Federation Of Family History Societies

National Burial Index

The Project

The National Burial Index (NBI) for England and Wales assists family historians find burial records and, in doing so, complements the International Genealogical Index (IGI) which is mainly a finding aid to baptisms and marriages. The NBI is now a national archive, giving worldwide access to sources held by those local repositories and family history societies and groups participating in the project. A cumulative edition is produced at approximately four-yearly intervals.

Please note that the NBI for England and Wales does not contain monumental inscription records.

What Is Involved

Burial records are transcribed and computerised mainly by family history societies although a few individuals contribute records. These records come from different types of sources: parish registers, bishop's transcripts, earlier transcripts or printed registers. Each society appoints a coordinator who recruits volunteers to transcribe the burial records. The coordinator maintains a cumulative society burials database which the society may publish at any time of their choosing. Data collection progresses either by the use of a Shroud computer program (designed for the project) or by any program that the coordinator chooses, for example, Excel or Access. Whatever the program, a definition of the NBI database is supplied. Periodically the coordinator sends the most recent batches of burial files to the NBI Data Manager for further checking with syntactical validation.

Scope of the project

The aim of the Project is to cover all burials found in registers in all locations (parishes) throughout England and Wales. Family history societies may choose the parishes and time intervals they transcribe. Although coverage in terms of years and locations is now much more extensive than the burials published previously in the First Edition, there are still gaps because not all family history societies are able or willing to join the project due to restrictions to access records, a lack of volunteers or other commitments.

Progression

As an ongoing project, further collections of records are encouraged and continue to be received by the FFHS Data Manager. A substantial number of member societies that had not submitted records for the First Edition became involved subsequently. In consequence, although the First Edition contained 5.4 million, and the Second 13.2 million, the recent Third Edition contains 18.4 million. This Third Edition covers some 9100 burial locations in 50 counties.

Our aim is that burials for the NBI are added cumulatively so that any record that appeared in the first two editions should also appear in the Third Edition. This is not always the case since contributors sometimes change or even delete records during their record-validation of previous contributions.

Duplication

From the start, we have attempted to erase duplicate records although not where the duplicates are between parish register and the corresponding Bishop's Transcript record, or between parish register and the corresponding cemetery register record. We occasionally receive contributions from different providers which cover the same location. In recognition of the hard work of both contributors it has been sometimes difficult to decide which duplicating data-set to delete and we have sometimes let both sets of burials remain in the database. Such duplication can sometimes work to the searcher's advantage - to have two independent transcriptions of near-illegible records.

Handle With Care

As with any genealogical index, use the NBI with care. It is an aid to help you to find where and when a person died or was buried. The source burial record often contains more information than the NBI presents and you are recommended to investigate the source record whenever possible. Alternatively, contact the society or group which extracted the information for further details - some may charge a small fee for this research.

Anyone who has undertaken the transcribing of parish records will understand the difficulties of recording the precise intention of the record. Poor handwriting, semi-illiterate clerics, disintegrating paper and the ravages of time often lead to false interpretation of a burial entry. Do remember that the voluntary workers are not fully qualified palaeographers!

Unchecked Records

Initially, the NBI was to include only those records which had been corrected against the original source by experienced transcribers. However, such dedicated workers are few in number so that checking and correcting became a serious rate-limiting step. The majority of participating societies therefore agreed to permit a proportion of unchecked records in the NBI, providing these were indicated as such by the search program, and that all such records should be checked and corrected for the next NBI edition. In deciding whether a set of burials has been checked-corrected or not, we rely heavily on the contributor's perception in this matter. We settled for the maxim 'societies will contribute checked records to their best ability of their resources'.

Each place for which entries are included is annotated with the percentage of those entries that have been checked (and corrected where necessary). This is shown on the full list within the program itself.

Reporting Possible Errors

If you have any comments on entries in the NBI, you are encouraged to contact the relevant family history society or group. When you do this, please ensure you give full details of the original record as recorded in the NBI, the reference to your source, and the correct details you have obtained from that source.

Information The NBI Provides

The NBI includes the following information (where available):

• Forename(s) and surname of the deceased
• Day, month, year of burial
• Age
• Details of the place (parish) where the event was recorded
• The county where this is located (pre-1832 list of counties)
• The society, group or individual who transcribed the record

The decision to exclude certain useful items of information from the NBI such as relationships, abode and occupation was a demand of most participating family history societies at the NBI planning stage. This is in accordance with the notion that the NBI is an index and not a full transcription.

Computer Facilities Required

A PC with Windows 98/XP/Vista/7. At least 32 Mb memory recommended, CD-ROM or DVD-Rom drive; monitor with screen resolution of 800 x 600 or more. Not suitable for Apple Mac users.

Security Precautions

In view of the time and effort given by volunteers to the NBI Project, it is only right that the FFHS took the precaution to minimise the risk of unscrupulous and illegal copying of which there were known instances. Security of the data has been accomplished both by using a digital signature on the disk as a stamp of authenticity, and also by adding a number of 'dummy' records to the database: these records are unlikely to be of any interest to a researcher, but will be clearly visible to our legal department should 'pirate' copying be suspected.

Purchasing the NBI

The Third Edition of the NBI is being prepared and it is anticipated that it will be ready for distribution in the New Year. Please check these pages or www.GENfair.co.uk later for details of how to order.

Installing & Using the NBI

Full instructions on how to install the program, start the Viewer and search the data entries are given in the comprehensive booklet enclosed with the CD pack. (Please refer to the section on the Licence Agreement at the foot of this page).

To All Contributors

The FFHS would like to convey its appreciation to all NBI co-ordinators and the hundreds of volunteers for their dedication, enthusiasm, and hard work which has made the three editions of this Index possible. Also Carol McLee as NBI Project Co-ordinator, Peter Underwood for managing the records and writing the Shroud data program, Peter Lord for transforming some of the larger databases and, last but no means least, Steve Archer for writing the NBI Viewer program.

We need your Help with this Project

The NBI has proved to be a useful signpost to these important parish records and we hope this will greatly encourage hundreds more to continue this worthwhile work in the future and make the future Edition even more valuable. If you wish to contribute in some way, please contact your favoured family history society.

Terms & Conditions of Use

We observe the requirements of the Distance Selling Regulations but you, in turn, have to agree to and accept the Terms and Conditions of the FFHS Software Licence Agreement before installation. By installing, you accept the terms and conditions of the Licence Agreement.

A copy of the Agreement, as below, is on the back cover of the CD outer sleeve.

If you do not agree with the terms and conditions, do NOT open the packaging and do NOT install the NBI program. Instead, return the CD within seven days in its original packaging to your suppliers. Only return it to FFHS Services Company if you bought it directly from them.

Licence Agreement

Carefully read the licence agreement between you and The Federation of Family History Societies & Associates (Licensors) before beginning full installation. If you do not agree with the terms, promptly return the full package, uninstalled, to the place of purchase for a refund.

For use in a Library or Archives office, please contact FFHS Services Ltd for a Public Access Licence & fee charges. FFHS Member Societies' only may use this product within their research / library premises and for demonstration purposes without a Public Access Licence.

Upon opening this package, you are granted a licence to use the enclosed software and data for personal genealogical and family history research only according to the following conditions:

1. You may use the software and data on only one computer
2. You may print, photocopy or download portions of data for private research and study only. The data may be used and copied in this manner for relations and friends free of charge for non-commercial purposes.

1. You may not make any full copies of the software or data.
2. You may not publish or sell any portion of the software and data, in printed, electronic, or any other format, without prior written consent of the Licensors.
3. You may not loan, rent, sublicense, or transfer the software or data except to give this entire package to another party, in which case you may not keep any copies of the software or data for your own use.
4. You may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, or in any way modify the software or data or merge either into another program.

LICENSORS MAKE NO WARRANTY WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, STATUATORY OR OTHERWISE WHICH RELATES TO THE CONDITION AND FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE OF THE DATA, AND SPECIFICALLY NO WARRANTIES ARE MADE IN RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE DATA. If any provision of this Agreement is found to be legally unenforceable, the provision will be severed and deleted from the Agreement and the remainder of this Agreement will continue in full force and effect. © 2009 The Federation of Family History Societies. All rights reserved