Ancestry

[missprim]

What sort of information can I get on Ancestry.co.uk? The things I am hoping to find are;

Date and place of birth
Date and place of baptism
Date and place of marriage
Who that person married
Names of children from that marriage and their dates of birth
Date and place of death.

Can I get all this information from the Ancestry website and is there anything I haven't mentioned that I can find on there?
Many thanks for your help.

[dave50]

You can get all that on Ancestry also occupations from what I can remember but of course you have to pay. I have done our family tree and found it invaluable.

[craft1948]

You won't get actual dates of births, deaths, and marriages, you will get the year, and quarter in which they were registered, unless you can find the marriage banns, which are available in quite a few cases. The BMD records are available from 1837 to 2005.
You will have to search separately for children of the marriage, so for instance if Smith married Jones in 1936 I would search in births for children named Smith, with a mother's maiden name of Jones, born in 1936 plus or minus 10 years, in the location you think they lived.
If you want to check families prior to 1911 you would use the censuses available on ancestry which date from 1841 every 10 years up to 1911.

[Kiki-frog]

I was going to say that, craft!

[craft1948]

Sorry kiki next time I'll let you go first...............saves on the RSI :-)

[missprim]

Hi craft you may recall I was going to my local community centre today as I was told you can use Ancestry free of charge.
That turned out to be untrue and the only site they have is Geneologist and I was not able to find anything at all,
It seems I can go to my local library 1 day a week and use Ancestry there but I'm now considering paying to use it at home.
I suppose I could just sign up for the 14day free trial to see how I get on with it but I was hoping I would be able to find actual dates on there for BMD's
Is the only way to get this information, to send off for the certificates?

[Old_Geezer]

Pretty much. But once you have the details from Ancestry (or elsewhere) then ordering over the Net is simple and cheaper. Only thing is, you need to value the data rather than the certificate itself, because it amuses them to fold the certificate to fit into the envelope these days: and have done so every since the Royal Mail made its insane change to its pricing system.

[missprim]

Still confused with this because I thought you needed the date of birth so you can send off for the certificate.

[Old_Geezer]

You need to know some things such as the date the birth was registered and the name and stuff. Check here for more info. www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/

[craft1948]

You do for recent BMD's missprim but not for ones from years ago. All you need for them is the place of registration, the year, the quarter, the page number and volume number, all of which are shown on ancestry.

[missprim]

Today my aim was to find the birth date of my Great Uncle.
I looked on BMD for Fred/Frederick Sellars/ers/ors in the district of Chorlton and this is what I found.
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl
How do I know which one of these is the one I'm looking for?
All help appreciated.

[Old_Geezer]

You have to piece together information you have from different sources (B, M, & D for the same person, for example) and then make a calculated/informed guess. The census is useful for this sort of thing. Keep going until you are convinced you know which one, then take a chance and get the certificate. See if the witnesses and stuff on the certificate seem to help confirm; or not.

[missprim]

Sorry that link didn't go to the page I found.

[craft1948]

Do you know roughly when he was born, and where. and his parents' names?

[missprim]

He was born in Manchester, Lancashire.
His parents were called Frederick and Elizbeth Sellars/ers/ors.
I have found different years for his birth but somewhere between 1871 and 1875.
On the 1901 census he was living with his wife Emily and her Father was head of the household, and Fred was either 27 or 29yrs old I think.
Thanks for your help craft.

[craft1948]

This will be him in 1881 living at 189 Morton Street, Chorlton

Fredk. Sellors 27
Eliza Sellors 24
Fred Sellors 7
William A. Sellors 5
James Sellors 1

[missprim]

Yes craft that will be him.
When I looked on the Latter Day Saints website they have him down as being christened on 4th June 1873 which would have been a year before he was born.
Is it possible that he was listed as being 7 when he could have been 8yrs old on the 1881 census?

[craft1948]

It's quite possible but if the following is correct it was a close thing as I think his parents Frederick Sellers and Elizabeth Scholes only married in 1873 in Manchester Q2 vol 8d page 239.

[missprim]

Oh I wonder if they lied about his age because she was expecting him when they got married.
Perhaps they used to do that in those days.

[TheOtherHalf]

Ive found that sometimes it does give the date of birth when the death record is shown. That is very helpful, but to send for certificate, you just need the quarter of the year that it was registered in. I would go with Ancestry if you can afford it. There are different levels of membership. Good luck

[missprim]

Thank you.