BMD Indexes

Using the General Record Office Indexes of Births, Marriages and deaths

One-namers collect the GRO data for their name as a matter of course. An examination of members’ pages using Surnames A-Z on the Guild’s website reveals many excellent examples.

Professor David Hey has built a database from the death registrations for the years 1842-1846 for surnames beginning with the letters A,E,K and R. This has resulted in a computer database of over 220,000 surnames, covering an estimated 12.5% of the whole set of surnames. He has published his results in his book Family Names and Family History.

An examination of the GRO data for my name (Dance) 1840-45 shows the main counties to be Berkshire, Hampshire, Worcestershire.