Problems should be reported to .
It connects directly to images on the FreeBMD file servers and offers a number of facilities to aid the transcribing and verifying (checking) of FreeBMD records, including
Once you are logged in to FreeComETT with FreeBMD submitter ID and password, the ‘Help’ link gives access to instructions/help and district information. This may also be accessed direct from https://freecomett.freeukgen.org.uk/help/help_show/0
There is a user manual available to enable you to install and use MacBMD-X (the user manual requires a method to display PDF, e.g. Adobe Acrobat Reader). However, your Syndicate Coordinator may have a specific manual for your syndicate or special instructions for certain aspects of transcribing.
If transcribing years 1984 onward there are special instructions for transcribing the Reg field. Also you will get a warning when you upload that there is a quarter ("Mar") specified. Since transcriptions for 1984 onward are for the whole year the quarter is omitted. This warning can be safely ignored but if you prefer you can delete the "Mar" in the header to leave two commas at that spot.
The latest version of MacBMD-X (1.0.9) can be downloaded from here
Any problems with this version should be reported to
Ben Hines wrote an earlier version (MacBMD) that only works on Operating System versions 10.6 (i.e. Snow Leopard) or earlier. This is available from here but is no longer supported.
To change the district picklist:
bmd_districts.1.0.9.txt | The original MacBMD-X districts file | |
bmd-districts-winbmd.txt | The current WinBMD districts file (see first line of file for version) in MacBMD-X format | |
WinBMD_Supp_Districts_1946.txt | The current WinBMD supplementary districts file for July 1946 to March 1974 in MacBMD-X format | |
WinBMD_Supp_Districts_1974.txt | The current WinBMD supplementary districts file for April 1974 onward in MacBMD-X format |
A volunteer has written a Linux transcription tool details of which are available here.
This tool is a replacement of the version for Linux written by Andrew Higgs which was used by a number of transcribers before becoming unavailable.
This program helps with the process of verifying completed WinBMD and SpeedBMD entries against the orginal scan. This Windows program is written by David Lang and is available (including previous versions) from here.
A very easy to use and useful image viewer is available free from any one of these sites. If one is not available or slow to access at least one of the others should be available.
Graham Cannon has kindly provided Lotus Approach Import Templates for FreeBMD datasets. They are in the form of a self-extracting zip file, which can be found here. The file contains a README.TXT and the templates.
N.B. whilst the author has taken care to avoid viruses and other problems with this file, you run it at your own risk. Please let us know of any problems.
Bob Phillips has kindly produced a couple of files to help FreeBMD transcribers. They are a surname list and a district list sorted by volume.
N.B. These can be used as an assistance to transcribing but transcribers should not use the list as a means of guessing and modifying the transcription. It is important to transcribe what you see, not what you think might have been intended. These files may be downloaded here.
SpeedBMD runs under DOS and was designed to help FreeBMD transcribers increase their transcription rate and improve their accuracy. A performance improvement of 30-50% over other spreadsheet methods was claimed, depending of course on the quality of the source data being deciphered.
SpeedBMD was developed by Peter Cox and tested by members of the NZ syndicate, especially Chris Lloyd who also created the pre-1852 District file.
Peter is most grateful for the sterling efforts of Barrie Archer, Nick Tatham, Peter Watts, Stephen Carter and Stephen Cope in testing the new features of version 1.10 and for coming up with lots of good ideas for improvements.
Peter is also very grateful to Barry D, John Slann, Kenneth Hyde, Mary Muir, Tony McHugh and Steve Gaunt for their efforts in beta testing this release. They found a few remaining bugs and annoyances, which has helped to make this a stable and user-friendly release.
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