Genealogy Chat

Looking on Ancestry for the birth of Philip Raymond Uren, born 1922 (could be 1923) Stonehouse, Devon - no results. Why, when it asks for the year, does it then present me with thousands of possibilities (both male and female) starting in 1845? I have tried looking for my own birth and the same thing happens. I want to SCREAM. I know I should be there. Since this supposedly lists all registered events between 1837 and 1983 - I guess I must be doing something awfully wrong. Victoria-the-incompetent

No your not, but the index is only partial between those dates...........hopefully everything is going to change TOMORROW!! So I would sit tight and try again tomorrow!! No one quite knows EXACTLY what we are going to see in 24 hours................... Merry

big gap between 1901 and early 80's - that is why!!

I will be very interested to see if you get any replies Victoria as I too yesterday was shouting at my computer for the same reason. I wanted a death in 1950 and all I was getting was 1860 to about 1905.

do you want it looking up on 1837, if so which year is more likely?

Oh Sarah, wont we be disappointed if we wake up and the bmd is no different!

Ancestry has been using a copy of the FreeBMD database. That has been transcribed by volunteers (and many thanks to them!), but it is not yet complete. If you go to their website you can find the pages where they have coverage information. Then it becomes obvious where the biggest gaps will be. Christine

At present Ancestry gets it's UK BMD records for 1837-1983 from FreeBMD. FreeBMD is a volunteer site that has been going for several years......ordinary folk transcribing the records for nothing. The first time I used the site it had about 50,000 records available. Now the figure is 140 million!! If you look at the FreeBMD site you can see their coverage details. Go to Main Page, then Information then Statistics and Coverage Charts. Merry (PS LOL Heather!!!!!!) (PPS Snap Christine!)

Oh thank you for your prompt replies (20 to 2 in the morning here and I need to get to bed!!!). I will be patient. I should have remembered people saying that it is partial - but I didn't and my frustration level got to boiling point. Gratefully Victoria-the-impatient!

lucky strike, first Qtr i looked at!!creidts probably need using up anyway!! 5b 389 April/may/june Qtr 1922 plymouth MMn Lightwood Philip.R

Oh Alice-Hazel, thank you. I was just about to reply and you beat me to it. I feel awful that you used a credit for me - but grateful. Thank you so much. It seems to me that there are some very nice people on this site! Victoria

You knew what you wanted,it wasnt a problem, you are very welcome

I guess that on ancestry you are using the 'ranked search' rather than the 'exact search'. The ranked search will give you the best matches it can find whereas the exact search will only give you exact matches (though you can use wildcards). Kate.

Hi Kate - Because I knew he HAD been born, and both where and more-or-less-when - and the exact search returned no matches (and before I realized that the data was 'patchy') - 'ranked search' seemed logical. Duh. I wont make that mistake again though! Thanks again all Victoria