Using English BMD records before 1841

[Eric Hatfield]

I have been doing family history for about 10 years, but most of my research has been for ancestors in Scotland or here in Australia where I live. I have mostly used Ancestry and FindMyPast plus Family Search. In Australia, I can also visit local records offices when I have needed to, but that isn't so easy for UK records!

Scotland has been good too, because Scotland's People only charges about $A2.50 for online records, and so I can afford to be a little speculative and buy a few certificates that prove to be dead ends.

But now I am researching ancestors in England (specifically Herefordshire, adjacent counties and Birmingham city), and I have to rely on online records. After 1841, the census information gives a very good indication of births, occupations, places and dates, which allows BMD records to be interpreted. But before 1841, there is no census information, and the BMD information available from Ancestry and FindMyPast typically is very sparse. Birth records often don't state parents, marriage records often don't state spouses, etc. At something like $A30 for certificates (if I have done my maths correctly), I can't afford to buy anything "on spec". And so I often have a number of possible births, parents, spouses, etc, to choose from.

But I am new to English records, so perhaps I am missing something obvious. What do more experienced people here do to overcome the limited information available from FindMyPast and Ancestry? I'd appreciate any tips.

Thanks.

[Ruskie]

There is currently a pilot giving cheaper access to UK certificates - cost is £6, as opposed to the paper record they post to you which costs £9.25.

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

I have never ordered a PDF certificate so can't vouch for the service.

Added: The current exchange rate tells me that £9.25 = AUD$16.55, and £6 = $10.73.

[Ruskie]

For bmd records from September 1837 many people use Freebmd:
https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

Depending on the area you might get lucky on Freereg for parish records before Sept 1837:
https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_queries/new

And there is Familysearch of course. Check their Historical Record Collections in case your areas of interest are covered:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01mc9/

Sometimes I just google the place name and "parish records" and this often helps find where these records are held.

For Warwickshire this used to have some useful information (though I have not used it for years so don't know if that is still the case):
http://www.hunimex.com/warwick/

If you get stuck you can always post specific queries on the relevant forum and someone will be able to point you in the right direction.

I'm sure you will get more suggestions from others. 

[KGarrad]

Civil Registration, and therefore Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates only began on 1st July 1837.
Before that time you are reliant on Parish Registers - Christening, Marriage and Burial records.
But, that is dependent on knowing which church to look at!
And which religious denomination.

Many Parish Registers are available online - but certainly not all.

I use GenUKI.org.uk to try to ascertain where such records may be found.
Also many counties have OPC websites (Online Parish Clerks) which are very useful.
Cornwall-OPC-Database and Lan-opc.org.uk (Lancashire) are two that I have used.

Otherwise it's worth checking the relevant County Archives.

[Johnf04]

There is currently a pilot giving cheaper access to UK certificates - cost is £6, as opposed to the paper record they post to you which costs £9.25.

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

I have never ordered a PDF certificate so can't vouch for the service.

Added: The current exchange rate tells me that £9.25 = AUD$16.55, and £6 = $10.73.

I've used the service - it took about a fortnight to have the PDF available for download, with no hitches. Note that this is only for births and deaths. Marriages have to be ordered the old fashioned way.

[Guy Etchells]

There is currently a pilot giving cheaper access to UK certificates - cost is £6, as opposed to the paper record they post to you which costs £9.25.

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

I have never ordered a PDF certificate so can't vouch for the service.

Added: The current exchange rate tells me that £9.25 = AUD$16.55, and £6 = $10.73.

I've used the service - it took about a fortnight to have the PDF available for download, with no hitches. Note that this is only for births and deaths. Marriages have to be ordered the old fashioned way.

They are getting better now as it is only taking about 5 days now for PDFs
Cheers
Guy

[goldie61]

There is currently a pilot giving cheaper access to UK certificates - cost is £6, as opposed to the paper record they post to you which costs £9.25.

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

I have never ordered a PDF certificate so can't vouch for the service.

Added: The current exchange rate tells me that £9.25 = AUD$16.55, and £6 = $10.73.

I've used the service - it took about a fortnight to have the PDF available for download, with no hitches. Note that this is only for births and deaths. Marriages have to be ordered the old fashioned way.

They are getting better now as it is only taking about 5 days now for PDFs
Cheers
Guy

I'd second that.
It only took a very few days to get the pdf. Good service I thought, and not too expensive at 6 pounds.

[iluleah]

Hi Eric

Yes starting to research in England is a shock to the system after you have researched in Scotland as they tend to have lots of information content.

Civil registration as others have said didn't begin until 1837, so prior to that you will get no 'birth, marriage or death', so yu will be looking at parish records, baptism, marriage, burial. The first census that is 'useful' for research is the 1841 however that doesn't give lots of detail such as you don't know the relationship of people in the household, it is 'estimated' age up/down 5yrs ( depending on the enumerator) doesn't tell you where the people were born, just 'in county or not', the 1851 puts all that right.

You have been given freebmd( after civil reg) and freereg ( transcriptions of parish), both very useful and Genuki which is a great site which enables you to get to know the area you are researching in, what records are available and where to look for them, boundary changes, map of area, what is nearby and links to many useful sites.
Always worth checking out the local council website like this https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/info/200164/herefordshire_archive_and_records_centre/94/family_history_research/1 and https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50164/family_history_research/1573/family_history_research_useful_websites/6 and also local FHS like this http://www.bmsgh.org/index.html, several of these FHS hold copies of parish records, so it may be worth paying to join to have access

[Johnf04]

Another type of website worth consulting are the "online parish clerk" sites. They tend to have transcripts of parish records. I have used the Cornish site, tracking my wife's ancestors:

http://www.cornwall-opc-database.org/home/

And another, similar site, for my ancestors, in Yorkshire

http://tong.calverley.info/index.html

For County Durham, there is a pay site:

https://www.durhamrecordsonline.com/index.php?q=1&cookiecheck=1