Beginner's questions

I've managed to find the marriage of my grandparents in London, Lambeth
1907 in the free BMD index, and have ordered the certificate. However,
I've been unable to find the same record in an Ancestry.co.uk general
search. Does this mean the latter is less reliable?
I'm also wondering if my grandfather served in World War 1. Is there a
source for this type of information?
Thanks for any advice

Charani...

Ancestry's BMD index is taken from FreeBMD but is about 3 months
behind the latter, which is probably why you couldn't find the same
information in Ancestry as you did in FreeBMD.

Ancestry does have all the GRO indices images for free. FreeBMD also

Robert G. Eldridge...

That is except for the ones they missed in their scanning or uploading
process, as I had found earlier when I sought assistance in this Group
for a couple of missing images.

Hugh Watkins...

they are beta testing

Robert G. Eldridge...

So they say but beta testing what - whether or not images are missing,
whether the search engine works, errors in the index etc. It couldn't
possibly be beta testing their mark-up as they have never worried
about having only valid HTML.

I wonder if they have an auto report system which shows up statistics
failed searches "missing image"
so we don't need to reprot stuff

Robert G. Eldridge...

Why do I doubt it.

Anyway when enjoying beta software for free
I think it is a duty to try and be helpful by politely reporting errors

Robert G. Eldridge...

It's a pity they don't provide any means of doing so when using the
Library Edition.

I found some freeebmd errors
but couldn't find the link again
so they never got reported corrected

Robert G. Eldridge...

You might try looking at the top of the results of any search where it

"If you are SURE that our transcription(s) below differs from the GRO
index, you can submit a correction request by clicking on the Info
button to the right of the entry in question."

With ancestry I just use any handy image error report form and paste in
the url too

Robert G. Eldridge...

As I said they don't provide any error reporting mechinism for Library
Edition users.

I simply had noted that GRO page no 319 of the Dec quarter marriages
1937 covering Elcox to Ellenberg and GRO page no 427 for Sep quarter
marriages 1938 covering Elgen to Eley are not shown where they should
be in Ancestry. It did make me wonder at how many images were missing
when I found two in two years of marriages just for my surname.

Fenny...

I was trying to show a friend the Ancestry beta BMD images last week. We
tried to look up half a dozen members of her immediate family and none of
the results were the correct page. I would have shown her using my
genealogist.co.uk sub, but we weren't at my house and it only works on a
single computer.

It's the same when I find Census transcription errors. There is no
mechanism for reporting errors for Ancestry Library Edition users,
thereby giving users the impression they are not interested in having
errors corrected.

john...

The reason is possibly the correction system could be abused and false
reports made with the Library Edition. Ancestry would have not easy way
of finding who abused the system - would you be happy if the Library
Edition was cancelled for an establishment because of the actions of one
malicious individual? With the personal version they have more control
and could suspend the account owner.

Apart from odd missing pages, there are whole quarters in the beta
system where either all odd or all even pages are missing.

C Rihan...

I can't remember which one it was now, but there was one quarter
which wouldn't produce any results for any name I tried.

Eventually I tried every letter in the alphabet, but there were
only results for one or two, 'B' was one whick worked.

Perhaps that was the quarter they were working on at the time.

Best wishes
C.Rihan

Hugh W

main blog
picture
http://slim2005.blogspot.com

Charani...

I guess I should have added E+OE to my post :))

Not using Ancestry, it isn't a problem for me. I have found that the
indexing on familyrelatives is a bit wobby at times too. An entry was
missing from there that was on FreeBMD, the latter being right because
I could locate the entry on 1837online.

has many of the images.

expensive. Familyrelatives also has the period 1866 to 1920 fully
indexed.

To see if your grandfather served in WWI, you'll need to have a look
at The National Archives (TNA) site:

Brenda Orsler...

The freeBMD transcriptions could be subject to errors in the actual
typing of the indexes' (I am a transcriber) and although they are double
checked sometimes both the transcribers doing one piece make the same
error or the indexes themselves can be virtually impossible to read.
Ancestry would have the correct images and there would be the correct
information on them, however once again the transcribers that have put
them in order for searching are not as careful as Free BMD
Your marriage record will be with Ancestry although not necessary in the
right place!!
Brenda