Use of Initials in Givennames

When searching FreeBMD it is important to understand, and take into account, the use of initials. For example, if you are searching for HILL,Edward James but the entry is recorded in the index as HILL,Edward J in some years but HILL,Edward James in others then your search results will be incomplete and misleading. Below we give some general guidelines about the use of initials in the index and then detailed information about each quarter.

It is worth repeating here that there are many reasons why entries in the index may not be as you expect, even taking into account the issue of initials. There are errors in the index itself and in FreeBMD's transcription of it (although we do our best to minimise these). In addition, people may use, or be known by, a name that is not on their birth certificate, or is not their first given name. This is particularly an issue for Deaths, where the informant who supplied the information for the certificate may not have known the person that well or have access their Birth certificate.

Summary Information

Where the event (B, M or D) is shown as Q, this means all events (Q stands for quarter).

Detailed Information

The table is split into three parts:

• the quarter concerned
• columns with counts of instances of entries with the number of full names given in the heading, so X in the column headed 2 means there were X entries that had two full names. The presence of a column labelled zero means that there are entries with no given name or just one initial.
• the percentage and number of entries with initials as well as the full names