GRO Districts - map?

[bugbear]

I am currently researching in an area I have not researched before, and am not familiar with.

Kent.

This question is not about Kent.

It is about GRO districts (as accessed via FreeBMD, or the GRO index).

Given a place of birth from a census, I can use the data provided by FreeBMD to find the relevant district.

https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/places/regindex2-3.pdf

But if the census is wrong (and birth place is quite often "approximate"), I would like to be able to search over a wider area, e.g. within 10 miles of the "core" district, or adjacent districts.

This is implemented as a selectable option at the Parish level in FreeReg, a service also from FreeUKGenealogy.

Does anyone know of a list of coordinates for districts, or a simple map?

   BugBear

[KGarrad]

The GRO Districts changed far too often for a map to be accurate

This is a list of Registration Districts in Kent:
https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/ken.html

Take notice of the From and To dates, as well as the notes!

For example take Herne:
Herne from 1837 to 1934
Part of Herne transferred to Herne Bay 1894 to 1941

Both in Blean RD, 1837 to 1941
Became part of Bridge RD 1941 to 1974
Canterbury RD 1874 to 1998
Canterbury with Swale RD 1998 to 2003
Kent RD 2003 to date

Each RD has a table of Boundary changes:
Blean RD has 6 changes
Bridge RD has 17 changes
Canterbury RD has 13 changes
Canterbury with Swale RD has 3 changes
Kent RD has 6 changes

[PaulineJ]

I generally use the volume number to expand a search on the GRO data, no matter what district.

FMPs search is also pretty good at finding nearby events.

Pauline

[Bookbox]

For details of boundaries, including registration districts, around 1851, you can use the map at FamilySearch ...

https://www.familysearch.org/mapp/

[bugbear]

The GRO Districts changed far too often for a map to be accurate

In terms of recording the exact boundaries of Districts, what you say about accuracy is true.

But, I'm not trying to be accurate.

In terms of Information Retrieval jargon, I'm actively wanting to reduce the precision of my search, and increase the Recall. Think of it as controlled inaccuracy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_and_recall

  BugBear

[bugbear]

For details of boundaries, including registration districts, around 1851, you can use the map at FamilySearch ...

https://www.familysearch.org/mapp/

As a map, that shows parishes and counties - the other information (District, Hundred, Deanery etc) is textual, not geographic.

  BugBear

[bugbear]

I generally use the volume number to expand a search on the GRO data, no matter what district.

FMPs search is also pretty good at finding nearby events.

Pauline

Yes, I think FindMyPast may well have something like a lat/long approximation for places in their databases, which allows the type of geographical control I'm after.

Something like a centre (lat/long) and radius (metres) would be representative enough information to drive the kind of search control I'd like (despite being a very rough approximation)

   BugBear

[jonw65]

or a simple map?

A simple map, well two of them, here
Maps of civil registration districts within Kent, showing how they have changed over time
https://www.kfhs.org.uk/registration-district-maps

[Bookbox]

For details of boundaries, including registration districts, around 1851, you can use the map at FamilySearch ...

https://www.familysearch.org/mapp/

As a map, that shows parishes and counties - the other information (District, Hundred, Deanery etc) is textual, not geographic.

Please look again. Search on the place name, and select the appropriate one from the list offered. Then on the map you can use the Jurisdictions tab to show the registration district and to list contiguous registration districts (shown in red).

I would call that 'geographic' rather than 'textual'. I have used this map for such searches over many years.