Project Team

Trustees and Executive

Graham Hart

• Co-Founder and Trustee of FreeBMD, Graham provides consultancy on Genealogy issues. Graham has been in IT for 25 years and a genealogist for the same amount of time. He is based in Bucks, UK and can be contacted at

Ben Laurie

• Co-Founder and Trustee of FreeBMD, Ben acts as technical consultant for the operational system. Ben is a member of the Apache Group, author of Apache: The Definitive Guide and on the security team at Google. He is based in London, UK and can be contacted at

Camilla von Massenbach

• Co-Founder and Trustee of FreeBMD, Camilla has been a keen genealogist for many years. She is based in London, UK and can be contacted at

Dave Mayall

• Co-Founder and Trustee of FreeBMD, Dave provides database support expertise. He is based in Manchester, UK and can be contacted at

Allan Raymond

• Trustee of FreeBMD, Allan acts as team leader for the Syndicate Co-ordinator community. Allan was a Quality and Project Manager in a large company and considered the lure of early retirement too tempting an offer to pass over. Not one to miss an opportunity, he thought rightly or wrongly that some of his dormant skills could be put to good use in helping the FreeBMD Project. He is based in Pontypridd, UK and can be contacted at

Nick Barratt

• Executive Director of FreeBMD, Nick can be contacted at .

Coordinators, etc.

Volunteer Co-ordinator (1): Kevin S. Howell

• Kevin is also the Corrections Co-ordinator, see details below.

Volunteer Co-ordinator (2): Allan Raymond

• Allan is also the Co-ordinator for Syndicates, see details above.

List Owner: Andrew Billinghurst

• Controller of the FreeBMD Mailing Lists. Andrew can be contacted here.

District Alias Team Co-ordinators: Mary Trevan / Martin Cope

• Coordinate a team who create aliases for the alternative (mis)spellings of the standard districts.
• The other members of the district aliasing team are: Linda Bailey, Anne Brick, Diana Nadeau and Paula Patterson.
• The District Aliasing Team can be contacted at

Corrections Co-ordinator: Kevin S. Howell

• Records and reviews submitted corrections, before forwarding validated corrections/changes to transcribers for action. Kevin has worked in the IT industry for over thirty years in computer networking and finds his work on the FreeBMD project very relaxing, though since taking on this position has had little or no time for transcribing. He is based Nr Skegness, Lincolnshire, UK and can be contacted at

Web Editor (1): Kevin S. Howell

• Provides Web page Design and Change skills to the the core team. Kevin is also the Corrections Co-ordinator, see details above.

Web Editor (2): Barrie Archer

• Provides Web page Design and Change skills to the the core team with special emphasis on Perl page changes.

Web Proof Reader: Anne Cruise

• Performs web-page proof-reading and has assisted in the wording of some of the pages. Once a teacher, Anne is now a Civil Servant and transcribes in the little free time she has left. She lives in Wiltshire and can be contacted at

Quality Assurance Co-ordinator: Barrie Archer

• Provides a focus for assuring the quality of the service delivered by FreeBMD to users searching for information. Can be contacted at this email address: .

Transcription Software Developers

SpeedBMD Designer: Peter Cox

• Programmer and designer of the SpeedBMD software. Peter is based in NZ and can be contacted here.

WinBMD Designer: Ian Brooke

• Programmer and designer of the WinBMD software. Ian also runs a syndicate and writes software for the District Aliasing Team. Ian was an IT specialist here in the UK before taking early retirement and moving to Canada. Ian can be contacted here.

MacBMD Designer: Ben Hines

• Programmer and designer of the MAC BMD software. Ben can be contacted here.

linBMD Designer: Andrew Higgs

• Programmer and designer of the linBMD software. Andrew is based in South Africa and can be contacted here

BMDVerify Designer: David Lang

• Programmer and designer of BMDVerify software. David can be contacted here

FreeBMD Main Page

Search engine, layout and database Copyright © 1998-2013 The Trustees of FreeBMD (Ben Laurie, Graham Hart, Camilla von Massenbach, David Mayall and Allan Raymond), a charity registered in England and Wales, Number 1096940. We make no warranty whatsoever as to the accuracy or completeness of the FreeBMD data. Use of the FreeBMD website is conditional upon acceptance of the Terms and Conditions