Births, Marriages & Deaths Index
Return to Home Page
The name of BAGUST is sufficiently unusual that all occurrences are worth noting by the family historian. I have commenced a systematic review of the indexes for births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales, that were registered at the General Register Office. Registration commenced in 1837, and continues to the present day. The indexes are available on microfiche at local record offices, and many main public librarys. These give the year and quarter (March, June, Sept or Dec), surname, forename(s), registration district, and the volume and page numbers where the entry may be found in the General Register Office. The original entries are not available to the public and to obtain more detail it is necessary to apply for the appropriate certificate using the data obtained from the indexes.
Certificates are worth obtaining as they include much more detail than is to be found in the indexes. Information such as parents name, occupation and place of birth or marriage can be invaluable when constructing a family tree. They can be applied for by post or on-line (information can be found on the Office for National Statistics web site at http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificate ). Unfortunately there are two snags -
- cost, £7 per certificate, and even if they cannot find the entry you will be still charged a fee of £4. If you want any number it rapidly becomes expensive. It is my hope that this site can be used by those who are interested to share information, and therefore reduce costs.
- accuracy - the content of these pages cannot be guaranteed. The data has been extracted from microfiche, and many of the original entries are so badly handwritten, small, or poorly photographed as to be almost unreadable. There may, of course, also be transcription errors at any stage in the process. If you are thinking of ordering certificates it would be wise to check the entries in the index yourself.
The entries are arranged in date order, and where certificates are available links to a detailed transcript are provided. Up to 1900 I have included entries for what I considered common misspellings of Bagust, but from a quick examination of the lists it is apparent that by the beginning of Civil Registration in 1837, the Baghursts and Baggusts were separate familys residing in different parts of the country.