Searching the FreeBMD site

The FreeBMD website is an extremely useful site for English amd Welsh records, the site does not contain every record but has a vast collection of results from 1837 to around 1915. It is updated regularly and you can see clearly from the home page how the project is progressing.

N.B. Don't be distracted by the button (it is sometimes a search box) at the top of the page since this is an advertisement and not part of this site.

Searching for a marriage is easier using this site than using the Partial BMD Indexes on Ancestry as it is possible to eliminate the possibilities by a search on both surnames for marriages before 1912?.

The visual below shows a straightforward search for a marriage where the surnames of both spouses are already known. When you only know the name of the groom and the forename of the bride, things can get more complicated before you know exactly which certificate to send off for from the GRO:

Complicated search for a marriage

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