Genealogy Chat

Hi Jim, keep trying with BMD - I've found lots of information. It's not complete so I use www.1837online.com when I can't find what I need. Usually I manage to find who i'm looking for, except for my G Grandmother, Amelia Sutton, born in 1869 - no trace anywhere! You can register with ancestry for a free 2 week trial which Ii'm told by others is no problem to cancel. Keep searching Maggie

I'm confused. Whenever I go to the FreeBMD main page it always says 'Advertisement' just above the box for Ancestry. On the search page, the first line of text says, in bold type, 'to search FreeBMD enter the details of the search below'. The Ancestry box is clearly above this statement. How come this doesn't happen for everyone else?

When I go to the FreeBMD page it has an Ancestry ad at the top too. I rarely do go to the main page though, I go to the Search page which has an ad for English Origins at the top.

Nudge

You are not the only one Jim, I paniced and ran when I thought it was another Ancestry site. I do agree I get nothing from some of these sites excepy tantalising info which tells me there are x number of Swaffields,but I read to sign up. To all of you who put the helpful hints on about Fbmd, Thanks I'm going to try again.

Go to http://freebmd.rootsweb(.)com/cgi/search.pl (remove the brackets) which bypasses the homepage and takes you straight to the search page. That way you won't be confused by the Ancestry banner. Ancestry must get more hits from that damned ad than anything else! As others have already said, keep looking on FreeBMD, as it is being updated all the time. Carole

Two other points... On the basis of finding something on FreeBMD which didn't appear on the Ancestry search, I reckon that Ancestry searches its own copy of the database. If FreeBMD has just been updated, the Ancestry copy may not have the whole dataset. Also... FreeBMD now makes available some index images (as at 1837Online) - for free. Look out for the link (which doesn't have a reverse gear!). The search basis is a bit quaint (to say the least) but as it's free, I don't feel justified in complaining. Christine

Christine, I'd forgotten about the images being available on FreeBMD to, thanks for the reminder! As you said, it is quite onerous, but at least you aren't using up a credit looking at each image. FreeBMD has come on in leaps & bounds in just the past year I have been using it, so it can only get better (albeit possibly slower with more people using it, but that is the price of success I suppose). Carole

hi everyone. can i ask a really stupid question? (well, it sounds stupid to me!) when you go to a record in the BMD site, how do you know if it is the right one if you don't know the area or year? I've just tried looking for my great grandparent's marriage (michael and elizabeth melia) but have no idea if any of the results are them. all I know about them is that they were born c1862 & c1865. when you click on the 'info' it doesn't actually give you any further information, does it? also, is the BMD only in England? i know he was born in Ireland and she was born in Congleton. i'm new to all of this and am constantly tying myself up in knots. this makes me stop looking for things. has anyone got any straightforward tips about how to progress with finding people? thanks in anticipation. Ri

Ri, If you have input your grandfather's name, with Maria as the spouse, it will only bring up results where there is also a Maria on the same page. Click on the page number and it will show you all the names on that page. Unless you have 2 very common names, you would be unlucky to find the wrong one. What other information were you hoping for? They can only provide what was on the index, not the certificate itself. Carole