Welsh Parish Registers - findmypast

[kiterunner]

And just when my daughter's likely to get back from school and want to go on the computer too, lucky I have the laptop!

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/content/news/welsh-records

The records cover Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Glamorganshire. Further details are as follows:
Baptisms: 1,418,921 records covering 1538-1911
Marriages: 950,254 records covering 1539-1926
Banns: 340,002 records covering 1701-1926
Burials: 1,169,685 records covering 1539-2007

Coming soon are records for the following counties: Anglesey, Brecknockshire, Caernarvonshire, Merionethshire, Monmouthshire, Montgomeryshire, Pembrokeshire and Radnorshire

[kiterunner]

I really need Brecknockshire, but hopefully there will be some of mine in the Glamorgan stuff.

[kiterunner]

Does anyone know if there is a way of paging through the images, please?

[kiterunner]

Oh dear, I hate to say this, but unless I'm missing something, you can't do a "parent search" on the baptisms or a "spouse search" on the marriages? This is what I feared. Please tell me if I'm just missing it! I can find people in there if I already know the right date and place, but I can't see any way of finding any children that I don't know about.

[kiterunner]

There seem to be quite a few mistranscriptions - I've sent in quite a few corrections already. I wonder if there is any way to avoid getting an automatic email every time I submit a correction?

[kiterunner]

I've asked on their blog about the lack of parents' names / spouse's name on the search screen - will report back if there is an answer. Luckily for me, my Glamorgan rellies mostly had relatively unusual surnames as they'd moved to Cardiff from England, but I would imagine it's going to be very annoying for people researching common names (as I will be when Breconshire comes along.) And I can't see how you could get anywhere using credits to view as you will have to view so many possibles before you find the right record.

[Merry]

I didn't think you could do a parent search or a spouse search on any of the FMP PR records? Esp horrendous in Denbighshire where everyone is called Jones!!

[kiterunner]

I know, but I was rather hoping they would bring out a nice new search facility to go with the launch of a massive new collection like this. Especially since nearly everyone in Wales, not just Denbighshire, has a very common name. I could understand that when they acquired Family History Online, they needed a quick search screen knocking up in a hurry, but that was years ago, and they've been working on the Welsh parish registers (and the Cheshire ones) for ages, so surely they should have had time to code something better.

I would like to see
(a) a browse function,
(b) ability to select which database you are searching rather than having to search all so-called "parish records" together,
(c) drop-down list of parishes for each county
(d) parents' names on the baptism and burial searches
(e) spouse's name and father's name on the marriage search,

plus changing "Year of birth / baptism" on the marriage and burial searches to "Year of birth" as I don't think I have ever seen a marriage record which gave the date of baptism (oh, except my Granny's marriage, but that was in Germany!) and it is much more likely that a burial record will show age rather than date of baptism.


Oh, and the ability to use the browser's "back" button instead of always ending up with "The webpage has expired".

I understand that findmypast are going to be launching a US site when the 1940 US census is released, and I don't see how they are going to compete effectively with other big sites over there if they don't provide an up-to-date search facility.

[kiterunner]

FamilySearch has recently indexed some of the Glamorgan marriages, showing spouse's name and father's name, so worth checking on there before looking for a marriage on FMP:


FamilySearch Glamorgan marriages (https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://www.familysearch.org/searchapi/search/collection/1392564)