Too wide a coverage

[mike_weller]

When I access BMD data through Ancestry, no matter how narrow a margin, in terms of years and specific names, that I enter, the results still come out covering two centuries and a multitude of names. Is there any way around this?
Mike

[uksearch]

Daft question I know...but have you got ranked search selected?

UK

[Peter Goodey]

I assume you're talking about FreeBMD data.

The first place to try for FreeBMD is FreeBMD itself!
http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/

Only if FreeBMD is playing up is it worth using Ancestry.

Also it should be noted that the copy of the data held by Ancestry is always out of date, sometimes by several months, compared to the original data on the FreeBMD site.

[Guy Etchells]

No, Peter Ancestry have three BMD databases.
FreeBMD (a partial index), their own full BMD indexes from 1837-1983 (free) and the pay to view indexes from 1984-2004.

It is therefore advisable to use the full Ancestry 1837-1983 indexes first as there is a chance the required record has not yet been transcribed to Freebmd.

The quickest way to search specific years is to click on the year in question or a range of years by typing the year in the box and selecting the range
Cheers
Guy

[Peter Goodey]

No Guy.

He says that he enters a date. If you enter a date when searching the images, you are offered the appropriate images and not two centuries worth of images.

Leaving on one side that civil registration doesn't cover two centuries, he can only be talking about the FreeBMD data which, as uksearch has observed, does indeed offer all available dates if ranked search was selected.

Your advice to use the images in preference to FreeBMD was amusing and your wicked sense of humour is noted with appreciation.

[mike_weller]

I have a years sub to Ancestry, which is why I use it. Two centuries is a figure of speech, it seems like that when I type in a name, date of birth, year and, say, +/- 5 years. What comes up is all the names in the book and nothing in the period that I want.
I will have another go, as I am new to this, it's probably my fault. If I don't have any luck, I'll be back!
Mike

[tommy166]

Hi Mike

Make sure, like UK said, you use the EXACT SEARCH. The RANKED SEARCH is supposed to help you find people if details aren't quite right, but I found that it often misses exact matches!

Tom

[mike_weller]

Thanks everyone, for some reason I've not used Exact Search before, it certainly cuts down the entries.
Mike