Use FreeBMD postems to find new relatives

FreeBMD is an ongoing project to transcribe civil registration indexes of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to those transcribed indexes. FreeBMD is an immensely useful site, and I like it even more since it produced the unexpected bonus of contact with new relatives via 'postems'.

An excellent feature of FreeBMD (but one that is overlooked by many genealogists) is the ability to add a short message (250 characters maximum) called a postem to any entry in the FreeBMD database.

The postem can tell people how to contact you - or (in keeping with our 'collaboration' theme) if you buy a certificate that turns out to be for the wrong person, you can help other researchers by putting details from the certificate in a postem.

Here is a step-by-step example of how I used a postem.

I searched FreeBMD for the birth registration of Bertha OAKLEY, who (according to census records) was apparently born in 1895 in County Durham. This is the search screen.

The search result looked like this.

I clicked the 'Info' icon and added a postem with my contact details.

When someone adds a postem, an envelope icon appears beside the entry, as shown below. You click the icon to read the postem.

To my delight, a distant relative contacted me as a result of my postem! She had information about Bertha OAKLEY's grandfather, Benjamin PEACOCK, who was a brother of my great-grandmother, Mary HUDSON nee PEACOCK.

This was just one of several similar successes that I've had with FreeBMD. I now always add a postem for each index entry that is (or could be) for my family.

I also use the 'search postems' feature to quickly check whether anyone else has added one that may be relevant to me. Here is an example of a search...

...and the search result, showing two postems that fit the criteria.

If you have used FreeBMD to find births, marriages and deaths for your family, I urge you to:

1. Go back and add postems to all of those entries.
2. Include an email address that will be valid long-term, such as a free Gmail address from Google.
3. Check the text carefully before you click 'create', because postems cannot be changed or deleted.
4. Before you start, read the Postems Help page.

Have you benefited from using postems on FreeBMD, or used them in different ways?
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• Widen the Search: a Genealogy Success Story


• Finding Genealogy Data in an Unexpected Country


• Genealogy 2014 - 2015: Successes and Goals


• A Genealogy Indexing Addict in Australia

Killing Them Off - It can help knock down those brick walls

What Death Records have you used?

One thing that many genealogists do not pursue, as much as they should, is death records.

Even though as beginners we are advised to kill off the individuals in our trees. 
However, unless the death records available, provide clues to aid the addition of further generations, many of us think it is something that can be left till last.

But is this really such a good idea, and are these records as lacking in information as we believe.

So what records are available that can help us to determine that our family member has died.

In England and Wales here are some of the records I  have used

• Death Certificates - these were required from 1837. However they are not always available for the early years.
• Burial Records for church or cemetery.
• Newspapers - obituaries, death notices and inquest reports.
• Headstones - although many are illegible.

As I discovered only this week, the amount of information found in any of these records can vary widely.

Death Certificates or Registers

Certificates in England and Wales contain only a limited amount of information, although you can sometimes discover a daughter's married surname if she registered the death. Here is a useful guide to what can be found on these certificates  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By3twQPayu2VMUJjMWtRRTVnMDQ/edit?usp=sharing

In Scotland it is very different. The Scotland's People website allows access to images of the registers (for a fee), the details as to what information can be found on these, is explained on this page  http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?r=554&628 .
This extra information can be a great help. 
So if you have family who died in Scotland it may be worth your while checking out those death records.

Burial Records or Registers

Burial records may be your first port of call for earlier years, but I would always recommend finding the original record where possible as sometimes additional information is recorded. Even for more recent burials the registers can confirm where the individual was buried and where any memorial may be found. 
Today many individuals are cremated. Although this was less common in the past, a lack of a burial record, cannot be considered to indicate that an individual is or was still alive and searching for a cremation may need to be considered.
If someone was cremated it may be more difficult to find the records but books of remembrance and memorials can be found.

Newspapers

For sudden deaths then newspapers can reveal much about the family as an inquest will look into the circumstances of the death. 

Death notices may contain little more than a death date, but others can be more like an obituary, with details of family members. 
They may give clues to other places to find records or mention the company involved in the burial.

Headstones and Memorials

Headstones can be very susceptible to the ravages of time and weather conditions. Some older memorials can still be read today whilst other newer ones can be illegible. The materials used and the position in the burial ground are all factors affecting the memorial.

Many family history societies will have transcribed headstones in the past and this may be the only way of finding what was written on the memorial.

Find a Grave http://www.findagrave.com/ is worth looking at even for more recent deaths as is Billion Graves http://billiongraves.com/ .

I have not extended my search beyond England and Wales so I would suggest that if you are looking for records in other parts of the world you check out Cyndi's List http://www.cyndislist.com/  to find out what records may be available or where you may be able to start looking.

Finding out when and how someone died can bring so much to your story and without a record of death how can you be sure that there was not some other reason why that individual has apparently disappeared. 

This does not mean that we record individuals as living well past the usual life expectancy, but a deceased without a death date is always open to questions. 

Divorce was not readily available for our ancestors and if someone was of the right age, they may have another, yet to be discovered, family.

Widows of any age may have remarried. So that death record you found was it your person or another with the same name. 
This has happened to me and I discovered the person had remarried and was living with her new husband on the next census. She finally died some decades after the original date I had found.

If you have found death records to be useful please share what you have found with others in the community. If you have found any unusual sources or particularly useful records then I am sure others would love to know about them.

As I have mentioned before we all benefit from collaboration none of us know everything so please share your thoughts. 
Whilst you may help others it is also possible that others may help you.

"COME ON LET'S BREAK DOWN SOME BRICK WALLS!"