Genealogy Chat

I have recently come across this website (www.bmdregisters*co*uk) and have been doing some free searching of one of my more unusual surnames.

I found 23 instances of the surname which, apparently, are from non-parochial registers and not published elsewhere. However, after doing a bit of cross-checking with the IGI submitted entries I found that about a quarter of them are recorded on the IGI (so it would be a waste of money to buy credits to view them on this site!).

My main query is that a good proportion of the results seem to be "duplicated", ie. consecutive entries as follows:

Wastie, Henry - 1823 - Birth - Surrey - RG5
Wastie, Henry - 1823 - Birth - London - RG4
Wastie, Henry - 1823 - Baptism - London - RG4

(The RG numbers are in the "Recordset" column.)

The surname is sufficiently unusual that it's highly unlikely that there are three separate Henry's!

Can anyone give me a little more information about this site - and whether it's worth buying credits (it would seem to cost £2.50 to view each entry) before I go any further.

Any advice/comments would be really appreciated.

Many thanks.

Penny

PS Going out shortly, but will check back later this afternoon.

Nudged in the hope of finding an answer!

HI Penny

Hadnt seen the web address before, but having had a look I see it is part of S & N Geneology who are quite a well known and long standing company.
Its not really clear what info is available in the sources theyve used but I dont think they would rip you off.

Sorry I cant help anymore

Just read a bit more. RG4 and RG5 are two separate registers. So the entries for Henry are probably the same person just recorded in two different documents.

It's a good site for non-conformist BMDs, just a bit expensive.

As you say, a lot of the births are already on the IGI, so it's not normally going to be worth buying those certs.

However, it also has some records from Dr. Williams' library, which are very good. I got the birth cert. of my GGgrandfather, which gave me three generations of names - his, his parents, and his mother's father (this is quite common on non-conformist certs).

If you find something you're interested in, I recommend getting the image - don't bother with the transcription (because it costs twice as much if you get both, and there's often more information on the image).

I'm afraid I don't know the reason for your duplicate entries..

By the way, you don't need to replace dots with asterisks in website addresses any more - Genes has finally fixed that.

Hi Jacqui and Mary ...

Many thanks for your answers - I think I'll try buying the least number of credits possible and try out one or two names (the possibility of getting another couple of generations seems too tempting to ignore!).

Apologies for the format of the web address - I don't post that often and "old habits die hard"!

In case it's of any interest, I'll add another post to this thread when I've downloaded the images, in case anyone is also thinking of using this website.

Penny

Well, I have at last got around to buying £5-worth of credits (good for two lookups!).

However, I have to say that I'm somewhat disappointed.

On the first page image that I downloaded the surname had been mistranscribed (no real excuse - it was perfectly clear in the original), so that was no use to me.

The second page image downloaded was "one of mine", but the righthand page of the double-page spread was not included in the image, and this was the page which obviously included information about where the event took place!

I have written to BMD Registers along the above lines ... and wait to hear their comments.

Watch this space!

Penny

Looking at the IGI. Peter and Lucinda Wastie look to have had three sons all called Henry Wastie.

1. Birth:19 MAR 1821
Christening: 22 APR 1821 Eynsham, Oxford, England

2.Birth: 11 JAN 1823
Christening: 16 JAN 1823 Eynsham, Oxford, England

3.
Birth:08 NOV 1828
Christening: 11 NOV 1828 Eynsham, Oxford, England

I assume two died... I will have to check.

Forgot to say, they're all extracted entries.

No listing for deaths but they have one marriage for a Henry Wastie (no saying which one it is, I suppose the census might help with that, judging by the date one could presumably rule out the last Henry (1828).
Marriages:
Spouse: SARAH PARKINS
Marriage: 30 OCT 1843 Stotfold, Bedford, England

Her father is listed as Thomas Ellis

Hi ...

Many thanks for your reply. I'm very familiar with the WASTIEs of Oxfordshire, and know that the Henry I mentioned in my first posting does not "belong" to Peter and Lucinda.

Since my original message, I've checked through the 1841 census and confirmed Henry's parentage - Henry and Sarah WASTIE (helpfully mistranscribed as WASHER!),

Penny

UPDATE TO ORIGINAL POSTING:

I rechecked all the entries a week or so later against the IGI (am a bit mean and didn't want to spend my £2.50s unnecessarily!) - and this time found that about two-thirds of them were listed.

So .. two comments:

(1) So much for BMD Registers' comment that they have entries not found elsewhere, and

(2) Why didn't I find the bulk of the entries on IGI the first time I looked?

Any ideas?

Penny

The IGI appear to rotate their records. Have you tried using Hugh Wallis site to access them? I seem to remember somebody on here saying that they are not rotated.