Genealogy Chat

This may be a silly question, but I am fairly new at this. Where is this best place to look for births and marriages since 1900. I have looked on ancestry but haven't found much relating to post 1900. Anyone any ideas? Thanks Lynn

Well, if you want up to 1920 the easiest place to view is on familyrelatives.org - pay to view about £6 for 60 units. Its name and place and date searchable for the period 1866-1920. If you dont want to spend any money then you have to spend an awful lot of time and eyesight on using the ancestry beta index (not the easy, already found names freebmd bit on there which I suspect is what you have used) and go, quarter by quarter through the years you want.

Thanks for that, I'm not sure my eyesight is up to all that work, but I know that my purse can't stretch to £6, spent too much already!! Lynn

Oh, come on, it would be two sandwiches and a cup of coffee in a cafe. Go for it.

The £6 lasts for 90 days on FR and if you use it wisely it can last a long time. Most lookups use 2 units (20p) I only use FR for births 1911Q3 through to 1920 and for marriages 1912 - 1920. Everything else I do on the Ancestry beta, or on FreeBMD. I have used about 20 units (£2) on FR in the last month.......and I'm doing lookups for myself and for others all the time....... I would go for it! Merry

That sounds interesting, what is counted as a unit though? Also how could I find a marriage in 1923? Lynn

On Family Relatives the minimum money up front is £6 which buys you 60 units. If you do a request for (eg) Births, William Petersen, 1900 - 1920, you pay nothing to see how many there are. Lets say there were 15 results. If you wish to view them it would cost you two of your 60 units, as you can view up to 20 entries for 2 units. Very important things to know about FR: 1) It is only fully transcribed for 1866-1920 (ie they have typed out all the entry info so you can ask it for a name and it can tell you how many. Outside this time frame it can only show you the GRO pages (so is exactly like the Ancestry Beta pages, but you have to pay. So for your 1923 marriage you should use the Ancestry Beta pages) 2) You cannot enter a middle name or middle initial for your rellie. if you do, you will get no results, whatever you request! I wanted to look for my rellies death......John Tyler Smith who died between 1908 and 1913. If I could have searched including his middle name then the site would have been good for this lookup. However, because they don't have this facility, I would have had to look for John Smith deaths and as you can imagine, there would be entries in every Q for that.....so it was best to check the Ancestry Beta. Merry

If you know the year, which it appears you do (1923) then you can check the GRO marriage index quarter by quarter on ancestry, as already described. This is free - go to http://www.ancestry(.)co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=8965 (remove brackets). Liz

Thanks for that. I don't envy you looking for John Smith. My maiden name is also Smith and I am sure that I will have fun looking back through that side of the family. Lynn