England & Wales, Birth Index: 1916-2005

[rkic]

I apologise if this has already been posted. Ancestry have added a UK birth registration database 1916-2005 that can be searched rather than trawled through.

[Night Owl]

Thanks for pointing that out - its certainly going to save a lot of time. I wonder if they're going to do the same with marriages and deaths?

[Tom Tom]

What a great resource for them to add I was a bit worried when the births 1984 - 2005 vanished as I thought they were taking them off because people were saying they were against data protection.

I think I will be busy today ;)

[Orangeblossom]

Ooooh fab! Maybe that's why it's been so slow the last few days lol

Wish I was at home so I could search it!

[Just Gillian]

Robert - thank you!!!

[KiteRunner]

I'd just noticed that on ancestry's home page and was about to post it up! Well, that changes my plans for the morning! And the afternoon...

[KiteRunner]

It probably isn't going to come as a great surprise to anybody that there are transcription errors, but I just thought I would point it out. For instance, I've spotted a district "Badwellty" (should be Bedwellty) and my uncle seems to be missing, not sure if he's been mistranscribed or left out (no, I'll let ancestry off there - it's the GRO's mistake!).

It doesn't seem to show mother's maiden name on the list of results, but if you "hover" your cursor on "view record" it will come up. Of course you can specify MMN in your search in the first place.

[Elaine ..Spain]

Ooh thanks for that - think I might be busy this afternoon!

Just found my mother on there - registered in 1966!
She was actually born in 1914 but when she tried to get a passport it transpired that her birth had never been registered. I remember the problems we had trying to get her registration accepted as she had no evidence of baptism and the church records had been destroyed. They finally accepted a sworn statement from one of her elderly aunts who said she had been present at the birth! (Not too sure if she was or not! :o)

[Ozzie Gert]

Ooh thanks Robert, have just found a cousin on there, that died on The Herald of Free Enterprise, now i may have an idea when his mum married.

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Oooh this is great - thanks Robert!

Another small glitch:

For some periods registration districts have the wrong assumed county (probably just that they have missed including the correct county when listing all the potential ones with a certain Volume number)

ie Bournemouth has been in Dorset since 1974. I have got used to Ancestry insisting it's been in Hampshire forever (as it was before 1974) but for 1940-1942ish Ancestry say Bournemouth is not in Hampshire either, but in Sussex or the Isle of White! So, be careful if you enter an assumed county.

[Just Gillian]

Kite - thank you. I hadn't spotted that!

I was puzzled to see a Bristol 1950 birth listed under the county of Avon which didn't exist in 1950 as far as I know, doesn't exist now, and doesn't appear in the dropdown list of county options.

[Harrys mum]

Gillian....................I don't think Bristol has ever known where it belonged.....lol

I have four NC certs for Bristol between 1791 and 1822.

Bristol is in........Avon, Bristol, Somerset and Gloucestershire.

[Katarzyna]

Thank you Robert,
That's going to save a lot of trawling

[KiteRunner]

I was surprised to see that my mother was supposedly born in Wiltshire, when she was really born in Dorset!

[Just Gillian]

Gillian....................I don't think Bristol has ever known where it belonged.....lol

I have four NC certs for Bristol between 1791 and 1822.

Bristol is in........Avon, Bristol, Somerset and Gloucestershire.

lol Libby - I suppose the moral of these stories is to leave the county blank on the search page!

[KiteRunner]

Something that is really useful if you're researching a relatively rare surname is that you can search this database on mother's maiden name alone.

[Orangeblossom]

I'm gonna be busy this weekend lol

Had a sneeky peek (naughty me!) and can't wait till I get home so I can search more. So many people to add to my tree and correct! Thankfully, I have rare names in my tree, so I can type them in and pretty much figure they're all related somewhere along the line lol

[KiteRunner]

Oh dear, I just got the boy with the noose.

[Orangeblossom]

Oh dear, I just got the boy with the noose.

Me too :o
Think I broke it lol

[rkic]

I was surprised to see that my mother was supposedly born in Wiltshire, when she was really born in Dorset!

Wiltshire is obviously a large county my brother-in -law comes up as regn district Essex SW in Wiltshire! :D