Oops! Of course, I should have known this from the extracts provided by Malcolm and Robert. In fact, even after 1912 there are some records with the spouse missing. My understanding is that the images are identical to the fiches you have access to in Bromley Library. Specifically, on the Web site it is stated that: * From 1837 to 1983 all records are scanned pages of the indexes that are found at the Family Record Centre and also held on microfiche or microfilm by some libraries and family history organisations. * From 1984 to date, all the information is in a database format. I agree that freebmd is preferable, but the 1837online Web site is useful in cases where: the record has not been extracted by freebmd; and one doesn't have access to the fiche at a local library (which is my case!) James John Dixon wrote: >Hi list >James queried why freebmd did not include the spouse's surname. Simple! The indices did not include the name of the spouse until 1912! The indices on fiche at Bromley Lib don't of course have them so I can't see how scans of the indices can help. Are these scans of the original manuscript books, or later printed replacements for some of them, (neither of which have the spouse's name until 1912!)? What happened about pages torn from these original books to satisfy the vanity of some vandals? Was there a back-up copy? >Some of the fiches are virtually illegible, so for dates <1902 freebmd is a much better option. Of course they had difficulty reading some of the names and got some wrong! To get the surname (choice of 1 to 4) of a spouse freebmd is going to be the only way! > >John Dixon > >