600,000 Additional U.K. Records of Birth, Baptism, Marriage and Burial

The following announcement was written by Genealogy Supplies (Jersey) Ltd.:

The official U.K. National Archives site for Non Parochial and Non Conformist records BMDregisters.co.uk has just added over 600,000 records of birth, baptism, marriage and burial. These have not previously been searchable online and again contain images of  birth and baptismal records. The records were previously viewable on microfilm as part of the  RG8 series.

Among the more extensive collections in this series are the registers of the British Lying-in Hospital at Holborn, these provide detailed maternity records covering the period 1749 to 1868.

The records can include the following information:-

The Date and order of admission, Woman and Husbands Name, Occupation, Woman’s Age, Parish, Time of Reckoning, Came in, Went out on leave, Returned, Delivered, Child Baptised, Woman Discharged, Recommenders Name

Below is an example from the Register of Births and Baptisms and a Register of Deaths in the British Lying-In Hospital in Endell Street, St Giles in the Fields, Holborn, Middlesex:

On the 17th June 1758, Rachel Ward wife of John a Staymaker aged 27 of the parish St Martin in the Fields was admitted. She gave birth to a boy on the 17th June who was then  baptised on the 25th June with the name Thomas. She was Discharged 5th July. Rachel Ward was recommended to the hospital by Lady Carpenter.

Both the original record of the hospital entry and the baptism images can be viewed, printed or downloaded plus the details viewed and a small tree printed.

The “Lying in” hospital records provide a level of detail that just isn’t available in parish records.

This new release also has registers of burials in the Victoria Park Cemetery, the New Burial Ground, Southwark, Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, Hackney, and the Bethnal Green Protestant Dissenters Burying Ground; registers of Chapels Royal at St James's Palace, Whitehall and Windsor Castle.

The royal chapel records can be very interesting with diary like entries:-

“February 2nd 1684/5 Candlemas Day, being Monday

Be it remembered that his majesty King Charles II was seised with a most violent fit of an apoplexy, which terminated in an intermittent fever of which he died about 12 the Friday following being February 6th. In the afternoon of which day his Royal Highness James Duke of York and Albany etc was proclaimed at Whitehall-gate at Temple Bar and at the Old Exchange in the City, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, etc.”

In addition there are further non conformist records of births and baptisms.

The rest of the series contains the archive of the Russian Orthodox Church in London, 1721-1927. The records include not only registers of births, marriages, deaths and conversions, but also comprehensive general records on the day-to-day workings of the church. The usual language is Russian, with some Greek; there are a few documents such as certificates, letters and passports in English, French and German.

These records are freely searchable on www.BMDregisters.co.uk

Comments

[doina bura]

Mr I know I want to search old family history with drizzle of foreign romania about that place?

[LindaS]

It's a pay site and you can only do one search without having to register to do more.

[Frank Rooks]

This site should be very helpful to the thousands of Canadian genealogists with UK ancestry....and the pricing seems very reasonable. Thank you Dick for telling us about it (even your non-paying readers!).

[Richard M]

It's good site but a costly one to use even compared with other popular commercial sites, so beware!

However, I did get a very pleasant surprise when I found the baptism record for my greatx3 grandfather and discovered that his parents were Non-Conformists which we never knew before.