Hi Listers I wonder if someone can help me with the GRO marriage index for Dudley. According to both Ancestry.com and FreeBDM only three people were married in 1862 Q2 under reference Dudley 6c 120 - John Sands, Benjamin Guest and Eliza Burgess. Unless it was a ménage a trois I would expect to see a fourth (female) person, hopefully John's wife Mary. Similarly in Q1 1859 under reference Dudley 6c 50 there are again three people - Charles Brant, Mary Ann Clifton and Thomas Sands. I would expect to see a fourth (female) person, hopefully Thomas's wife Sarah. As well as following the links from John and Thomas I have tried searching for the whole year by reference number. This shows 13 names in 1862 and 16 in 1859 (but one is repeated so therefore only 15 people). Any suggestions please? TIA John

John: Two possibilities: Firstly, both FreeBMD and Ancestry are the same project. the project is still in progress and not all marriages (or births or deaths) have been transcribed. Second, the GRO index contains errors and omissions, and this might be one of them. there's not a lot you can do about either of these. However the good news is that the local register office data for Dudley is also on line for this period at West Midlands BMD: http://www.bmsgh.org/wmbmd/index.html. This shows that in 1862 John SANDS married Mary WALTON at Rowley Regis St Giles, and that in 1859 Thomas SANDS married Sarah A, NIGHTINGALE at Dudley St Thomas. Both marriages are also in the IGI on line at the LDS site. Best wishes Paul Prescott ----- Original Message ----- From: "Yahoo" <ejohnsands@yahoo.co.uk> To: <ENG-BLACK-COUNTRY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 6:57 PM Subject: [B.C.] DUDLEY BDM Hi Listers I wonder if someone can help me with the GRO marriage index for Dudley. According to both Ancestry.com and FreeBDM only three people were married in 1862 Q2 under reference Dudley 6c 120 - John Sands, Benjamin Guest and Eliza Burgess. Unless it was a ménage a trois I would expect to see a fourth (female) person, hopefully John's wife Mary. Similarly in Q1 1859 under reference Dudley 6c 50 there are again three people - Charles Brant, Mary Ann Clifton and Thomas Sands. I would expect to see a fourth (female) person, hopefully Thomas's wife Sarah. As well as following the links from John and Thomas I have tried searching for the whole year by reference number. This shows 13 names in 1862 and 16 in 1859 (but one is repeated so therefore only 15 people). Any suggestions please? TIA John ==== ENG-BLACK-COUNTRY Mailing List ==== Wherever possible (except for personal messages) please post replies to the list.Other people can learn from them!