GRO Southport

[thebounder]

See http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_studies/522/contact_details_and_access_arrangements/3

Stan

Thanks very much.  The link provided a lot of useful information, and I now have a much better idea of what I shall find when I get there.  Sounds like a long way from handling the large printed indexes at Somerset House when I first started this hobby, 45 years ago.

[ThrelfallYorky]

There's a sort of family history helpdesk manned on Tuesdays at the Library in Southport - afternoons, I think, by the local family history society. I'm sure that if you contacted one of them, they'd know what is and isn't possible. The site for the Society is, I think, North Meols (that's "Southport" in old-terms) easily found online - although it eludes me at this moment.

[davidft]

If you're looking for recent deaths after 2007, Ancestry have the 1st quarter 2007 online and then partial information upto 2013 collected from other sources such as obituaries and grants of probates.

I'm confused about Ancestry's 2007-2013 death index.... I think it's mis-named, it leads you to believe it's the same as the earlier indexes they hold. And it doesn't give much detail about where the information comes from. It says about 55% of the deaths from this period are covered... I've found quite a few relatives on it, but failed to find some who I know died around this time.

It certainly is misnamed. I recall when this subject was raised before someone said the coverage was nearer 20 per cent in some periods. Add to this the source of some of the data is dubious ie it gives death dates which are actually burial dates recorded in newspaper obituaries and my advice would be its best avoided if possible (I accept this will not be feasible for some people)

[dawnsh]

The recent deaths on Ancestry, although far from complete, can and do give clues which give me the opportunity to investigate further and in a lot of cases save me from doing a potential and time consuming yearly death search from 2007 to 2013 and then quarterly (GRO has reverted to this format again) from 2014 - Sept 2015, currently 14 searches for some deaths I have to look for.

[barryd]

Here is an BMD index of what is left of Durham up to 2010.

https://gro.durham.gov.uk/pgPublicSearch.aspx

Born Loana Bowes in County Durham she spent all of or parts of 1911-1912-1913-1914 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, returned to England a few days before the outbreak of WWI. Born July 4 1910, a good day to remember when in the USA.