Australian BMD indexes- ancestry - Genealogists' Forum

kiterunner · #1 14-07-10, 07:41

I know what I'm going to spend this morning doing...!

kiterunner · #2 14-07-10, 10:06

One thing I've found is that there are exact dates of birth for some Queensland entries, where the state's own site only gives the year.

#3 14-07-10, 10:29

oooh good news especially for our Australian friends.

I really want to look at them but I'm not sure if I should upgrade so I'll probably buy some credits for Worldwide just to check a couple of search results out.

Mary from Italy · #4 14-07-10, 11:18

Thanks for that, Kite - some of the State Archives sites had really clunky search interfaces, so this will definitely make searching easier.

I do have a couple of criticisms, though:

- it would have been better if they'd added a dropdown box where you can specify which State you want to search: at present you have to type it in

- they should specify which years are available for each State; the dates appear to be the same as on the State Archives sites, e.g. NSW births only go up to 1909, whereas the database title says 1788-1922, which is misleading.

Good news that there are some South Australian records on there, though, which aren't available elsewhere as far as I know.

I'll send this feedback to Ancestry.

Kit · #5 14-07-10, 11:40

I hadn't checked the QLD ones, I like that there are real dates. After looking at NSW births and finding them the same I haven't looked further.

Mary from Italy · #6 14-07-10, 12:27

No, I've checked a few as well, and there don't appear to be any differences from the NSW BMD site.

It looks as though Ancestry are making good progress with the 1891 and 1901 censuses, which should be interesting (although they only include householders' names).

http://community.ancestry.co.uk/wap/download.aspx

Mary from Italy · #7 14-07-10, 12:39

I have found one difference from the State Archives, although it's not immediately obvious: WA deaths on the State Archives website go up to 1965, but Ancestry has some more recent ones (I found an auntie who died in 1974). No date is given in the date of death column, but you can work out the year, because the reference number (which you can see by clicking on "View Record") will be something like xx/74 for 1974.