IIGS™ Newsletter - December 1998
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IIGS™ Newsletter - December 1998
An exciting new project of importance to anyone researching the England and Wales is in the works. The FreeBMD project is the brainchild of IIGS™ members Camilla von Massenbach, Graham Hart and Ben Laurie.
With the blessings of the government's Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Rootsweb, von Massenbach, Hart and Laurie have embarked on an ambitious project to make birth, marriage and death indexes from civil records in England and Wales available online.
Civil registration in the United Kingdom began in 1837. The FreeBMD project will be allowed to publish online indexes from those records which are more than 100 years old. That means that 60 years worth of valuable data will be availabe for access from home computers.
"There will be millions, maybe billions of entries," predicted von Massenbach. "We are harnessing volunteer power and have almost finished designing and implementing the input format and database."
According to the FreeBMD FAQ, this project will provide researchers with a valuable tool for searching indexes which currently are awkward to search.
"Usually available on microfilm or microfiche, the Civil Registration indexes can be illegible due to the varying quality of microreproduction. There is not currently any centrally available method for rapidly searching the indexes. They were originally created alphabetically by quarters and have not been consolidated into a master index. Older marriage records have not been cross-indexed, making them extremely tedious to use.
"The creation of a freely accessible Internet-based database of the Civil Registration index information coupled with a free search engine facility will greatly enhance a researcher's ability to quickly and easily locate all the index entries of potential relevance. It will also permit the double-checking and eventual correction of the indexes."
From the information researchers find through the online index, they can then order copies of the original document.
Rootsweb is supplying the machine and the bandwidth power for the project. Project organizers are busy making sure everything will work the way it's envisioned.
"One thing we've put quite a lot of effort into is making sure that we can change the database without having to reenter any data," explained Laurie.
Volunteers, who will transcribe the material, can access fiche and microfilm of records through their local Latter Day Saints Family History Center. Other indexes are available at libraries and research centers.
As the project progresses from formulation and testing, more volunteers will be needed. Organizers have also set up two mailing lists to keep volunteers informed and to provide support where needed.
For more information about this project or to volunteer your services, visit
http://test.rootsweb.com/FreeBMD/