Hi When I first tried freebmd a year or 2 ago it had only ~2% records and I found nothing useful, but it now has getting on for 50% of all RGO bmd index entries for 1837-1902, some years are virtually complete but others are virtually non-existent. Whilst there have not been any new Lovelucks to add to my list of RGO entries on James's web site, I have been able to add several marriage partners. If you click on the ref for a marriage you get up to 8 people (1 to7 others) with the same ref, usually 4 male and 4 female. In a good number of cases you get just one to match the one you know - no doubt because the other (up to) 3 have not been done yet. Sometimes all but one can be eliminated from other info, but in some cases we are left with a choice of 2 to 4. There are clearly some omissions and errors and duplicates, but so far there has been no way to find a partner if the surname was not known. Previously at RGO or using the fiches at Bromley Lib I have found the first n! ame by checking for the same ref under the known or possible surname for the same time quarter. I am sending my updated list to James with all the bmd entries in freebmd marked (first names in red, or pink if added in the update of 1 April). You will see that there are whole blocks missing. The site is very busy now that it has become really useful! Just do Google and enter freebmd to get the ref - the first! For some reason I have no ref for Cecilia's m to John ~1860 nor his birth ~1836, where was he for all the censuses? The Howell L seems to have used any combination of 3 first names!! John Dixon

John Dixon wrote: ><snipped> > >I am sending my updated list to James with all the bmd entries in freebmd marked (first names in red, or pink if added in the update of 1 April). You will see that there are whole blocks missing. > I've updated the document on the Web pages to the latest version provided by John. It was previously linked only to the LovelUck Web pages (since most of the records are LovelUck) but I've now linked it to the LovelOck pages as well (Sources-> General). Note that the document on the Web has been "censured" in the usual way - births after 1903 and marraiges after 1923 have been removed. I can send the unexpurgated version to anyone interested. Some of these entries also appear in the GRO extracts provided by Malcolm L and Robert, but John's coverage of LovelUcks is more complete. One last point concerning BMD records - just in case anyone hasn't already seen the news, the" Family Research Link" Web site offering acess to images of BMD records, on payment of a modest fee, is now operational at: http://www.1837online.com/ For £5 one can purchase 50 units (+10% discount at the moment) to view the same number of records (the only catch is that sometimes one needs to view several pages before getting to the right one!) This service can temporarily fill in when the records are not available from freebmd. Since these are scanned images of the GRO indexes, one doesn't have the problem of searching for the spouse in the case of marriages. Does anyone know why freebmd decided to handle marriages in this way (not including the name of the spouse)? >For some reason I have no ref for Cecilia's m to John ~1860 nor his birth ~1836, where was he for all the censuses? The Howell L seems to have used any combination of 3 first names! > I don't have any further information on them either, except that they were perhaps married at Pontypridd. However, Allen Blethyn is doing some detective work on this couple, so maybe we'll have some more information soon! James