Worth Noting! Free Record Access - Online Irish History Day January 24!

[tidybooks]

Hi ,

I did not think much of the potential spouse, gives a 1 in 4 chance. Thats OK for a horse in the Cheltenham Gold Cup but not an exact science in genealogical terms.

Tom

[scotmum]

True, but believe me, a 1 in 4 chance is a lot quicker than making a multitude of educated guesses and trawling through each individually on familysearch in hope that a page/volume will indeed match (and believe me I and many others have often done suchlike in attempts to help folks with their Irish research).

[scotmum]

Oh it's potential spouse  I thought all the men were killing off the wife and getting a new one.

I think many have that thought having failed to read the 'blurb' posted by FindMyPast saying:

...Our search matches people found on the same page of a register (volume). You will see that your ancestor is listed alongside several possible spouses. This does not mean that your ancestor married each of these people!....

I am sure many do not read this and have entered all the 'marriages' on their tree against their ancestor.

[Sinann]

Thanks Shanew, think I'll look around a bit more before using up 30 credits.

[tidybooks]

Hi Scotsmum,

I wasn't lucky enough to find the correct couples anyway. I had read the warnings, but I would think much more user-friendly if it gave you the one actual spouse!

The births weren't much fun either, only 1 of mines did I get a mother, all the rest no parents. That might not be FindMyPast's fault, overall, an experience which will not be repeated.

Tom

[shanew147]

Unfortunately the Index alone cannot narrow a marriage down any further - just the possible partners for a marriage, based on the other Index records with the same page number etc.

The mother's maiden name is included in index entries from the late 1920s. Like FamilySearch the Index will only cover Northern Ireland up to the end of 1921.

If extracted records are included based on the FamilySearch data then these cover details from the start of civil registration up to about 1880 for certain areas, and do show further details, such as parent's names on births etc.

[LH]

Good idea - bad information

Logged on for the "Free" day and proceeded to search for my family.  Pulled up one member quickly but was astounded to see a "2nd spouse" listed.   Full name of 2nd spouse included also.

Knew this was impossible so reverted to familysearch.org.  Turns out that the named 2nd spouse had married an entirely different persom, but in the same year

This means four people have incorrect information showing!

Cheers

[Sinann]

I'm glad I wasn't looking for a marriage, I just spotted the second spouse thing while looking for a death.

I think it's a great idea but it sure as hell is causing a lot of confusion.

LH you need to read this thread through for the beginning.

[DudleyWinchurch]

FindMyPast BMD search has other advantages over the FamilySearch view, as you can list by year (ascending or descending) and use the key words to look for a particular area or registration district (e.g. "Dublin" lists all for Dublin North or Dublin South).  Makes it much easier to search births for potential "missing" children, if you know from 1911 that there should be more.