Search online for further records at BMDRegisters with Mike Ratcliff

Commercial websites offer genealogists the chance to search and view a range of invaluable resources that were unavailable online even a few years ago. However, once the initial spadework has been completed we often find gaps in our trees or want to push back further.

One website which is well worth a close look is TheGenealogist.co.uk, which, as well as the census returns and BMD records, carries a vast range of additional records. The ones that I am taking a close look at are the baptisms, birth, marriage, death and burial records for British citizens overseas and the registers of various Nonconformist organisations. These fully indexed records are available online at TheGenealogist or at BMDRegisters.co.uk.

Overseas Records

Britain's empire and its role as a trading nation meant that many of its citizens spent time away from its shores, which is why the overseas BMD records can be such a boon to researchers.

Click the 'Overseas BMDs' option on TheGenealogist and you have many choices from a long list that includes Army, Consular, Regimental and High Commission records as well as Marine Births and Marriages Abroad. In each case all the results that match your search are displayed in tabular form with additional information to help you identify your ancestor. From there a link takes you to an image of the original document which you may download as a PDF file to add to your collection.

If your initial search on surname, forename and choice of record (including the handy 'All Sections' option, which allows you to search all the records in 'Overseas BMDs' simultaneously) returns too many matches, it's time to click on Advanced Search. This helps you home in on the missing ancestor by adding the year of interest and the person's ship or regiment. Variants of forenames, such as Bert for Albert, and different spellings of surnames are also catered for by the adjacent tick boxes.

Nonconformist Records

TheGenealogist is also where you may access a treasure trove of Nonconformist and Non-parochial records that go back to the mid-1600s. The Nonconformists represent a large group of Christians who were independent of the Church of England, which means their events cannot be found using conventional parish records. After 1837 they were recorded in civil registration records, but the Nonconformist archive provides an invaluable window on their life events in earlier centuries.

The Nonconformist collection comprises transcriptions of documents, accessed via a fully searchable index, and linked to images of the original entries. Those familiar with The National Archives (TNA) references will recognise the catalogue references. For example, RG6 contains the Society of Friends' (Quakers) registers, notes and certificates of births, marriages and burials ranging from 1578 to 1841. If your interests include births from the Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist Registry and from the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry then RG5 is the reference for you, a resource that covers the years 1742 to 1840.

A search of the Nonconformist records produces a table of all the matching results listed in chronological order. Apart from the year, every entry lists the type of event, location and the reference for the record set that the information comes from. A quick reference to the data in any entry is provided by the transcription linked via 'Full Details', which includes a small tree diagram summarising the relationships. Anyone wanting to check the original information can use the 'page image' option to see the source document itsels, and there is the option to save the file or print a copy.

In the Nonconformist records you can find some famous people, which can act as a useful example for searching the site! In the BMDRegisters category, enter the name Florence Nightingale and set the event type to 'All' and the search bring up two entries for a birth in 1820. Both of these refer to the person later known as The Lady With The Lamp, but they come from different archives with images of the original documents available for each. Entries from different source data can provide a valuable cross-check.

Select the Overseas BMDs, and the window that opens provides a long list of records to search from around the world. A specific section, such as Army Marriage, will help to home in on the required person.

Alternatively, you can cast your net wider by taking the 'All Sections' option to create a list of likely candidates.

As with the Nonconformist records, the search results for the Overseas BMDs database are presented in a table. The Overseas BMD records have additional fields (military service, surname, first name, ship or unit, spouse surname, station, place, age/date of birth, year of event, file reference, volume), and note that you may select any of the column headers to sort your results, for instance in chronological order, or by place name or military service, etc. Each search result is linked to a page of the original register document.

How to use TheGenealogist

Search Tips: - With the keyword search you can trawl a chosen census, parish records or post-1984 birth, marriage and death indexes. - You can also locate a specific address within a census without having to know the names of the people living there and then view an image of a page. - The family forename search, meanwhile, enables you to enter just the forenames of family members - with birth years, if known - to search across an entire census for a specific county. Payment Plans: - The Personal Premium option has a choice of six or 12 month subscriptions, that offer unlimited access to the records, particularly suited to family historians making many searches. Personal Premium costs £6.58 a month, based on an annual subscription. - Personal Plus is better suited to lighter users, who can opt for an annual or quarterly subscription that provides a fixed number of credits, though some databases cost more than one credit per view. Personal Plus cosys £4.66 a month, based on an annual subscription cost.

Log your research

A new feature at TheGenealogist is the research log where you can choose to store the results of any of your searches from censuses, births, marriages and deaths 1984 onwards, and, in the near future, parish register transcriptions. Apart from storing a summary of the information contained in the source and its document reference, the website provides a space for each entry to add your own notes and comments. With censuses you also have the ability to log any individuals within a family or save the entire family with a single click of a button. These features are duplicated to save the information directly to the site's TreeView pages where you can build your entire family tree online.

Search TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist provides online access to many other records than the Nonconformist and Overseas BMDs, and at the top of TheGenealogist's search page there are four tools that enable you to search quickly across the many other sets of records - including census returns, parish register transcripts, and General Register Office births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales. If your search fails to find the required person, or returns too many results, it's time to scroll down to the individual databases and their extended search facilities.