Search Features & Benefits for BMD Indexes

New Search feature - Age at Death GRO Deaths includes an "about Birth date"

Familyrelatives.com have introduced a new search aid when searching the GRO (General Register Office) Deaths Indexes from 1866 - 1920 and now includes an "about Birth date" for easier searching and matching.

Many of you asked for enhanced search features at the Family History Show 2008 and we are already working on these. One of them is the "About Birth date" for the GRO death results from 1866 - 1920. The records already provide the Age at Death however it is no longer necessary to try and calculate the approximate Birth date, we have done this for you.

The "Age at Death" column now provides the "about Birth date" - please remember that with the GRO records and Censuses the Age at Death and consequently the Birth date maybe incorrect or inaccurate at the time of entry, we therefore recommend that you search the records and years either side of the dates provided.

Marriage Match^TM for GRO Marriage indexes

The MarriageMatch^TM is a helpful facility for searching, available on Familyrelatives.com. It has always been difficult to find the spouse of a family member unless you have the certificate. However Marriage Match^TM allows you to match all those other persons who were married in the same District, on the same quarter, in the same year.

Traditionally there have only been 2 or 3 Marriage Certificates listed on one page at the General Register Office. Therefore Marriagematch^TM finds all the entries that match the same criteria on the page at the GRO that you have just searched. Thereby giving you a much better opportunity of finding the spouse of the person for whom you are looking. In order to use Marriage Match^TM all you need to do is:
Search for the person for which you have the marriage details once you have located the correct person press the Marriage Match^TM icon found next to the image icon in the search results. This will then allow you to view all those people who match the same criteria.  The Marriage Match^TM is available for 1866 to 1920 and 1984 to 2005 (although the spouses name is already available on the record).

Please note there is small charge for this service. The cost for using the Marriagematch^TM search facility is 1 unit for pay-per-view members.

Please see the search screen of each dataset for available features. 

Using the Wildcard

A wild card search can be used in any of the fields using a minimum of one character plus the wildcard except the Surname field where a minimum of two characters plus the wildcard are required e.g. An%. However this would produce many search results, although for example searching for Anth% (Anthony) would be more productive and accurate. Please note the "wildcard" symbol is % and not *.  

SEARCH TIPS

Use the wildcard in the forename or surname field for variations - the wildcard is % and not *. Enter a minimum of two letters and the wildcard i.e. Br%

Where the text is illegible on an image a ? has been entered in the transcribed record i.e. Bro? we recommend you use the wildcard if you are unable to locate a name.

In the "range search" surnames with an apostrophe like O'brien are listed before Oakden.

Try alternative spelling variations when searching names for instance Elizabeth may be listed as Eliza, Liz, Beth or Betsy.

Try Mac or Mc for Macdonald or McDonald.

Last entry on the indexes may be repeated on the following entry.

"Unknown" surnames for births and deaths may appear after surnames starting with Z.

Missing indexes or late registrations - are usually handwritten and added to the bottom of the indexes and will be out of sequence. If an individual is born in the last quarter of the year try the first quarter of the following year.

Names with hyphens may not be in page order and appear higher up a listing as only the name before the hyphen is indexed alphabetically for instance De-Ruig will be found with names beginning with De and not Der.

Getting Started - Hard to find, missing and omitted records

"You are here"
On each search page there is a "You are here" below the menu bar these are known as bread crumbs and let you know where on the website you are. For instance if you have are searching and viewing records and browsing images you can always return to your Search Results by clicking on Search Results

Bread crumbs look like this;

You are here: Search > Who's Who - Australia 1906 > Search Results

You are here: Search > Search Results > Image Viewer

Browsing images
With browseable records use "Next" page and "Previous" page above the image to view images in sequential order.

Search Features available for BMD Indexes.

GRO is the General Register Office