FFHS-NEWS Fwd: Findmypast.co.uk launches fully indexed birth records
News from the Federation of Family History Societies
ffhs-news at ffhs-lists.org.uk
Sun Jul 18 16:41:39 CEST 2010
>From David Smetham
Communications Officer FFHS
____________________________________
From: amy.sell at findmypast.co.uk
Sent: 16/07/2010 14:06:06 GMT Daylight Time
Subj: Findmypast.co.uk launches fully indexed birth records
For immediate release
FINDMYPAST.CO.UK MAKES BIRTH RECORDS EVEN EASIER TO SEARCH
o 100 million fully indexed birth records from 1837 – 2006
o Ronaldo Maradona and Fish Fish Fish are names found within the records
Leading UK family history website, _findmypast.co.uk_
(http://www.findmypast.co.uk/home.jsp?utm_source=BloggerRelease&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Homepag
e&utm_content=160710&utm_campaign=BirthsRelease) has today launched an
easier way to find the births of English and Welsh ancestors online. The
company has reindexed over 100 million birth records, as a first instalment of
a completely new version of the England and Wales Birth, Marriage and Death
(BMD) records on its website. Fully indexing these records involved
rescanning 170 years of records and transcribing the quarter of a billion names
within them. Over 1,000 people have worked on this exciting two-year
project.
The _fully indexed births_
(http://www.findmypast.co.uk/birth-indexes-search-start.action?redef=0&utm_source=BloggerRelease&utm_medium=email&utm_term=
Births&utm_content=160710&utm_campaign=BirthsRelease) make finding
ancestors much simpler as the revamped records will provide you with a number of
new benefits;
* Your search results will be in the form of a list of individual
names, so you won't have to check through pages of records to find your
ancestors
* You can search the complete 1837-2006 set of birth records in one
go or by one or more counties at a time
* The images of the index pages are completely new and very high
quality
* We've added smart search features including name variants
* There are clever search results to get around the quirks of the
records, including the GRO's procedure of initialising second names, and
records of children unnamed at registration (very common in the Victorian
period)
* You can now search by mother's and father's name at the same time
to help find those elusive births
With this new resource now available, _findmypast.co.uk_
(http://www.findmypast.co.uk/home.jsp?utm_source=BloggerRelease&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Home
page&utm_content=160710&utm_campaign=BirthsRelease) has uncovered some
interesting facts about the births that were registered between 1837 and
2006.
· 10 babies named Fish Fish born between 1840 and 1883,
bizarrely, all in Lancashire. The list includes one Fish Fish Fish born in Blackburn
in 1864.
· Just five Ringos were registered in 1964 and 1965, compared
with 2,414 Georges, 36,877 Johns and 56,170 Pauls.
· Six Dick Turpins were registered between 1854 and 1916 – a
highwayman from the 1700s.
· Four Maradonas were registered in 1986, the year of the
infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal. Eight more were registered between 1999 and 2006,
including two Diego Maradonas and two Ronaldo Maradonas.
· Eight Peles were registered between 1970 and 1972, following
the footballer’s 1000th goal in 1969.
· Eight babies have been given the forename Hercules, with a
further 51 bearing it as a middle name.
Debra Chatfield, Marketing Manager at findmypast.co.uk, said, “As the
first company to publish birth, marriage and death records online,
findmypast.co.uk is committed to making family history research more accessible.
Findmypast’s brand new birth indexes now provide an easier route into our
families’ pasts than ever before.
We are currently working on reindexing the marriage and death records and
once complete, findmypast.co.uk will have digitised over a quarter of a
billion records. Thanks to initiatives like this, family history is more
popular than ever and the amount of historical records that are now available to
search and view online will help even more people to start to uncover
their own family tree.”
Findmypast.co.uk was the first company in the world to put the complete
Birth, Marriage and Death indexes (BMDs) for England and Wales online on 1
April 2003. Previously these were only available offline on microfiche or in
registry books, at a selected number of locations. This landmark
achievement was recognised in 2007, when findmypast.co.uk won the Queen’s Award for
Innovation.
For more information log on to _www.findmypast.co.uk_
(http://www.findmypast.co.uk/)
ENDS
Notes to editors
Using the indexed birth records
The fully indexed births make finding your ancestors so much simpler. The
old birth indexes were page-indexed by the first and last name on the page,
rather than indexed by every name on a page, meaning that to find your
ancestors you had to look through pages of records just to check if your
ancestor was on that page.
Now, when you search the fully indexed births, the search results will be
in the form of a list of individual names, with year and place of birth,
making it easy to spot your ancestor. Search results are free but viewing a
transcript or an image of a birth record will cost five credits, unless you
have a subscription to the website. You can also still browse the birth
indexes by year and quarter. Viewing an image of a birth record while browsing
will cost one credit.
Further information on searching findmypast.co.uk’s birth records
This information is contained in a database format and is fully
searchable. Searches may be made under any combination of first name(s), last name,
date range, county (multiple counties can be selected) and mother's maiden
name. You can also search using the mother's maiden name as well as the last
name. The minimum information required is the last name. You can also
search for variants of your ancestors' names to widen the results you receive.
For further information, please contact:
Amy Sell
_amy.sell at findmypast.co.uk_ (mailto:amy.sell at findmypast.co.uk)
About findmypast.co.uk
Leading UK family history website findmypast.co.uk (formerly
1837online.com) was the first company to make the complete birth, marriage and death
indexes for England & Wales available online in April 2003.
Following the transcription, scanning and indexing of over two million
images, the company launched the first website to allow the public easy and
fast access to the complete indexes, which until then had only been available
on microfiche film in specialist archives and libraries. The launch was
instrumental in creating the widespread and growing interest in genealogy
seen in the UK today.
Findmypast.co.uk has subsequently digitised many more family history
records and now offers access to over 750 million records dating as far back as
1538. This allows family historians and novice genealogists to search for
their ancestors among comprehensive collections of military records, census,
migration, occupation directories, and current electoral roll data, as
well as the original comprehensive birth, marriage and death records.
In November 2006 findmypast.co.uk launched the ancestorsonboard.com
microsite in association with The National Archives to publish outbound passenger
lists for long-distance voyages departing all British ports between 1890
and 1960.
As well as providing access to historical records, findmypast.co.uk is
also developing a range of online tools to help people discover and share
their family history more easily, beginning with the launch of Family Tree
Explorer in July 2007.
In April 2007, findmypast.co.uk’s then parent company Title Research Group
received the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2007 in
recognition of their achievement.
Findmypast.co.uk was acquired in December 2007 by brightsolid, the company
who were awarded The National Archives’ contract to publish online the
1911 census, which it launched in January 2009.
______________________________________________________________________
"brightsolid" is used in this email to collectively mean brightsolid
online innovation limited and its subsidiary companies brightsolid online
publishing limited and brightsolid online technology limited.
findmypast.co.uk is a brand of brightsolid online publishing limited.
brightsolid online innovation limited, Gateway House, Luna Place, Dundee
Technology Park, Dundee DD2 1TP. Registered in Scotland No. SC274983.
brightsolid online publishing limited, 185 Fleet Street London EC4A 2HS.
Registered in England No. 04369607.
brightsolid online technology limited, Gateway House, Luna Place, Dundee
Technology Park, Dundee DD2 1TP. Registered in Scotland No. SC161678.
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