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From: "Jenny MacKay" <>
Subject: Freebmd
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2000 08:11:23 +0800


Hi everyone

Remember John Mellors....he has asked that I send this on to the society and
anyone else to send on to others you may know. It looks a great idea. Aren't
we always looking for something for free. Well here's our opportunity.

Regards

Jenny

.........

Jenny would you like to let the Society know about Freebmd and pass the
message on to any other societies that you know in Oz with email who
might like to help:

FAMILY HISTORY MADE EASY!

Ever toiled through indexes of births, marriages and deaths, dreaming of
a better way of finding your ancestors? Course you have, you're a family
historian!

But dreams can come true - and there's a world-wide bunch of volunteers
working on that better way right now. The Free BMD project group is
transcribing all the English and Welsh births, marriages and deaths
indexes from 1837 to 1899 to create a searchable database for the
Internet.

Visitors to the Free BMD site can already search over 3.5 million of the
100 million records for that period. Searches can target all of England
and Wales or focus on specific districts, events and dates.

BUT - unless the project gets more volunteers, it could be years before
the database is complete. If you have a computer, with an Internet
connection and can spare even half an hour a week, Free BMD needs you!
You don't need to be a computer whizz or even a good typist - just
accurate!

If you have your own fiche to work from, great; if not, you can work
from photocopies, copying details into the Speed BMD database (easily
downloaded from the Free BMD site) which does most of the thinking for
you. Working off line, you can often just press a single key to enter
names and districts. When you've completed a page of records, you can
either upload them to the database yourself, or email them to a co-
ordinator who will do it for you. And, there's a mailing list for extra
support!

Free BMD is also keen to hear from any one name studiers who have copied
births, marriages or deaths from 1837 to 1899, to include those in the
database. (The Public Record Office has not given Free BMD permission to
copy records after 1899.) If you have such records to submit, please
contact (email) Free BMD can be found at : http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/
where you'll also find joining instructions, or email (volunteer co-
ordinator.)



If you don't have your own computer, but know someone who does, please
encourage them to sign up. Free BMD needs your help!

Best Wishes
John M

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