GRO website - Deaths from 1984 to 2019

[chris_49]

GRO Indexes Updated

Births now available 1837-1934, 1984-2019
Deaths now available 1837-1957, 1984-2019

Thanks very much for this, useful to have another 15 years of births.

Deaths stay at 1957, meaning we still have that awkward decade where there are no middle names

[cuffie81]

There's a bit of an oddity for the new birth records for years 1920-1934. The mother's maiden surname isn't shown in the search results. However, if you enter the MMN in the search input, then the search results will include the MMN where it matches.

Example:
Desmond Ernest George Caves - born:1924, died: 1976, mother's maiden surname: Franklin

Search without the MMN, result:
1924 Q1 Desmond Ernest George Caves (mmn: ); Watford; 03A; 1342;

Search with MMN "Franklin", result:
1924 Q1 Desmond Ernest George Caves (mmn: Franklin); Watford; 03A; 1342;

FreeBMD and other sources that use the original birth indexes show the MMN as Franklin.

(Note: Desmond isn't in my tree, I was just looking for someone with a distinct name that I could test this with)


Another oddity is that when searching with a MMN, the results will also include records where the MMN doesn't match, and is blank in the results.

[Knight-Sunderland]

There's a bit of an oddity for the new birth records for years 1920-1934. The mother's maiden surname isn't shown in the search results. However, if you enter the MMN in the search input, then the search results will include the MMN where it matches.

Example:
Desmond Ernest George Caves - born:1924, died: 1976, mother's maiden surname: Franklin

Search without the MMN, result:
1924 Q1 Desmond Ernest George Caves (mmn: ); Watford; 03A; 1342;

Search with MMN "Franklin", result:
1924 Q1 Desmond Ernest George Caves (mmn: Franklin); Watford; 03A; 1342;

FreeBMD and other sources that use the original birth indexes show the MMN as Franklin.

(Note: Desmond isn't in my tree, I was just looking for someone with a distinct name that I could test this with)

I believe this is due to their self-imposed "100 year rule".

Records under 100 years old will show limited details, but will display extra info (eg MMN) if entered into the search parameters.

[jonwarrn]

I wondered about illegitimate births, so to test it I put in a suspected one

June 1929 St George Hanover Sq 1a 533
Hooper, Philip J.   
mother Hooper   

I searched just for Philip Hooper, male, born 1929
And for that one it came up with a dash for mother's maiden surname!
As cuffie said, the two other Philip Hoopers born in 1929 had no maiden name shown for the mother.

[chris_49]

Tried to find people in my tree born 1920-45 for who I've only a middle initial so far - since actual relatives are well-researched these tend to be those who married in, so of less interest to me - apart from a dimly-remembered spouse of a first-cousin-once-removed who never told us he was a Peregrine.

But I agree that you don't get the MMN unless you specify - except if they were born precisely in 1920. I suppose since 2020 is nearly over (loud cheers) I expect the 100-year rule was not applied. But if you have found the person via FreeBMD, say, you probably know their MMN anyway.

[carol8353]

Tried to find people in my tree born 1920-45 for who I've only a middle initial so far - since actual relatives are well-researched these tend to be those who married in, so of less interest to me - apart from a dimly-remembered spouse of a first-cousin-once-removed who never told us he was a Peregrine.

If any of the people you seek have died,you will often get their full name and date of birth too.

[chris_49]

Tried to find people in my tree born 1920-45 for who I've only a middle initial so far - since actual relatives are well-researched these tend to be those who married in, so of less interest to me - apart from a dimly-remembered spouse of a first-cousin-once-removed who never told us he was a Peregrine.

If any of the people you seek have died,you will often get their full name and date of birth too.

I know,  and I had those that died in the last 50 years and on record, but these were people whose deaths could not otherwise be found - died between 1957 and 1967, or otherwise missing - might have died abroad, in WW2, record just garbled or age at death wildly out, or might still be alive (unlikely in most cases).

[Knight-Sunderland]

GRO Indexes Updated

Births and Deaths now available for Q4 2020 (but for some reason Q4 2019 and Q1, Q2, Q3 2020 still not searchable... )

[dawnsh]

But the complete fiche 2019, 2020, and first 2 quarters 2021 are available at the 7 GRO host sites around the country.