages & deaths should be on there though (as long as they occurred in E&W of course). In defence of 1837online, they have recently improved their indexing of the pages, so that you can now search on the complete name rather than just the first 3 letters. That greatly reduces the number of pages that you have to download (and therefore pay for). Another tip is to save each page that you look at to your hard-drive - that way, you can always go back and double-check without having to pay for the download again. Personally, I find 1837online much easier to use than those fiddly fiches at the library - I can zoom right in on those difficult blotches, etc. And, by the time I drive to the local library and pay for parking, I reckon that most times I'm in pocket too.

Yes, its a great idea in theory, but I just dont know how so many could have be left off or mistranscribed? Its a pity they dont do as the 1901 on line, at least show there is a match before you pay up. Also, if you dont know the place of the marriage/birth/death, you cant check out a local office unfortunately.

Hi, I emailed 1837 saying that several of us were having problems finding entries and received the following reply which is fair enough: The records that we hold are, as far as we know, complete, as they were provided by the General Register Office. If you have entries which you know to be correct then please forward to us the name, event, year and quarter of some of them and we will be happy to assist you in finding them. David Shrimpton Helpdesk Administrator – 1837online.com web: www.1837online.com 24 Britton Street, London, EC1M 5UA, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)870 777 1837 Fax: +44(0)20 7608 3260

There is confusion here. What 1837 have are scanned images of the complete GRO indexes. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE GRO INDEXES ARE COMPLETE!! There are thousands of missing records, many can be found locally but even these are not complete. Church records may have some that do not exist elsewhere. Bob