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Top tip - using the Genes Reunited community

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newbie needing advice on searching please

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Fiona

Fiona Report 1 Feb 2008 22:23

Hi

I am very new to this and although I am having some luck in searchs I am also failing quite badly in other areas. for example I cannot find either myself (fiona hart-ives) or my husband (graham watts) on ancestry bmd. Why would this be? Is there a tip(s) that anyone can pass on please?

Thanks

Fiona

ErikaH

ErikaH Report 1 Feb 2008 22:29

Have you subscribed to Ancestry?

If so, you need to access the FULL records..not the transcribed freebmd extracts, which only go up to about 1920.

Tell us where you have looked..........

Reg

Fiona

Fiona Report 1 Feb 2008 22:31

Hi

Yes I have subscribed to ancestry, maybe i am not logging in properly (perhaps).!! May explain why i can't find my father or my nan!. Will try again.

Thanks

Fiona

ErikaH

ErikaH Report 1 Feb 2008 22:36

Fiona

On the main search page on Ancestry.........look to the right of the main box............see a section head 'Browse Records'.........

Third group down is BMD's.........second option is England and Wales BMD Index

Click on that..........you will then be able to choose the record type.........after which, enter the name and year

To the far right of each line 'view record'.......click on it, and access the index image.

Hope this helps

Reg

Fiona

Fiona Report 1 Feb 2008 22:40

Reggie

Please can you let me know how i access the full records. Sorry if this is daft question but i have subscribed so would have thought that I would automatically be given access. Looking at the ancestry site i can see the bmd going up to atleast 2005. Is there something else I should be doing?

Thanks very much for your help

Fiona

Fiona

Fiona Report 1 Feb 2008 22:41

Reg

Messages seem to have crossed will try what you have suggested

Thanks

F

Fiona

Fiona Report 1 Feb 2008 22:52

Reg

Thanks for the tip I have found myself! Any idea why i wouldn't be able to find myself from doing a straight forward search on the ancestry website or is what you suggested generally a better alternative? Now to find everyone else that seems to be missing?

Thanks

Fiona

ErikaH

ErikaH Report 1 Feb 2008 22:57

It's not a case of being an 'alternative'.....it's the only way to access the full bmd record index.

The name search in the 'main' box only gives access to transcribed records...........

Reg

~Summer Scribe~

~Summer Scribe~ Report 2 Feb 2008 00:26

Fiona, the records are taking a while to be transcribed fully and so only upto around 1920 are transcribed for the searches the way you did it. Then from 1984 to 2005 are also all transcribed. That means for any records between 1920 and 1984 the chances are you will have to look it up the way you did to find yours. There are exceptions, there are both some that have been transcribed in the middle (I've found births in the 1950s using the search) and there are some earlier than 1920 that haven't yet been transcribed.

If you know the approximate year it's not that difficult using the complete index, but searching for something you're not sure of can take quite some time going from quarter to quarter.

Happy hunting.