* How to correctly record date and place from BMD Index entries

[mrznjo]

Hi,
I have some questions regarding the best way to record dates and place information specifically derived from BMD Indexes. For example, say I have the following entry from a BMD index that I want to include as birth information of an individual:

Bingham, 1899 Q1, vol. X, p Y.

I am currently putting 'Q1 1899' in the 'born' field in the property box for this person. However, it is conceivable (although unlikely) that the birth actually happened in Dec 1898, since the 'Q1 1899' is when the birth was registered not necessarily when it happened. Is there a way to make this subtle difference more explicit in FH6?

Likewise, I am currently recording the above example birth as occurring in Bingham, Nottinghamshire. However this implies that it happened in the town of Bingham, when actually what the index entry really tells me is that the birth happened in the registration district of Bingham (which includes the town of Bingham, but also additional surrounding areas). Again, is there a way in FH6 to make this more explicitly clear?

I realize that a birth certificate, baptism or census entry etc may help to make the date/place entries more specific, but in the absence of these additional lines of evidence, what are the best ways to record dates and places only derived from BMD indexes? Could new Facts be constructed (perhaps named 'Birth/Marriage/Death registered') for this information to be entered?

Any advice would be most welcome.
Thanks
Neil

[TimTreeby]

For Registration Districts, I record them with a prefix of RD.
So in the case of Bingham, would have place as "RD - Bingham", this then allows me to see at a glance all the entries which I have not got an exact place for, and need further investigation. (Either but certificate or find on Census etc).

Although in most cases can be fairly certain where they me be born, but Marriage and Death may well be less certain.

[tatewise]

Welcome to the FHUG Neil.
BTW: As a newcomer I suggest you study how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers.

The dilemma of how best to record UK BMD Index details is not unique to FH, and the options depend on how rigorous you want to be.

I will start where you end with the idea of BMD Registration Events.
Yes, strictly speaking the UK BMD Index is a record of the Registration Event rather than the Birth Event.
Creating custom facts for those events would allow the Date and Place details to be distinct from the Birth Event details.

It could be argued that the Birth/Death Certificate is also only a record of the Registration Event, as it is only a contemporaneous record of the registrant's statements about the birth, which may be mistaken.

However, both the UK BMD Index &/or the Birth/Death Certificate are used as proof of the Birth Event by citing them as Source documents, and usually only Birth/Death Events are used.

One way to deal with the Quarter Date is to ignore the well known possibility of the event actually happening in the previous month, because most genealogists know that.
Alternatively, use a Date Range in the Event to cover the likely birth/death dates, then in the Citation set the Entry Date to the Quarter Date as a record of when the registration happened.
When the actual Date is discovered in a Certificate, then the Event can be updated, and the Citation can set its Entry Date to the exact Registration Date.

Regarding the Place, this is one case where the distinction between Place and Address is much clearer.
GEDCOM says the Place is "The jurisdictional name of the place where the event took place" i.e. Registration District.
Whereas "The address structure should be formed as it would appear on a mailing label" and I enter the Address as the Where Born/Place of Death address from the Certificate.

BTW: I add "GRO District" in quotes at the end of the Place to signify that. The benefit of the string quotes is that text gets discarded when performing geocode mapping with the Map Life Facts Plugin ( and possibly other geocoders).

Any further details can be recorded in a Note, either in the Event, the Citation, or the Source.

[brianlummis]

My way of recording the Quarter Date, which may or may not be the best way, Is to always record the Quarter Date in the Citation as the Entry Date.

As far as the Birth Date is concerned, if the BMD Index is the only information that I have, I also record the Quarter Date as the Birth Date. If I have other information that gives a more exact date then that would be recorded as the birth date. The advantage to me is that I can easily see if I need to carry out more research as to the date and exact location if a Quarter Date is recorded as the Birth Date.

For the Place I use a similar system as suggested by Mike except I use "Regn District" instead of "GRO District"!

Brian

[dewilkinson]

Similarly I record the citation as source 'England and Wales Birth Index' and where as ' Samford 1856 Q4 vol:4a page:123'.

In the birth field I would enter Q4 1856 unless I had any other information as this is best estimate and doesn't make any assumptions. In the place I would enter 'Samford Registration District, Suffolk, England.' I note MIke's comment about using quotes for the Registration District bit and will experiment with that. Many registration districts do not have an actual place name such as the example I have used, so not sure if there is any geocode mapping advantage of using the quotes in those cases. Time will tell.

[trevorrix]

I would use Q1 1899 in the Birth date field and Bingham registration district in the Birth place field. That's it. Simple, quick, easy to understand and accurate. I see no need to use abbreviations in this world of ultra cheap unlimited digital storage. When we are gone the viewer may not be familiar with family history abbreviations such as RD or reg dist or GRO.

County should not be included alongside the registration district because many registration districts span county boundaries.

[tatewise]

Trevor, I didn't think Registration Districts spanned County borders as they existed at the time of registration, although I agree they may do now after borders have been moved, but that problem afflicts Place names in general not just Reg Districts.

[trevorrix]

Mike, visit http://maps.familysearch.org, search for Sudbury, click Sudbury Civil Registration District. The result is I think self explanatory, spanning the counties of Suffolk and Essex. Note, the title says "England & Wales Jurisdictions 1851".

This fantastic facility provided free by FamilySearch is in my opinion not well known, and is underused because FamilySearch have hinted that they may pull it in the future. Increased usage may postpone that event indefinitely. There is nothing else that compares.

[mjashby]

There were certainly some Registration Districts that straddled County Boundaries. One such was Eccleshall Bierlow, which included localities in both Yorkshire (West Riding) and Derbyshire between 1837 and 1934.

Mervyn

[DavidNewton]

Mike, visit http://maps.familysearch.org, search for Sudbury, click Sudbury Civil Registration District. The result is I think self explanatory, spanning the counties of Suffolk and Essex. Note, the title says "England & Wales Jurisdictions 1851".

This fantastic facility provided free by FamilySearch is in my opinion not well known, and is underused because FamilySearch have hinted that they may pull it in the future. Increased usage may postpone that event indefinitely. There is nothing else that compares.

Thanks for that link is is a very good facility. I have always used Genuki for finding out the parishes in Registration Districts http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/districts/index.html and that is also easy to use. Regarding cross-county registration districts my local district was Worksop which until 1936 included parts of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. The OPs example of Bingham also included a parish in Leicestershire (until 1936).

David

[tatewise]

Sorry, yes, I was mistaken and stand corrected.

[SimPar]

The approach I have taken is to create new custom facts for Birth, Marriage and Death registration. I use these to record the registration details including the registration district, volume and page. I use Q1, Q2 Q3 and Q4 in the date field for those custom facts.

Let's suppose I have no better birth date than a birth registration date of Q2 1957. I use the date phrase c. 1957 in the born field for the individual and use the birth registration as the source citation. The birth registration is then also stored as a separate custom Birth Registration fact dated Q2 1957. If I then discover the actual birth date I replace the C.1957 date with the actual date but leave the birth registration source as additional supporting evidence.

This approach means that if I see a born date such as c.1957 with source as Birth registration I know that I just have a registration date and still need to find the actual birth date.