Genealogy Chat

I don't know if this has been posted already, but I went onto ancestry today to look for a marriage gro ref, as they have the BMD index as on FREEBMD which is also free to look at and was mighty impressed with the new look. Not only is it easier to search, by you can now also look at other people of the same volume and page number. I am aware that this information is the same as what you get on freebmd, but for some reason I found a marriage I was looking for on ancestry BMD which I could not find on FREEBMD, impressive I think. Give it a go if you haven't already.

The ancestry BMD is more complete than the freeBMD. That may be why you found the marriage. -Kat

Just had a look and they only seem to give the county now rather than the registration district and county. Why did that disappear? The volume number isn't enough. Lichfield and Burton are both 6b. They seem to have given less info than before Jane

if you click on the name of the person, it will give you the district

Oops! Thanks for pointing that out - I hadn't noticed. I was just clicking on the page no. Jane

Did you say it was free to view? Only I just had a go and it told me to upgrade now. Marie

Hate to sound totally daft but I tried this site and couldn't find anything that said BMD so was totally lost. Can someone 'talk me through it ' - not very good at knowing my way round these sites - still learning ! Mary Brooke

right to access the freebmd on ancestry 1. enter the web address www(.)ancestry(.)co(.)uk 2. on this screen you will notice in the middle in yellow writing Search Historical Records. 3. Under this section click on Birth, Marriage and Death 4. then on the next page you will notice a little open folder icon with Feature Birth, Marriage and Death Collections 5. From here you need to click on England and Wales Civil Registration and thats it. you may need to give your e.mail address and name, but note YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY ANYTHING or give any credit card details for that matter. the BMD is free to view just like on FreeBMD Happy Hunting!!!!!

Thanks ! I tried it - pretty good - the only problem I felt was that it gave the date of marriage but not who the spouse was - it was a case of looking up who else was married that day in the same place and hoping I found the right one unless there's another way round it. At least I can get on the site. I'm blocked by Firewall on Free BMD and can't interfere to much with my computer as its on a sort of 'permanent loan'. Cheers for your help - I can now press on further. Mary

Mary this is the GRO indexes so you will not get who they married, you just have to look on the page to give the list of who married on the same date and quarter and hope that who you are looking for is there. To then get more information you would need to order the certificate from the GRO.

Does anyone know why the ancestry BMD says Civil Registration Index: 1837-1983, but at the bottom of the page the footnote says FreeBMD. England and Wales, Civil Registration Index: 1837-1900. I have tried many searches but cant get any later enteries to 1983, so I asume the ancestry span is 1837-1900ish not to 1983 as it says on the website.

Ancestry use the FreeBMD data - that is why this part of Ancestry is free as it is a condition of the Gov that this information must be free to web users. As FreeBMD were only given the go-a-head to include BMD upto 1983 in April this year, you can imagine that it will take quite sometime to incorporate this information. They appear to be concentrating on getting 1837 to 1903 completed before progressing forward. As a transcriber, I know that this will take time. Nesta

Hi Nesta, thanks for the Explanation, now it makes sense, I should really go and offer my services as transcriber.