Genealogy Chat

Give me a mo while I put the kettle on this brisk sunday morning. I can get you library and local history contact deatils and what info they have ,and throw me a few bmd's, if you like.

Morning A.E, My grandmother was Sarah Slater before marriage. She was born c1900, in SE London (Camberwell?). She married into the Briley family. I was always told that she was part of a big family, but I cant find any trace of her before her marriage. Can you help please? TG XXX

her original name- do you have proof or any birth reference or census entry with her on it? If you have a marriage cert with the Briley link-are there any rellies of hers as witnesses,and surely her fathers name is on it...?

Name: Sarah Slater Year of Registration: 1901 Quarter of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep District: Camberwell (1837-1919) County: London, Surrey Volume: 1d Page: 995

If that is her birth entry then it looks as though she was born just too late to be on the 1901 census! But if you get her birth certificate it should give you enough details to find her parents and any older brothers and sisters on that census. Kate.

Kate- this beta thing-will it do marriages after 1911?

Thanks AE, That looks promising. The name is correct - family say so and I remember her very well. I have ordered the marriage cert, so that may help, I shall have to be patient. I may also risk ordering a birth cert for the Sarah you found. TG X

Oops, sorry for butting in on your thread, Alter! It was so interesting I forgot it was your advice thread not somebody's thread asking for help! Slap wrist! Anyway, yes, the indexes on ancestry cover the full period from 1837 to 1984, but they are not called 'beta' any more because they were supposedly on beta test when they were called that. Kate.

I could only find 2 marriages before 1919-the camberwell records stop there.........one to a Mrs last and another to a Mrs Tyler ,around the beginning of the war-they are probably linked to your Briley lot. Kate-still having grief with ancestry-seems very inconsistent - cant get into the records after normal bmd- cant see the link to them.

Alter, I have to get off the computer in a minute, but if you mean FreeBMD database by 'normal BMD', then if you go on the homepage of the uk site ancestry*co*uk there should be a box to the right and under the main search box, which is headed MORE COLLECTIONS, and the second one in that box is called England & Wales, BMD Index. If you click on that you get a page with 'England and Wales BMD Indexes: 1837-1983' at the top. The top half of the page is the quarter-by-quarter images of the GRO indexes, and the bottom half of the page is the FreeBMD database. But just to confuse us, the FreeBMD part also says 'Search the ... index images' just like the top half. Anyway, the top half of that page is what used to be called 'beta'. And presumably if you put this website address in it should take you directly to that page: http://www.ancestry*co*uk/search/rectype/vital/freebmd/bmd.aspx (needless to say, replace * with . but just in case anybody else looks at this) Kate.