Genealogy Chat

Margaret, I don't see why we should complain to GR about them charging to view BMD indexes. Surely it is up to you whether you pay to view them or not? If the pages load much quicker than on ancestry, and if the indexing is better, I can certainly imagine paying to look at them. The ancestry 'beta' system drives me mad, and if I were searching through a few years I would rather go and look through the microfiches at the records office than use it. Presumably GR are trying to make the 1901 site a rival to various other genealogy sites such as 1837, The Genealogist, Family Relatives, etc. and while ancestry have so many other databases available that they can afford to make the BMD indexes free (for now), the same does not apply to the other sites. If they were free on GR / 1901, most likely our subscriptions would have to subsidise them. Kate.

I noticed (and commented on) it the other day when a newbie posted on here saying she had searched the Records on here and couldnt find a marriage or something. I couldnt think what she meant til I noticed that link and clicked on it!

Hi Cristina You may have looked at the records at a local register office. I have heard of some of them allowing the public to look up entries, though I doubt whether any would allow it these days. When the GRO reindexing is complete it should ultimately supercede the current indexes as we will get age at death, spouse's surname and mother's maiden name from 1837. The final format the new index will take and where it may be viewed is still to be decided (as at the beginning of April 2006).

Hi Kate, I am meaning books or ledgers that contain the copies of the original entries. Quite a few years back, I am sure I remember looking at my birth record and my mums while waiting for a copy of something...I don't remember it being a BMD type index... Best wishes Cristina

Quite often when I've googled something genealogy wise, at the top of the list there is GR - advertising the fact you can search free records. I think that is very misleading. Some time ago many of us were getting concerned the boards would be closed. This seems to me to be the first step. If they are going to be 'selling' more records via this site they are not going to allow people to do it free forever. Diane

If you access the PRO 1901 site, you will see a message stating that it is now being administered by GR............... Reg

Cristina - if you mean, can you search the actual birth marriage and death certificates, no you can't, but as far as I know you have never been able to do that in London? Maybe at some local register offices. You can search the indexes in London at the Family Records Centre, the same indexes that have been microfilmed and then scanned in and made available online on various websites. Can you imagine if you were allowed to search through the actual books of certificates? I can't see that working somehow. But the government are working on bringing in a new law so that the certificates can be scanned in and viewed online like the Scottish ones already are. Kate.

Reading an article from the man who runs Ancestry uk, the beta index will be free for the rest of 2006, but i think it will be charged for once got right, i am still wondering what the extra UK content i will get free will be for paying £200 for the world delux membership, will it be the bmds, i have already saved hundreds on 1837 cost with the beta, maybe next year you who pay £69 for the standard uk will have to pay extra for the bmd indexs, it said when sigining up at £200 you get US/UK sites and extra UK content not charged for as this was about £80 more than the seperate UK and US sites i had, there is going to be something you cant acess for your £69 membership and my guess is it will be the BMDs which is worth hundreds at 1837 prices

Hi, there is something else, am I right in thinking that you cannot search through the original entries at the main records office in London now or is that a misconception? When you simply have a name, possible year and place of birth and have around 10 or more entries who fit that description you cannot just order certificates for all of them... It may sound rather daft, but without wasting credits, how do you know pages missing from Ancestry are definitely on 1837? According to some of 1837 records...known relatives of mine are not on there, some of them are not on Ancestry...just on the BMD records. I have spent hours, going backwards and forwards on the free BMD. through years of records, trying to trace births and marriages, when I had no idea of the date, just names and place. If I had to pay per page viewed all the time, I could not afford to do it.. Best wishes Cristina

I reckon Helen/Nell's idea about a button at the top of each page for ''New?'' would be a great idea. Almost every post I pick up from the names-match seems to be folks asking questions for which a lot of the answers could be found by following up the Getting Started ideas. Christine

well let's hope they don't make the decision that in order to enhance their own revenues from their BMD index they need to start to monitor posts requesting look ups on ancestry and delete the requests/replies so people are forced to use the GR indexes **just speculating - NOT scaremongering*** Zoe

I'm starting to rant. Just call me Heather,and give me a slap Glen

Hi Phoenix I suppose i just find it suprising that there are some people who despite using the boards for a while (a general view,not a dig at anyone in particular)have never heard of Ancestry. Aside from that though i think a popular misconception is that everything is on the internet and at the click of a mouse you can get your whole line down 250 years. I link into three other trees,all cousins and not one of them knew the names for grandparents,i had the most info,and admittedly have more time than most to look at this,but i was adopted FROM the family. I found out more in four months prior to joining ancestry,than the rest had in a combined 6 year membership of GR. Sometimes i just wonder..... Glen

'i bet only a very small percentage of people who join GR ever look at the 'getting started' type info' Well since GR in their wisdom have buried the Getting started section way down on the homepage - and as a computer newbie a few years ago, I didnt even KNOW you could scroll down a homepage, I'm not surprised. I think they should have a big button labelled 'NEW?' at the top of every page of their website which takes you to a relevant section. But what would I know?!

Hi Glen Can I just amend your statement to: Anyone who has managed to take their family back to 1901 will find Ancestry useful to take it back a further sixty years. Unless you can correctly identify at least a couple of individuals on the 1901 census, Ancestry is of little value while the beta index remains free. Before 1837, the information Ancestry has is decidedly dubious, consisting largely of indexes of transcripts, without, so far as I am aware, proper explanations of how each one was compiled, from what, by whom, and what any abbreviations mean.

Let's just hope any revenue GR do make goes into better servers,then no more error messages and missing photographs in trees. Just to make a serious point though,i bet only a very small percentage of people who join GR ever look at the 'getting started' type info and similiar threads that there are. A typical day will see the same questions appear often in quick succession,and the number of lookups someone asked for recently,then came back two days ago asking for the same (they mislaid all the info they had been given) makes you wonder what some people really can/can't/will or won't even try to do. Glen

Anyone serious about this hobby (ok then obsession) would take out an ancestry sub anyhow,but many people are still unaware of ancestry beta,no matter how many times it gets mentioned in threads. I'd better stop there,before i turn it into a rant. Glen

Margaret I think the same. It's quite unfair as you don't know any better when you first start out. I spent a fortune downloading pages from the PRO site before I sussed out ways to get the info for free.

Hi Just a note of caution. Although Ancestry BDM index is free, some pages are missing and some are difficult to read. I've no complaint about this since it is free. At that time I fall back and check those pages out on 1837online for which I pay. I'm happy to do that rather than have a niggle that the info I was seeking may have been on the missing or unreadable page(s). I've never used GR's BDM index but perhaps they also have the missing pages or clearer images available. Cheers Paul

I'll try again, hubby might have been deleting cookies again. He causes me all sorts of probs getting back in to sites when I can't remember passwords etc.