Odds and Ends

OGS Seminar
Big announcements are expected this weekend in Ottawa from Library and Archives Canada, and Ancestry.ca.

When not giving my two presentations I expect to spend considerable time in the BIFHSGO computer room. See the line up of free trial site here and stop by to try one or more. I'll also be in the marketplace which looks like it will be a busy place. Please introduce yourself and let me know your opinion of the blog.

Ancestry.co.uk
After several days with nothing but state level US records being added Ancestry have announced an upgrade to their version of the 1861 census of England and Wales. If you're had trouble finding someone the update may make it worth trying again.

Free BMD
It's getting to the point that you're rather unlucky if you're not able to find an indexed GRO registered birth in England and Wales from mid-1837 to 1912, and to 1915 for marriages and deaths. The FreeBMD Database was updated on Saturday 26 May 2007 and currently contains 134,484,978 distinct records.

If you can't find the person you seek maybe the record is missing from the GRO index. The problems with it have been well documented. In such cases it's worth seeing if there's a local index, check under the county at the UK BMD web site.