Tangledwoodresearch

22/10/2025

🌟 The new FreeBMD launches tomorrow! 🌟

We’re excited to announce that the new FreeBMD will be live from 10am tomorrow! You’ll find the link right on the FreeBMD website: just click through and explore.

The new site has been designed for today’s users: it’s faster, easier to use, and works beautifully on phones and tablets. You’ll also find new features such as:

🔹 Autosuggest for names, counties and districts
🔹 One-click searches across all of England & Wales
🔹 Improved accessibility and modern design
🔹 Download and share your results easily

👉 Visit www.freebmd.org.uk
from 10am tomorrow to try it out and let us know what you think!

20/12/2024

Wishing all my followers a Merry Christmas

23/08/2021

28/10/2020

WIKIS

Wikis are websites that enable users to collaborate and share information. Here are some for Family Historians...

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Main_Page

https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Main_Page

https://www.wikitree.com/

https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Family_History_and_Genealogy_Wiki

https://cyndislist.com/wikis

Image courtesy of:https://www.alamy.com/

22/04/2020

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/digital-downloads/?fbclid=IwAR0iC2GwaqTcyhrMbV40Xr1S9H1LnsEb1DiV3_Y41xig2HPXULcRvdiLcmw

We are making digital records available on our website free of charge for as long as our Kew site is closed to visitors. Registered users will be able to

21/04/2020

05/04/2020

Day 5 tip 4
How to source Certificates
If you need to replace or purchase a certificate but are not sure how to go about it, or what information is required then you can always telephone your local registrar. This is usually a necessity if the certificate required is recent usually the last 10 years.
For older certificates however a quicker and simpler way to locate one is to use a site called FreeBMD.

A Brief History of Civil registration.
Civil Registration was first introduced in the UK with the Births and Deaths registration act in 1836, which affected England and wales. The General Register Office for England and Wales was set up on 1 July 1837 and included Marriages and it became mandatory to register BM & Ds.
The onus being on the registrar to locate and record the information.
In 1875, the Births & Deaths Act 1874 came into force, whereby those present at a birth or death were required to report the event. Subsequent legislation introduced similar systems in Ireland(all of which was then part of the United Kingdom) on 1 April 1845 for Protestant marriages and on 1 January 1864 for all birth, marriage and death events.
Civil registration was introduced in Scotland on 1 January 1855.

Each County or Local Authority has its own registration districts, which are given a number (These have changed over the years as Authorities/Counties have changed)
To order a certificate from the GRO (General Register Office) you will need the Registration District Number and the number of the certificate, the quarter of the year in which the event occurred as well as the name(s) of the person(s).
Below is a link to FREEBMD. Take a look and play around see if you can find your parents or grandparents. note the information given
If you dont know the area of birth then just type in the name and approximate dates and see what happens
Tomorrow - ordering Certificates

https://www.freebmd.org.uk/

FreeBMD is an ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records. It is a part of the Free UK Genealogy family, which also includes FreeCEN (Census data)...

04/04/2020

Day 4 Tip 3b
Death certificates
Death certificates have the same layout as Bith andMarriage certificates but they are black in colour
Along the top they have the year, the registration district, and county
There are 9 Columns
it starts with the number of the certificate then
Col 1. date
Col 2. Name of the deceased
Col 3. S*x
Col 4. Age
Col 5. Occupation (or parent in the case of a child)
Col 6. Cause of death
Col 7. Name and address of informant
Col 8. Date registered
Col 9 Signature of registrar

Again the important information here (in the case of a child) is Column 5, Column 7 is important because in most cases the death is usually registered by a relative.

Should you find that you need to apply for a certificate there are several ways to do it but you need to know a little about civil registration and how it works, and what information you need before you apply. The cost of a certificate is also an important factor as this cany vary according to which organisation you go through to obtain your certificate.
More on that tomorrow

04/04/2020

Day4 Tip 3b. Marriage Certificates. Similar in style to a full birth certificate, they consist of 8 columns and unlike the birth certificate which is red, a marriage certificate is green They give the year, the Registration District and County along the top, the first section gives the number of the certificate Col 1 Date. Col 2 Names of persons being married Col 3 Age. Col 4 Condition - bachelor, spinster, or widow, widower. Col 5 Rank or profession (occupation). Col 6 Address at time of marriage. Col 7 Name of Father. Col 8 Rank or profession of Father (occupation). Under the columns you have Place of marriage, signature of those being married, signature of witnesses, and signature of the Officiating minister (Clergy or Registrar). Again can you see the importance of the information given in columns 3 and 6, and 7 and 8

03/04/2020

Day 3 Tip 3a
Now that you have as much information as you are likely to get from your living relatives its time to take a look at your information and see what if anything is missing.
Do you have all the Births Marriages and Death Certificates (BMD) ?
If you look at the certificates seperately you will see that they each give important information.
Birth Certificates
There are two types of Birth Certificates a Full Certificate and a Short Certificate, If you only have a short certificate amongst your collection its best to apply for a full certificate as there is much more information to be had from the full one.
for instance the full certificate is made up of 10 columns
Along the top it states the year of registration, the birth sub district, and the county.
Then you have the columns
1. No of the certificate
2. Date of Birth
3. Christian name
4. S*x (male of female)
5. Name of Father
6. Name of mother giving any previous names
7. Occupation of father and address
8. Name and address of person registering the birth
9. date when registered
10. Name of Registrar

Can you see the important information here? - its in column 6 The mothers maiden name or previous name if she had been married before.

Next.......Marriage Certificates

02/04/2020

Day 2 Tip 2. This is a nice way of gathering information to back up what you have found out in tip 1. Look for documentation that you as a family may have this includes birth, marriage and death certificates, baptism and burial records including funeral and cemetery records and photographs for each of the family members in your 'tree'. Part of this exercise is to contact by phone email or letter any member of the family you think may be able to help gather all the information together and cross check to make sure it is correct you need to do this before you start the search back to the next generation. Getting information wrong at this early stage could make all the difference later on. Make individual files for each family member add photos certificates and documents for each person to the file. If you are doing it online and don't have a scanner photos and document can be photographed on your phone and uploaded to your file. That should keep you bust till the next tip.

01/04/2020

Day 1 tip #1. It's been said before on many sites but it's true. Start with yourself, on a piece of paper (or if you want to do it straight to computer open up a file) write down everything you know about yourself birth date, birth place, parents names and the dates and place of birth, then add any siblings you might have with there information. The next stage may be harder for some and that's writing down the names of each set of grandparents, with maiden names if known, using the same criteria dates of birth place of birth and any aunts and uncles on each side that you know of. Then take a look at what you have written you have the makings of a tree!. #2 Same time tomorrow