Roy - many thanks for this ! Michael Walsby On 31/08/2012 13:58, [email protected] wrote: > I have just posted to the GENBRIT list, in answer to a query, a little tip I learnt quite a few > years ago now when researching at FreeBMD. Many listers may already be familiar with it, > and I apologise to them for being boring (!), but some newer listers and novices to family > history may not have discovered it yet, so I hope it may help them. > > This little trick I discovered can be very useful indeed if you have an unusual surname and > especially for those doing one-name studies. Here it is..... > > When researching at FreeBMD, try this..... > > 1) Leave the surname field blank. > 2) Enter into the first name field your surname of interest with either a plus sign or an asterisk > in front of it - this is vital and either the plus symbol or an asterisk both work. > 3) Select All Types and press the Search button. > > What you will get is a list of events (births, marriages and deaths) in which your surname of > interest appears as a MIDDLE forename. To give an example, if I enter "+STOCKDILL" or > "*STOCKDILL", I get the following results..... > > Marriages Sep 1844 > COGHILL Robert Stockdill Leeds 23 371 > > Births Sep 1847 > Firth Thomas Stockdill Hunslet 23 317 > > Deaths Jun 1863 > Firth Thomas Stockdill Kirkstall 9b 145 > > Births Sep 1863 > RIDOUT Sarah Stockdill Shaftesbury 5a 237 > > Deaths Sep 1873 > Cooper George Stockdill 0 Leeds 9b 325 > > Marriages Dec 1883 > Middlebrook John Stockdill Bradford Y 9b 101 > > Marriages Sep 1885 > Ridout Sarah Stockdill Lambeth 1d 856 > > Births Jun 1893 > France Robert Stockdill Bradford, Y. 9b 116 > > Births Mar 1896 > Middlebrook Stockdill Dewsbury 9b 558 > > All of the above FreeBMD entries led me to research further and to discover why the people > concerned had the middle name of Stockdill. Entering my principal GOONS name of > STOCKDALE produced a far, far greater number of entries, as did entering my secondary > one-name study surname of WORSNOP. > > Try it for yourselves! You may be surprised by what it can lead to, especially branches of your > family you never knew existed. It works best, inevitably, with uncommon surnames. > > -- > Roy Stockdill > Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer > Famous family trees blog: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/tag/roy-stockdill/ > > "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, > and that is not being talked about." > OSCAR WILDE > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >