FREE BMD

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Free BMD

There are 3 ways to search the FreeBMD data.

1. Search and Browse the actual pages of the 100% complete FreeBMD index.
   
   FreeBMD Index:
   • Birth
     Ancestry.co.uk has made 134 million General Register Office (GRO) UK birth records for England and Wales dating from 1837 to 2005 fully searchable by name, registration date and district. Previously GRO Birth Index that was indexed by surname range only. A search would produce a list of all pages on which the searched name might appear, but referenced by the first and last name on those pages only. Now, every name in the GRO Birth Index is individually searchable. You need the information found in an original index to request a copy of a birth certificate for the individual referenced.
     
     • Birth Index, 1837-1915 - includes births registered from 1837 to 1915 and was keyed by FreeBMD, a group of independent volunteers dedicated to transcribing civil registration indexes of birth, marriage and death records for England and Wales.
     • Birth Index, 1916-2005 - This database is a searchable, digitized version of the indices of civil registrations in England and Wales, reported quarterly to the General Register Office (GRO) in London.
     
     
     
   • Marriage
     The Search returns a Name Range that may contain the name you are searching for. If the search name falls alphabetically between the first name and the last name on a page, that page is returned as a possible match. You may then view an image of the page to see if the name you are searching for is on that page. Last name and Approximate Year required. These are the documents that are used for the transcriptions.
     • Search the Marriage index images
     
     
     
   • Death
     The Search returns a Name Range that may contain the name you are searching for. If the search name falls alphabetically between the first name and the last name on a page, that page is returned as a possible match. You may then view an image of the page to see if the name you are searching for is on that page. Last name and Approximate Year required. These are the documents that are used for the transcriptions.
     • Search the Death index images
   
   
   
   
2. Search the partially (50%) completed Free BMD using Ancestry's FREE search engine. Most records are before 1900 and have been transcribed by the FreeBMD volunteers.
   
   
   
   • Search the Free BMD at Ancestry.co.uk
     • Birth Index
     • Marriage index
     • Death index
   
   
   
   • Search the Free BMD using Ancestry's fast and flexible search engine. There are many ways to search the Ancestry Free BMD database:
     • Search by exact or ranked search by toggling between the tabs at the top of search box.
     • Use wildcards (the asterisk "*" and the question mark "?") in place of numbers or unknown letters in search queries.
     • Enter any combination of query terms. Last name and year NOT required. For example:
       • Record type and district, with no first or last name.
       • First name only, no last name, all record types (B,M, and D), county, and district
   • View other transcriptions and view others on the same page.
   • Make a connection between others searching the same name.
   
   
   
   
3. Search the partially (50%) completed Free BMD using the Free BMD search engine at RootsWeb.
   
   
   • Search the Free BMD at RootsWeb
   • Years of Coverage
   • How to Find a Spouse using the BMD
   • Frequently Asked Questions
   • Unfortunately, The RootsWeb BMD is a much slower search engine than Ancestry and frequently gives the message that it is "too busy to complete search".
     • Last name required.
     • Although there is an option to enter spouse's details, ignore this in case the spouse has not yet been entered onto the system.
   
   
   
   
   The original GRO (General Register Office) indexes for the birth, marriages, and deaths are each divided into quarterly volumes with the names listed in alphabetical order. If you find an entry in the index, you can use it to order of copy of a death, marriage or birth certificate. Learn more.
   
   The index itself includes year, record type, quarter, district (each county in England and Wales was divided up into registration districts), volume, and page number.
   
   Now if you find a name on the Ancestry or RootsWeb Free BMD, you can double check and cross check with the Free BMD images of the original GRO before ordering certificates from the registration details provided, since Free BMD does not guarantee that their transcriptions are error free.
   
   The huge job of putting the names contained in the GRO index online and making it searchable has been available thanks to the volunteers of the FreeBMD organization. Free BMD has already indexed more than 62 million names between the years of 1837 and 1983, about 50% of the names.