** POSTEMS on FreeBMD **

[silvery]

What most people want with the marriage certs is the names of the fathers of the couple.   

The church/address and witnesses are also very very useful.
 
If you have the cert try to put all the information onto a postem. 

[melba_schmelba]

Melba, adding mothers’ maiden names requires access to the actual birth registrations. FreeBMD only has access to the index, and mothers’ maiden names are not given in the index until the 3rd quarter of 1911.

Hi, this has changed now I think as GRO has made a new index, and included maiden names all the way back to 1837. The catch is you have to search by surname, sex and 2 year period.

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp

[melba_schmelba]

Sorry it's +/- 2 years so 5 year period effectively. You can also do soundex on the surname but no wildcard search.

[melba_schmelba]

Another difference is they seem to be including full middle names however long. Having trouble finding some entries with unusual spellings though, looks like mistranscription could be a factor so lack of wildcard search not good as soundex doesn't pick up on that.

[BumbleB]

Melba, adding mothers’ maiden names requires access to the actual birth registrations. FreeBMD only has access to the index, and mothers’ maiden names are not given in the index until the 3rd quarter of 1911.

Hi, this has changed now I think as GRO has made a new index, and included maiden names all the way back to 1837. The catch is you have to search by surname, sex and 2 year period.

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp

The "new index" as you call it, is an internally-created GRO facility and is a pilot scheme, in which case it may or may not continue to be available to the general public.   FreeBMD has transcribed, and continues to transcribe, from the published indices.  Do you really expect unpaid volunteers to re-enter millions of registrations? 

[melba_schmelba]

I have transcribed for freebmd myself. If the pilot continues I can see it might be useful to start adding the maiden names and maybe middle names to the freebmd database for the uncovered period.

[BumbleB]

Be my guest    I too transcribe for them, and I've just had a quick look - birth registrations December quarter 1881 - 579 pages each containing roughly 375 entries = 217,000+ 

[melba_schmelba]

Obviously it would be a large task  . But it would certainly be useful to people as the GRO search is quite limited. I don't know whether the freebmd leadership would want to implement a new programme to do it or not.

[LibbyW]

Fascinating thread, I too will now add my certificate(s) info as a postems. Thanks.