26 June 2018
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The FreeBMD website is 20 years old
The much-loved FreeBMD website is turning 20 years old and its umbrella website Free UK Genealogy is inviting family history researchers to celebrate the anniversary with some of its valued volunteers at The National Archives.
The Free UK Genealogy (FreeUKGEN) charitable organisation is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its hugely successful FreeBMD website with a special one-day event at The National Archives which is, of course, free to attend.
FreeBMD was one of the world’s first ‘crowdsourcing’ projects when it launched in 1998 and volunteers began transcribing the General Register Office indexes of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales. Today, thanks to its army of volunteer transcribers across the globe, FreeBMD has made 342 million BMDs available online for free.
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The site is highly regarded in the family history community, helping countless researchers to trace their trees. Now FreeUKGEN, which also runs the FreeReg and FreeCen sister sites, is inviting users to join in a celebratory meeting at Kew on 15 September to raise a glass to its oldest project and meet some of the volunteers who make it all possible. Arrival is from 11.30am with the meeting due to end at 4pm. There will be speakers and presentations, and refreshments.
The event is free but please register online or email [email protected] with enquiries. The event will be live-streamed on FreeUKGEN’s YouTube channel and made available to watch after the event.
• Find more family history events in our online events directory. You can also upload your own events for free.
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