English and Welsh GRO grants permission to use FreeBMD screengrabs

A recent press release I forgot to post in the Christmas rush! From Free UK Genealogy:

Exciting news from Free UK Genealogy CIO, an umbrella organisation for FreeBMD, FreeREG and FreeCEN.

Good news for those who want to share their family history discoveries online. The GRO has permitted users of FreeBMD to take screenshots of entries and share them online.

FreeBMD is one of a suite of free to use, forever, family history database - users are already free to share screenshots of FreeCEN (nineteenth-century censuses) and FreeREG (registers of baptism, marriage and burial from the Church of England and other bodies).

Pat Reynolds, Executive Director of Free UK Genealogy said “Personally, I love being able to share family history discoveries with my family on social media - I’m delighted I can now do this for the civil registration data we hold on FreeBMD”.

Free UK Genealogy is a registered charity, where thousands of volunteers - transcribers, developers and others - make historic documents freely accessible to all on its websites www.freebmd.org.uk, www.freecen.org.uk, and www.freereg.org.uk.

(With thank to Denise Colbert, Engagement Coordinator at Free UK Genealogy at Free UK Genealogy)

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Scottish-Ancestry-through-Church-and-State-Records-Paperback/p/16848. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

FreeProbate site development - questionnaire

From the Free UK Genealogy (https://www.freeukgenealogy.org.uk) team:

Do you use wills in family history research? We're developing a new website (FreePROBATE) and want to know how you would like the databases to be indexed. Let us know which fields you would like the search engine to have on our questionnaire here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd1teRSOMfEwwE69W5mT8ZzCIwwlOoHnHFVH6lvu6xXq5N_aw/viewform

And from the questionnaire:

Are you familiar with using wills in family history research? Please help us design the search engine for our new website.

At this stage, we're NOT asking about typography, layout, colours etc. We simply want to know what fields you would like to be able to search by, and an idea of how important you judge them to be.

Sounds like a potentially great expansion from the team that has already brought us FreeCEN, FreeREG and FreeBMD!

(With thanks to @FreeUKGen)

Chris

My next Scottish Research Online course starts March 11th 2019 - see www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Details of my genealogical research service are available at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. For my Scottish and Irish themed books, visit https://britishgenes.blogspot.com/p/my-books.html. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

FreeBMD server upgrade

I've just picked up on a message from FreeBMD (www.freebmd.org.uk), the volunteer project to make freely accessible all indexes to English and Welsh birth, marriage and death indexes from 1837-1983. The site is updating its servers, which may temporarily lead to some performance issues:

You might have noticed that there has been a delay with the most recent update to the FreeBMD database. We are currently planning on moving the site to new servers and we will update the database when that move is completed. We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause but hope that the move to new servers will help us to provide a better service in long run. We anticipate that the move will happen over the next couple of weeks and during that time there might be short periods where the site is unavailable, or certain facilities are unavailable, but we are working to try and keep disruption to a minimum. Thank you, in advance, for your patience whilst we complete this. Progress as of 31st July: We are currently testing how FreeBMD works on our new servers; this is ongoing and we don't have a firm date when it will be completed. Thank you for your continued patience. We will provide further information on progress by the end of August.

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And please consider purchasing the great new version of Caledonia by The Libations at 79p via www.caledonia2014.com - all profits go to help fund Scottish foodbanks

Free British records via Ancestry for Easter

In addition to the free access to Australian immigration records (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/free-access-to-ancestrys-australian.html) the UK wing of Ancestry is also making certain records freely available for the Easter weekend, from April 18th-21st. The records include the English and Welsh BMD indexes and probate calendars, British military records, and the 1901 and 1911 UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man census returns and summary books (excluding Scotland for 1911).

Access is available via http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/grouplist.aspx?group=easter_free_records.

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians. And for those wishing to take Scottish ancestral research a bit further, my next Pharos course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Records, commences May 14th 2014.

Nick Barratt to return to the National Archives

Well known family historian Dr. Nick Barratt, editor-in-chief of Your Family History magazine, CEO of Sticks Research Agency, president of the Federation of Family History Societies and executive director of FreeBMD,  is to return to the National Archives (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk) to take up a position as head of the 'Medieval & Early Modern', 'Maps & Photographs' and 'Legal' teams. Nick previously worked at the institution from 1996-2000, after completing a PhD in medieval history at Kings College London in 1996.

Commenting on his return to Kew, Nick stated 'I'm very excited to be going back to my academic roots, and re-joining The National Archives after 12 years running Sticks Research Agency and its associated projects, which from January will be managed by Laura Berry. Opportunities such as this do not come along every day, and I'm looking forward to the challenge.'

Chris

Having a Christmas present crisis?! Check out my range of genealogy books at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html - perfect for the family historian's Christmas stocking...! Also now out - new Kindle edition of Tracing Your Family History on the Internet, from http://tinyurl.com/d3vqtz5