openBMD is a free and cross-platform desktop application for the transcription of Birth, Marriage and Death (BMD) index records.


What’s it for?

openBMD is used as part of the FreeBMD project that aims to provide free internet access to the Civil Registration index information for England and Wales.


Manual records of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales have been kept since 1837 and are a valuable resource for people wanting to trace their ancestry.


The project’s work to transcribe this information to a searchable, electronic database will greatly enhance our ability to quickly and easily identify leads to trace our family history. It will also permit the double-checking and eventual correction of the indexes.


What are the features of openBMD?

  1. Multi-platform - works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux

  2. Easy to use grid-like interface

  3. Auto-completion of surnames and forenames for fast data entry

  4. Intelligent auto-capitalisation

  5. District suggestion and management for accurate and efficient data entry

What is openBMD?