New GRO Query

[madeira066]

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.

[Andrew Tarr]

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.

[Nick_Ips]

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 

[tillypeg]

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"....!

[vrvt]

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.

[madeira066]

Hi.
Thank you to all for your help with this post.
Regards Dave.

[clairec666]

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.

[Jon_ni]

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.

[Nick_Ips]

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