Genealogy Chat

Hi There I was just wondering if someone new how to establish the marriage partners on Free BMD. When I have queried the known person, and then gone "behind" the search to the marriage details there is often more than one person. In the past I have then tried name combinations on future census records to try and ascertain the true partner, however this is very long winded and doesn't always work. Sometimes I have been lucky and just 2 people are listed on the page and volume detail. Does the colour of the record have a significance i.e.partners are the same colour? The key doesn't make alot of sense to me! Can anyone help?(I'm sure its just me being a bit thick!!!<BG>) Thanks Maxine

Hi Maxine I found this problem as well and wrote down all the possible combinations and their dates. I then went to familysearch.org and used their marriage option with each possible name combination. Yes it was long winded but if you have two windows open on your screen you wouldn't have to write them all down. I found around 10-12 confirmed marriages this way so i wish you luck with your search! Alison

Maxine The entries in the marriage Register book allows room for 4 to 6 couples and they all have the same reference number, because they are all on the same page. There is no way of telling from the FreeBMD site who is married to who. One way is to look for the couple on a Census then you have the lady's first name to match when you click in the ref. If they are all called Mary on that page, that's tough, I'm afraid. Hope that helps, Vera Bromage, Manchester

Thanks for the replies - it looks like a short cut is not possible, I will have to persist with my jigsaw puzzle approach! Many thanks for the tips Maxine

Several of the pages I have looked at make no sense as they contain, for example, 3 men and 1 woman on the page. I have tried looking at the previous and next pages in the sequence but that doesn't seem to tie up either. Neither did a large whisky!

The BMD fiche contain alphabetical surnames in quarter years, so for the Marriages you would find Fred Bloggs listed as Bloggs Fred Ipswich 3d 245 in the June quarter of the year 1899. His other half would be listed as Verity Mary Ipswich 3d 245 in the same June quarter of the year 1899. This would be found on another fiche as 'V' is not found on the same one as a 'B'. When transcribed the whole thing is sorted and the reference numbers come together. If one of them has been missed off or cannot be read, or whatever, it will not be on the list. Easily done as the fiche are very small and the earlier ones are handwritten. Hope that makes sense. Vera Bromage, Manchester

Can I just add that when only two names appear on BMD it does not necessarily mean they are a couple. Sometimes there might only be one couple on a page i.e. if it was the end of a quarter, but usually it just means that the other records for that page have not been transcribed yet.

Helen Thanks for telling me that - as I had no idea that could be the case. I have assumed where there were only 2 listed that they were the couple. Oh dear - back to the drawing board!Looks like I'm going to have to revisit my entire tree and recheck all my marriages. Thanks for letting me know before I made any more bad calls! Maxine

if when you have brought up your name on freebmd,click the midddle button under'found one partner in a marriage but now looking for the spouce?' and you will be given an explanation.hope this helps.

OMG! This explains everything! I too looked for a marriage on BMD and only two people came up, BOTH were the names I was looking for, but when I ordered the certificate, I was sent my money back!!! What were the chances of having two Williams, with the same surname married to a Lucy Hannah? and in the same district. I'm SO glad I read all the messages on here. You do a great job. Thanks. Viv

Viv Did they give a reason for returning your cheque. I sounds highly unlikely that they were not the ones you were looking for. Maybe the person searching did not look in all the Church Registers (or couldn't be bothered)if the marriage was in a church. I would try again and see what happens, if you are sure of the facts. Vera, Manchester