Welcome to the ENGLISH PROJECT

It is hoped that this will be the place to come if you are looking for help researching family in England. (There are seperate projects for Welsh,Irish and Scottish ancestry) There will be links and tips and hints and it may develop into a Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness area, if people are kind enough.

Please feel free to contribute sites that you feel would be helpful to others.

Sites:

Free BMD

[]http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

This gives access to the registers of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, which were begun in 1837 although at the start not everyone reported their births, marriages and deaths. Until recently when these were transcribed by volunteers these were only available in London where you would go to view the massive volumes filled with Victorian handwriting. Once you have gathered the information from this site (or the old volumes) you have what you need to order a birth, marriage or death certificate either from the General Register Office or from the appropriate local one, if they agree.

Example:

Input

Surname Smith Forename Barton County Lancashire

RESULT:

Surname First name(s) District Vol Page

------------------------------------------------

Marriages Mar 1840 (>99%)

CHADWICK Ann Chorley 21 198

HALL Joseph Chorley 21 198

HALL Richard Chorley 21 198

PRESTON Thomas Chorley 21 198

RATCLIFFE Jane Chorley 21 198

ROSCOE Margaret Chorley 21 198

ROSE Elizabeth Chorley 21 198

SMITH Barton Chorley 21 198

If you happen to know the name of the partner when looking up a marriage you may find them listed here as well. In this case Elizabeth Rose was the wife of Barton Smith so I would be more certain that this is the record I want to obtain.

If you think you know approximately where your ancestor was from but you don't recognise the place name given you may wish to know more about the place named (in this case Chorley). To do this click on Chorley and then the link to find out more 'here'.

This takes you to another excellent UK site:

Genuki

[]http://www.genuki.org.uk/index.html

A site giving useful information about genealogy or Familly history research in the United Kingdom as well as local information for those unfamiliar with the UK.

General Register Office

[]https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp

This is where you can order your certificate Online using the information gathered from Free BMD.

i.e. Surname First name(s) District Vol Page

               SMITH          Barton               Chorley  21 198 

If you are looking for a certificate for someone with a common name like Smith you may need to apply for more than one certificate and ask that they check the certificate for known facts. Using the above example. Had there been more than one Barton Smith I could apply for them all but ask that they check for wife Elizabeth Rose. (or another fact I was sure of like father's name or occupation or an address.) This means that should one of the certificates match correctly you only get charged the full price for that one.