Heir Hunters Series 5

[Finley 1]

Uhhhm Websi  I have Clarkes Leicestershire too.. From Shenton and area  ?? just as a by the way..

xin

[Nick29]

Great program a great source of knowledge and inspiration, leading a lot of people to "Wannabee a Heir Hunter" it's not as easy as it appears - but certainly each case can be challenging.

Their objectives are rather different to most of us - Heir Hunters don't usually go back beyond grandparents, so they rarely have people pre-1841, and not on censuses.  The really tricky bits for them are filling out trees sideways, and finding the living people.  Still extremely interesting, though.

[Sloe Gin]

I watched an episode of this for the first time recently.  Sorry, but I was very disappointed by the style & presentation - it was SO dumbed down and repetitive (at least one sequence was repeated three times!).  I suppose I should have expected it, as so many programmes seem to be made this way nowadays: aimed at the lowest common denominator with the memory and attention span of a gnat.  While the content was interesting, it could have been much more so, but as it is I find programmes made this way too irritating to watch.  This is meant as no criticism of the participants, just the production.

[/rant]

[purplekat]

Sorry, but I was very disappointed by the style & presentation - it was SO dumbed down and repetitive (at least one sequence was repeated three times!). 

I think this was particulary true of the earlier series but I think it improved in later series.  What I like about the later series is that there was more research into the lives of the deceased and their family by the programme makers.   

PS What I do hate is that this programme, in common with many others splits up the stories, instead of telling them in one go, then have a recap.  Why can't they tell each story in one go grrrrr

[kooky]

In this morning's programme a researcher was going through birth indexes finding all births of a certain name after 1911. They had the mother's surname, could they not have used FreeBMD? Or was this a repeat from way back.
After Sept 1911 if I am correct, mother's maiden name was in the birth record.
Just a thought. I wait to be shot down!
Kooky

[Sloe Gin]

What I do hate is that this programme, in common with many others splits up the stories, instead of telling them in one go, then have a recap.  Why can't they tell each story in one go grrrrr

That's easy - it's because the programmes are made to be sold to commercial channels, so they build in ad breaks.  And of course they want people to keep watching, so they string the stories out over the whole programme.  It was particularly blatant in the ep of HH that I watched: they even flashed up the programme ident between each segment.   And as I said, they don't trust their audience to remember anything that happened before the ads.    So many programmes these days are spoiled because of this. 

[Plummiegirl]

Regarding use of FreeBMD - I believe that Fraser & Fraser have their own BMD records which they use where possible - but they do use FreeBMD you often spot someone on there in the background. 

But what we must remember FreeBMD is not 100% accurate, they are reliant on people transcribing records and that they do not making any mistakes.

As more people use FreeBMD and submit amendments & Postems, it is becoming a far more reliable source for this information.  But I always go back to Ancestry once a record has been found to check details are correct.

[DudleyWinchurch]

Why "back to Ancestry" Plummiegirl?

The option is already there to display the original record on FREEBMD, without needing the subscription, so how can Ancestry be more accurate?

The only advantages with Ancestry are the more recent transcriptions.

[Plummiegirl]

Hi Dudley

I find that when I try to check the originals on FreeBMD it takes forever to open, and even more so if there are lot of people trying to use the site at the same time, when it then chucks you out.

I will often do more than one search at a time, so its not a case of the odd one, but several at one time.

The air around my computer is often "blue" when I have had enough of FreeBMD & its limited access at certain times of the day & at weekends.

UPDATE:  Try getting onto FreeBMD at about 9pm on a Sunday night - it's a nightmare.  I try to access FreeBMD at different times of the day (do not work so have the luxury of doing this) and even when being this random I often feel like throwing my computer out the window with frustration, do 1 seach its OK, then you try to do a 2nd and FreeBMD tells you to try later as they are busy.  ARRRGH.
Never had any problems with Ancestry (now I have said that sod's law says that I will next time