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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: madeira066 on Saturday 12 November 16 11:57 GMT (UK)
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Hi All.
On Freebmd there is a death for a Hannah Barker registered in Basford Dec qtr 1837 Vol 15 Page288, so I went onto the new GRO site to find the age of Hannah to see if this could possibly be my GGG/Grandmother. I entered all the details I had got from Freebmd but it up came up with no results.
Has it just been missed out or am I doing something wrong.
Regards Dave.
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As has been pointed out in a few other threads, the records you search on FreeBMD are not the same as the newly-accessible GRO ones, which have been compiled by (fairly recently) indexing the original certificates, not by transcribing the older index records. Where FreeBMD may be correctly indexed GRO may not - and vice-versa. Try some variations.
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If it is an indexing error then I've found the chances of finding the record in the new index depend on which field has been incorrectly indexed.
The hardest (and possibly most likely) one is the surname.
My strategy is to put in the least amount of information possible, so surname, gender and year. So far I've not had a problem with incorrect volume numbers, so you might want to include this to narrow the results down a bit.
Try the different surname variation options, and if that doesn't work then try changing the surname manually to possible variations which the soundex/metaphone methods won't find.
I still have some records from FreeBMD that I cannot find on the new index, I've decided to leave these until the surname field on the new index allows wildcards, or else if a search only on year, volume and page number are allowed in future.
Good luck :)
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Dave, I had a go with variations too but came up with nothing to match. There's a Christopher Barker coming up when you choose "female"....!
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It looks like this page is missing from the index. None of the other individuals on this page appear in the new index either.
From FreeBMD
Anthony, Susannah, Basford, 15, 288
Barker, Hannah, Basford 15, 288
Bradford, William, Basford, 15, 288
Brown, Mary, Basford, 15, 288
CUTLER, Samuel, Basford, 15, 288
Eyrr, Louis, Basford, 15, 288
Eyrr, Louisa, Basford, 15, 288
KIRKLAND, Joseph, Basford, 15, 288
Purdy, Joseph, Basford, 15, 288
Walters, Jeremiah, Basford, 15, 288
Walton, Joseph, Basford, 15, 288
I've reported the error.
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Hi.
Thank you to all for your help with this post.
Regards Dave.
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There are a couple of relatives who I can't find despite them being there on FreeBMD. It's hard to tell whether they've been missed completely or are merely hiding behind a mistranscription. It's annoying that surname is a required field... On FreeBMD or on the census you stand a good chance of finding a mistranscribed name, and can make a correction. As Nick_Ips says, hopefully a wildcard search will be added in the future, or surname won't be compulsory.
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a feedback form link is attached to the trial pdf's (ordered Wed, arrived Fri afternoon) it appears to be 20 questions but only read question 1 which had a box for typing reasons for your rating on how easy the index was to use. I closed as decided I wanted to write feedback - but not just then, had the certs to process and was in the middle of searching the indexes with loads windows of family members open.
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Another example of where the requirement for a surname is a problem.
I'm looking for the death of a Susanna SIZER, no sign of her on the new GRO search.
Unlike the example above, most of the other FreeBMD results below can also be found on the new GRO search, but I've tried many variations of the surname SIZER (and Male/Female as well!) but with no luck yet.
A search using year, Q and full GRO ref should make solving this a simple exercise, and the system demand of such a search shouldn't be excessive. But we aren't allowed to do it >:(
From FreeBMD-
Deaths Dec 1860 (>99%)
Bacon George Joseph Tunstead 4b 23
Curtis Henry Tunstead 4b 23
Ford Sophia Tunstead 4b 23
Green Robert Tunstead 4b 23
HOWELL Ann Tunstead 4b 23
HOWELL John Tunstead 4b 23
Knights Robert Henstead 4b 23
Knights Robert Tunstead 4b 23
Moore John Tunstead 4b 23
Sizer Susanna Tunstead 4b 23
Sizer[s_] Susanna Tunstead 4b 23
Turner Thomas Tunstead 4b 23
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The 2nd entry, for Sizer[s_], would indicate that there was some difficulty in reading the original GRO Index?
Have you checked the original image, on FreeBMD, to see what it might have been transcribes as?
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Yes, I had a look at the image when I originally found the FreeBMD entry - it is one of the old difficult to read handwritten registers. I would read the entry as 'SIZER', but the shape of the 'R' could lead you to think there was an 'S' on the end.
Although I did try the new GRO search with the additional 'S', in theory this should only be there if the original registration had the surname "SIZERS" (or appeared to be that). But neither of the surname variations options comes up with a result, and even manual changes like Siger, Seger, Sezer don't help.
I have a burial record for Susanna on 25-10-1860, and she should be around 19 years old. So the district, year and quarter for the FreeBMD record appear to be correct, what I was looking for is the new GRO record as confirmation of her age and that I had the right record.
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She is transcribed as Pizer
Pizer, Susanna
age 19
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Brilliant! Many thanks Jon.
Did you get that by trial and error, or was there something else you did?
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Hi
I've got a family whose name begins with S - Sickelmore. Just remembered some of the mistranscriptions I've seen down the years when they have misread that first letter!
John
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You can't beat experience! Sickelmore gives you plenty of options to think about.
The one I have coming up time after time is Spanton. Commonly mistranscribed as Sparton, Shanton, Stanton, and sometimes with the 't' replaced with an 'I' or 'L'.
Currently I'm working on an un-named female who appears on FreeBMD as:
Deaths Sep 1838 Spanton Female Blofield 13 16
- but again various alternatives have come up with nothing. I've also just tried Ppanton without any luck!
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I haven't found any of the names on pages 15 and 16, Sep qtr 1838, Blofield
There was no page 14
Those on pages 11-13 seem to have been done.
Very disappointing if whole pages have been missed.
John
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Well that is the second time that a whole page appears to be missing. Maybe it should be added as something in the tips for searching thread - to try other people from the same page if the person you are looking for isn't found.
I've also seen several page numbers which differ from those in the old index/FreeBMD data. It is possible there were historic errors which have been corrected in the new index.
Thanks again for looking.
Nick
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The one I have coming up time after time is Spanton. Commonly mistranscribed as Sparton, Shanton, Stanton, and sometimes with the 't' replaced with an 'I' or 'L'.
At least all those have the correct initial. If the leading letter is wrong it can be hard to know where to start. I've had Tydeman as Lydeman, and Tarr as Parr. They took some time to unearth, sometimes by searching for a child's first name.