Genealogy Chat

this new PC has so much protection I can't get into FreeBMD anymore and I really miss it....it is so easy to use with the minimum of information. Have been trying Ancestry as recommended but I must be doing something wrong. For instance, searching for a marriage....it asks for the year....I don't know the year...I want to search over a 15 year period as I can do on FreeBMD. I don't know the district either. It seems that you have to know an awful lot of information to even start. Am I on the right page? any tips gratefully received. Sue Surrey

Hi The less information you put in on Ancestry or FreeBMD the better really. Obviously if you are searching a fairly common name it might more time consuming, but I searched this morning for the surname I was interested in and the county and got everyone in alphabetical order. If you have a Christian name and surname then put that in by all means, that will narrow it down. Once you get the information on screen you can be selective and just follow up the ones you think are possibles. Sue

I cant understand why you put up with it. What is the point of a new PC if you cant access what you want. If it was me, I would bin it and go back to the old one.

When searching the BMD'S on Ancestry you do not have to fill in the year box you can just put the first name and second name or even just first name or just second name obviously this may bring up a larger list Also the use of wildcards (*) can be useful, for instance if you know someone was born in the 1870s but not sure exactly when. In the year box you can put 187* Hope this helps.

Susan I have the same problem, because I have a firewall, which is really great as you get so much protection from viruses (I hope) But what I do when I want to use BMD I disable it, know thats probably the worst thing you can do, but the look up takes a couple of minutes, then I enable it again. So far fingers crossed I've been O.K. Perhaps this may help you, if your prepared to turn the firewall off that is. Lynda

You should not be expected to turn off any firewall to access or use a website, its just like leaving your front door open. Depending upon the type of firewall you have e.g. Nortons you should be able to configure it to make exception rules for certain sites like free BMD

I found I couldn't access Freebmd from my fravourites I have to do it the long way round but I can still do it. I don't switch anything off. Irene

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice. The new pc was purchased for my husbands work so I can't expect it to accommodate my hobby....I wouldn't dare disable the firewall et al (even if I knew how!) Sue Surrey

Re disabling the firewall: If you have a firewall and want to diable it, it's easily done and can be easily enabled again once you are done. In the bottom right hand corner of your screen, in your icon tray, find the icon that is your firewall (holding the mouse over the icon will show you what the icon is for.) Right click on the icon and choose "disable" or "exit" (whatever the choise is....different programs give different choices.) You firewall is now disabled until you either go back and right click on the icon again and "enable" OR it automatically enables itself when your computer is rebooted (turned off and on again.) It automatically turns itself back on when rebooted because the program is set as part of your "start-up menu."

Re disabling the firewall: If you have a firewall and want to diable it, it's easily done and can be easily enabled again once you are done. In the bottom right hand corner of your screen, in your icon tray, find the icon that is your firewall (holding the mouse over the icon will show you what the icon is for.) Right click on the icon and choose "disable" or "exit" (whatever the choise is....different programs give different choices.) You firewall is now disabled until you either go back and right click on the icon again and "enable" OR it automatically enables itself when your computer is rebooted (turned off and on again.) It automatically turns itself back on when rebooted because the program is set as part of your "start-up menu."

Re disabling the firewall: If you have a firewall and want to diable it, it's easily done and can be easily enabled again once you are done. In the bottom right hand corner of your screen, in your icon tray, find the icon that is your firewall (holding the mouse over the icon will show you what the icon is for.) Right click on the icon and choose "disable" or "exit" (whatever the choise is....different programs give different choices.) You firewall is now disabled until you either go back and right click on the icon again and "enable" OR it automatically enables itself when your computer is rebooted (turned off and on again.) It automatically turns itself back on when rebooted because the program is set as part of your "start-up menu."

Ooops! Sorry for the triple posting.....site kept telling me to "retry" because of an error. "Retrying" obviously sent my posting more than once!

I Certainly wouldnt recommend that you should turn off your firewall, no matter how short the duration is. It defeats the whole purpose of having one in the first place, it is there to protect your pc and data from online hackers and snoops, and yes this does happen. It is just as simple to configure the firewall to work with free BMD website as it is to disable it. If using Nortons 2004 firewall or similar all need be done is to switch the privacy control to off, which allows the necessary cookies to be passed to the free BMD wesite, but still giving intrusion protection to your pc.

I agree turning off the firewall defeats the purpose of the firewall, however, for a short duration of time, while doing a search, the chances of being hacked are slim to none, especially on a dial up connection....even on DSL or cable. For someone who is not familiar with setting up acceptions on their firewall, disabling the firewall , for a short period of time, will do no harm.

Sue Is the Firewall Norton? If so, I can tell you how to configure it to enable FreeBMD. I had to do the same to mine. Email me for the details. Margaret