Essential Resources - The BMD

Before I move on to the process of accessing and making sense of the records out there, I'll go through some of the resources available and what you just can't manage without - starting with the Births, Marriages and Deaths index.

Once you've identified the earliest of the family members who can be remembered, you'll be moving into the official records. Even if you think you know the parents and siblings of your grandparents, it's always useful to support this information with the available records. You may find that there were siblings that died in childhood, or born illegitimately before a marriage, and weren't spoken of in the family.

The essential English and Welsh records you'll be using most in the initial stages are the Birth, Marriage and Death index (BMD) and the census returns. FreeBMD (http://www.freebmd.org.uk ) is a wonderful gift to the genealogist, offering practically full coverage of every birth, marriage and death registered from July 1837. The records now reach well into the 20th century, and are continually updated. Records up to the early 20th century are the most complete and should serve your needs on most searches.

The only thing that should be remembered is that the public was initially suspicious of the "Big Brother" approach of recording all our events (despite the fact that people had usually done so within the church), and registration was not compulsory under legislation until 1875. However, most of the public complied with the new system and few events went unregistered (all marriages were registered from the outset, as a registrar had to be in attendance to complete this).

Registration is listed in the index in year quarters and will be seen as March (1st Jan-31st March), June (1st April-30th June), September (1st July-30th Sept) or December (1st Oct-31st Dec). This means the REGISTRATION fell in this period. Some births and deaths that occurred late in the quarter may have been registered in the following quarter (births were/are to be registered within 42 days of the event. Deaths had to be registered within 8 days up to 1875, when it was reduced to 5 days)

A summary of the BMDs

Births:

• 1837 to 1874 - Approximately 6-10% of births went unregistered
• 1875 - enforcement of compulsory registration
• September quarter 1837 to June quarter 1911 - first two full forenames, any subsequent initials, registration district and reference number
• September quarter 1911 to present - only first forename, subsequent initials, registration district and number but also includes mother's maiden surname.

Marriages:

• September quarter 1837 - December quarter 1911 - first two full forenames, subsequent initials, registration district and reference number
• March quarter 1912 to September quarter 1962 - if female was previously married, index shows married name (maiden name usually listed in county BMD index)
• March quarter 1912 to present day - surname of spouse added

Deaths:

• September quarter 1837 - December quarter 1865 - no age given
• 1875 enforcement of compulsory registration
• September quarter 1837 to June quarter 1911 - first two full forenames, subsequent initials, registration district and reference number
• September quarter 1911 onwards - only first forename, subsequent initials, registration district and number
• March quarter 1866 to March quarter 1969 - age at death given
• June quarter 1969 to present - exact date of birth provided

 

Local record office indices are often also available. These sometimes lack some of the information held in the national index (e.g. year quarter or middle names), but may include other useful information, such as the church in which a marriage took place (up to 1898, this only applied to Anglican marriages, with non-conformist churches included after this date).

 

Many local BMD indices are available through the UK BMD network, local council web pages or other volunteer projects. The simplest means of finding these is to check out the UK BMD network list at http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/local_bmd.

 

The General Record Office (GRO) BMD index provides a volume number and page number.

 

Up to the early 1850s, each page of the marriage index was shared by 8 people (4 couples), so you can narrow the possible spouse of your ancestor down to one of 4 people. Other records will often help to narrow this further (if you know your ancestor's wife was Mary, then you can eliminate any woman on the page not named Mary). After this time, the number of people on the page was reduced to 4 (2 couples), which makes the process even simpler.

 

Though you may wish to use the information contained in the BMD to purchase certificates to provide further information (and occasionally you might need the extra information), you will find that they often offer enough to take you further back without having to part with any cash.

 

As a final note, the more recent death index (1969 onwards) provides a birthdate of the deceased. This can be exceptionally useful when you first embark on your research, as it will give you a precise period to search for a birth record, which will then provide you with a registration district of their birth and enable you to identify a person in the census. These recent BDM indices are only available through subscription or pay-per-view sites, but they can be accessed for free through local libraries and Family History Centres.