Previous....... But did anyone bother to explain to Bill how FreeBMD works, where the censuses are to be found and how to find out which places were in a particular registration district, also that Mansfield RD crossed the county border between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire? I happen to think that these things should be explained to beginners in family history, otherwise how will they learn how to research for themselves? *************** I have used FreeBMD & GRO (to order certificates), mostly on the Green name. I only get the name & the quarter on FreeBMD. Confusing when the first name is also common, like Elizabeth. Is there more to it? I have not found it to be so. You say about "how it works"....what does that mean? I am in the US & don't understand the registration district reference. I do Censuses on Ancestry & do have a local FHC/LDS center close by. Thank you Debbie

From: "Debbie" <[email protected]> > Previous....... > But did anyone bother to explain to Bill how FreeBMD works, where the > censuses are to be found and how to find out which places were in a particular > registration district, also that Mansfield RD crossed the county border between Nottinghamshire and > Derbyshire? I happen to think that these things should be explained to beginners in > family history, otherwise how will they learn how to research for themselves? > > *************** > I have used FreeBMD & GRO (to order certificates), mostly on the > Green name. I only get the name & the quarter on FreeBMD. Confusing when the > first name is also common, like Elizabeth. Is there more to it? I have not found it > to be so. > You say about "how it works"....what does that mean? I am in the US > & don't understand the registration district reference.< The first thing you need to know is that the UK has a national registration system, unlike that of America which I understand has no centralised, federal system and where registration varies from one state to another. Our system was introduced on 1st July 1837 and continues to the present day. The General Register Office for England and Wales, from which you have ordered certificates, covers the whole of these two countries and receives copies of birth, marriage and death certificates from the many local registration districts. Scotland is covered by a different office, the General Register Office for Scotland, where civil registration began in 1855. In Northern Ireland it began in 1864. FreeBMD has many millions of BMD records online and yes, you are right in that it doesn't always tell you who married who. Marriages only give the spouse's name after January 1912 and the mother's maiden name at a birth is only given after the 3rd quarter of 1911. But often this can be resolved by finding the person in the nearest census and checking the spouse's name. You also need to know that some registration districts were very large indeed and they have also changed considerably in format over the years. Some districts straddled county borders and covered areas of different counties. There are registration districts in the West Country of England, for instance, that sometimes covered three or even four counties. To get to Norttinghamshire, I have explained that parts of Mansfield, which is in Nottinghamshire, also spread into Derbyshire. To see how this works, find any event you are interested in and then click on the underlined blue link for "Mansfield". This takes you to a page that says :"The district Mansfield spans the boundaries of the counties of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire; information about it can be found here". The "here" is also a blue underlined link and if you click on this, you are then taken to another page at the Genuki website that gives you a complete rundown of the Mansfield Registration District, i.e. when it was formed, the sub-districts, the names of all the places in the RD and a subsidiary table of how those places have changed. You need to know this information when trying to find ancestors. For example, Bill told us that his ancestors had been married at Mansfield but, in fact, I tend to doubt they were because the census returns told me that they lived at Tibshelf, across the Derbyshire border, so it seems quite likely that they married there. Mansfield appears as the registration district at FreeBMD but there are many places in that RD which you need to look at as I have described. Tibshelf was in the Mansfield RD but from that position I would have first tried to find the marriage in parish records for Tibshelf. Knowing which parishes fell into which registration districts is a vital part of the research. I hope this brief description helps you understand! -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE