Overview of the Summary Page's New features. April 2015

The software updates made to the UKBMD Summary page in April 2015 added several new features all with the aim of making the page more useful and easier to use. There were various minor cosmetic changes to the page, but the majority of the updates enhanced the page's usability, namely:

New Sort Order options.
Output the summary to a CSV file for use in a spreadsheet.
A new ability to remember the current summary after the browser has been closed.
Adjacent Entries on the page for each entry can now be viewed.

Back to the Summary Page

Sort Options

Prior to the changes there were two options to display the order in which the results were displayed. The options were to sort alphabetically and to sort by year. In both cases, the births, marriages and deaths were displayed in separate tables. This made it easy to look for specific entries of a chosen type.

This software update adds two new sorting options:

Alphabetically, Combined
By Year, Combined

These new options merge all the entries into one table. Here's an example, first showing a selection of births, a marriage and a death, ordered alphabetically, but in separate tables:

Birth Indexes
Surname	Forename(s)	Mother's Maiden Name	Year	Sub-District	Region	Registers At	Reference	Order Online	Adjacent Entries
SWIFT	Amy	STOCK	1898	Twerton - First Series	Bath	Bath	TW1/37/024	N/A	View Page
SWIFT	Dora	STOCK	1902	Twerton - First Series	Bath	Bath	TW1/40/361	N/A	View Page
SWIFT	Emma Sophia	STOCK	1895	Midsomer Norton	Bath	Bath	MSN/40/111	N/A	View Page
SWIFT	Halstead	STOCK	1893	Midsomer Norton	Bath	Bath	MSN/39/122	N/A	View Page

Marriage Indexes
Surname	Forename(s)	Spouse's Surname	Spouse's Forename(s)	Year	Church / Register Office	Region	Registers At	Reference	Order Online	Adjacent Entries
SWIFT	Thomas	STOCK	Eliza	1892	Dunkerton, All Saints	Bath	Bath	C41/1/147	N/A	View Page

Death Indexes
Surname	Forename(s)	Age at Death	Year	Sub-District	Region	Registers At	Reference	Order Online	Adjacent Entries
SWIFT	Halstead	0	1894	Midsomer Norton	Bath	Bath	MSN/20/145	N/A	View Page

The second table, below, shows the same set of entries, but this time they are sorted by year and combined into one larger table. It should be clearer here that this shows the beginnings of a small family tree.
In the combined table, the 4^th column will either show the mother's maiden name, the spouse's name, or the age at death, depending on the type of data in the row.
So, in this example we can see that Eliza and Thomas married, then Halstead was born but sadly died within the year, then the couple went on to have three further children.

Type	Surname	Forename(s)	Mother \| Spouse \| Age	Spouse's Forename(s)	Year	Sub-District	Region	Registers At	Reference	Order Online	Adjacent Entries
Marriage:	SWIFT	Thomas	STOCK	Eliza	1892	Dunkerton, All Saints	Bath	Bath	C41/1/147	N/A	View Page
Birth:	SWIFT	Halstead	STOCK		1893	Midsomer Norton	Bath	Bath	MSN/39/122	N/A	View Page
Death:	SWIFT	Halstead	0		1894	Midsomer Norton	Bath	Bath	MSN/20/145	N/A	View Page
Birth:	SWIFT	Emma Sophia	STOCK		1895	Midsomer Norton	Bath	Bath	MSN/40/111	N/A	View Page
Birth:	SWIFT	Amy	STOCK		1898	Twerton - First Series	Bath	Bath	TW1/37/024	N/A	View Page
Birth:	SWIFT	Dora	STOCK		1902	Twerton - First Series	Bath	Bath	TW1/40/361	N/A	View Page

Output to CSV file.

If you want to keep a permanent record of the entries that you have added to the summary page, the new Save as CSV button will allow you to download the entries into a file with a .CSV extension that can be read by all major spreadsheet programs. If you do not have a suitable program to handle .CSV files, one can be downloaded from the Libre Office website for free.
Once you have downloaded the file and opened it using your spreadsheet program, the entries can be sorted and manipulated as you choose.

Remembering the selected entries.

The previous version of the Summary page would only remember your selection of entries until you closed the browser. It would also forget your choices if you let the PHP session time-out. (i.e. the webpage was inactive for more than half an hour.)
This updated version has changed this behaviour so that there is no longer a time-out and the entries will be remembered until you delete them. This means that the entries will be there even after a reboot of your computer. As previously, you have the option to delete individual entries, or remove them all. There is also a further option to have the browser remember them just until you close your browser -- this option is recommended when using a browser in a public location.

Adjacent Entries on the register page.

It's often useful and interesting to see the other entries that are on the same page of the register, for example, if you are looking for births of twins. Twins would be consecutive entries in the register - often on the same page.
Occasionally, transcription errors and mismatches of couples in the marriages occur (we are human!) and so seeing the other couple on the same page of the marriage register may be helpful.
So, a new link now appears in the which when clicked will show the other entries on the same register page. Note that some registers are indexed by page number and other registers are indexed by entry number. In the case of indexing by page number there will be 5 entries on the page with each having the same reference number. Some pages may have multiple entries for one index entry if there are name variations listed and so there will be more than 5 entries displayed. Other pages may have cancelled entries, so there may be less than 5 entries shown. Marriages are listed with two entries per page,

Other notes.

Testing has been performed on as many combinations of operating systems and browser types as we can lay our hands on. The following points may help if you are having problems.
The technical feature known as Webstorage is used to remember the entries that you have selected. All major modern browsers support this feature. If you are running on a really old version of your browser and operating system you are stongly advised to update your system. Most old versions have security problems that could endanger your system's safety from hackers.

The Konqueror browser does not yet support WebStorage.
The Midori browser supports WebStorage, but it may need to be enabled prior to its first usage.
In iOS 5 & 6 localStorage data is stored in a location that may occasionally be cleared out by the OS.
In private browsing mode, Safari, iOS Safari and the Android browsers do not support setting sessionStorage or localStorage.

If you need to upgrade your browser, there are various browsers available as free downloads. A selection of them are listed here, click on the link to go to the download page:

If you have any comments on these updates or wish the provide feedback please use this link to contact us

Back to the Summary Page

Terms & Conditions. | Acceptable Use Policy. | Privacy Policy.