HOW TO RESEARCH YOUR FAMILY HISTORY

Don't miss the next instalment in The Link, the parish magazine for Stansted Mountfitchet - visit the magazine's website at www.stanstedlink.org.uk

RESOURCES FOR BUDDING FAMILY HISTORIANS

This section will be updated as the series progresses

INDEXES OF BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS FOR ENGLAND & WALES

There are two free sources which are highly recommended:

FreeBMD (https://www.freebmd.org.uk/) is a volunteer project that has been transcribing the indexes from 1837-1983 for more than 20 years. The search is very flexible, and when you find a result you can list the other entries on the same page in the register - this is mostly useful for marriages because it typically gives you the name of the spouse. There are usually 2 marriages on each register page, thus 4 names (2 male, 2 female) but if you know the first name of the person your ancestor married this will usually enable you to identify the right person.

Advantages: you can search for any number of years and there is a great deal of flexibility, for example you can search by county.

Limitations: when you search the birth indexes at FreeBMD it only gives the maiden name of the mother from the third quarter of 1911 onwards; when you search the death indexes it only gives the age at death (in years) from 1866 onwards.

General Register Office (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp) is the official site, and you'll need to register before you can use the site (but registration is free).

Advantages: middle names are shown in full, the mother's maiden name is shown in all birth entries (except in the case of an illegitimate birth, in which case it is usually blank); age at death is shown for all death entries (but may be incorrect in the case of infants).

Limitations: no marriage index, birth index only goes up to 1917, death index only goes up to 1957. You must specify male or female and you can only search a 5 year period at a time. Fuzzy matching options are useless - don’t use them.

The best commercial site for these indexes is Findmypast (http://tidd.ly/b2b2be2a).

Advantages: you can search from 1837-2006, and the mother's maiden name is included in some (not all) birth entries for the period 1837-1911.

Disadvantages: it's not free - but if you register (which is free) you can get quite a lot of information by carrying out a free search.

LOSTCOUSINS NEWSLETTER

You can read the most recent issue here. To receive email notifications when a new issue is released just register (it’s free).

ANCESTOR CHART

To download an A4 version just click this link: Ancestor Chart

Note: the chart is in PDF format and needs to be printed out - you can't fill it in online