On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 03:11:34 -0800, you wrote: >Is there any way to link to the results of a FreeBMD search from another website? Very simple answer - no. >To see what I'm trying to do, look at the FreeBMD links on this webpage: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~andrewgough/ACFGough.htm > >I chose to present the links in that way in order to give the FreeBMD project, and in particular the transcribers of those entries, the full credit for enabling me to find those marriages. I hope you will agree that this is a legitimate objective. We'd be equally happy with a simple link to the search page! In fact, I would distinctly prefer that the link you use DIDN'T show the underlying code of the search page by displaying exactly what is in the link. >Note also that I haven't actually proved that the marriages took place. All I have demonstrated is that the parties were two of the four individuals on those pages of the register. Presenting the link in this way enables the reader to judge for him/herself whether I've matched them correctly. > >However the links no longer work. Presumably I've fallen foul of the ban on searching FreeBMD from 3rd party websites (even though my site is also part of Rootsweb). Is there any way around this? Yes, you have fallen foul of it. No, there isn't a way round it. >Incidentally I do wonder whether such a strict ban is really necessary. Other similar websites seem to manage quite happily without a ban. For example there would be nothing to prevent me linking to Arthur Jefferson in the 1881 census via http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/census/household_record.asp?HOUSEHOLD_CODE=1881BR_4042203 > >Furthermore I could replace the current broken links with http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=freebmd&ti=0&f5=997&f6=1884&f7=March&f4=8c&f10=Marriages and >http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=freebmd&ti=0&f5=104&f6=1850&f7=March&f4=17&f10=Marriages > >However I don't happen to want to give the credit for finding those marriages to Ancestry.com; I want to give it to FreeBMD. The ban on direct searching is for a number of reasons. 1) You want to credit FreeBMD. Others use it to do meta-searches, and pass it off as their own work. 2) The data in FreeBMD is updated once a month, and if we find and fix an error affecting one of the links you use, people are going too blame us for your link not working. 3) We make changes to the search page from time to time, and we really don't want people carrying on calling it with the old variable set. 4) FreeBMD is heavily reliant on revenue from banner adverts. Our model ensures that anybody searching FreeBMD is presented with 2 different adverts as part of their search. People linking direct reduce that to one. People doing meta searches reduce it to zero. -- Dave Mayall