The Genealogist

[JohnR65]

Have you noticed that when you get results from searches of the above that their bmds only record the town and county, not the country. This could be a big problem for new researchers especially from overseas who don't know the UK as we do.

 

[peter]

Have you noticed that when you get results from searches of the above that their bmds only record the town and county, not the country. This could be a big problem for new researchers especially from overseas who don't know the UK as we do.

It's worth bearing in mind that neither the GRO indexes nor PDFs and online images specify the country. On an English BMD certificate from the GRO the country is only shown in the wording on the seal, so easily missed. I don't have a Welsh example to hand but I'm guessing that even if ordered from the GRO they will be in both English & Welsh.

Other possible sources of confusion are the fact Ancestry sometimes gives the wrong county, and some registration districts straddle county borders. I think there some that even straddle the Welsh border - there are certainly some enumeration districts which include households in England and Wales. Then there are changes in county boundaries, changes in the names of counties, and the question of whether Monmouthshire was in England or Wales?

 

[JohnR65]

But all of that doesn't help a new foreign researcher does it. Surely TG could put the country as well as the county? Seems like half a job has been done!

 

[peter]

But all of that doesn't help a new foreign researcher does it. Surely TG could put the country as well as the county? Seems like half a job has been done!

Although it might be convenient for lazy researchers, the practice of including information in a transcription which is not in the source document is generally deprecated.