Ordering certs

[Zoemcdougall]

Are there any restrictions on purchasing Birth, Marriages, & Death Certs.

[Phoenix]

Suck it and see.

If you use the official site, they will ask you various questions.

The only situations where it gets iffy is ordering certs for children or trying to steal identities. Historic research poses no problems.

[Zoemcdougall]

The certs I am interested in are purely for my family tree, but I know one of the ones I am looking for is a cousin of mine but only died 2 years. would I still be able to get this.

[Toots]

There is no problem ordering Birth Marriage and Death certificates in England and Wales. For those of people under 50 years old you need to provide a full date of birth rather than just the year.

It is cheaper to order all certificates straight from the General Registry office. This can be done online at:-

www.gro.gov.uk

they cost £9.25

[Olde Crone]

It may be cheaper (just) to order through the GRO, but these are always copies, rarely if ever originals. the local ROs hold the original certificates (or the church does, in the case of a church marriage).

OC

[JBee]

Yes don't get caught out when ordering certificates online - there are many sites that will charge the earth so you should go directly to the official GRO site.

As Toots says and others don't pay more than £9.25 on line.

If the Register office is local to you or the one you need have an ordering service by post this can be useful when you're not sure if the certificate is the right one. I ordered a death certificate last week from the Sunderland Registrars but she phoned me to say it was a baby. Anyway she did a search and found the correct one and charged me £10. I probably wouldn't have found it as the surname was a completely different spelling to what I'd thought (had various spellings for this family but this one was a new one on me)!!

[Toots]

I would have thought all certificates are copies of the original registration as only the first one issued can be the original.

Some I have ordered from the GRO are copies of the original handwritten on and some are typed. For my genealogy purposes either will do as its the information I am interested in.

It is good to check BMDshare to see if anyone has a copy they no longer need.

[Olde Crone]

No, the original record, from which all copies are made, is held by the local RO in a register.

If you order a cert from a local RO, you will get a copy (a photocopy if you ask nicely) of the register entry which your relative signed.

If you order a cert from the GRO you will get a copy of the COPY which the local RO sent to the GRO as part of its quarterly returns. These copies were handwritten by the local clerks from the information in their original registers.

The GRO copies do not (usually) bear the signature of your relative.

OC

[Merry]

I would have thought all certificates are copies of the original registration as only the first one issued can be the original.

Thats true, but if you get a photocopy of a cert from the local reg office then it will be a copy of the 'original' and any signatures will be 'original'.

99++% of certs obtained from the GRO will not be copies of the original in as much as they wll have been written out after the original registration date at the end of the Q when data was submitted to the GRO. If the entry is a birth, death, a register office marriage or a registrar attended marriage then all the handwriting will be that of the registrar including the signatures. If it's a C of E marriage then the handwriting, including sigs, will be that of the incumbent of the parish.

Not all GRO certs actually show the same info as those from the local office!! (mistakes happen!)

[Uncle John]

Thats true, but if you get a photocopy of a cert from the local reg office then it will be a copy of the 'original' and any signatures will be 'original'.

One local registrar was most apologetic that they had to write out a certificate because the register was too fragile to put on the photocoppier. But it was one where the GRO had mistranscribed the surname (S instead of L).

[Toots]

I'll have to order from the local registry office to see the difference

[Merry]

One local registrar was most apologetic that they had to write out a certificate because the register was too fragile to put on the photocoppier. But it was one where the GRO had mistranscribed the surname (S instead of L).

Grace Sydiard?......I mean Lydiard?!! :D

I'll have to order from the local registry office to see the difference

If you do, remember to request a photocopy from the register, as otherwise you may get a handwritten copy by the registrar who may or may not be familiar with Victorian handwriting!! As Uncle John says, a photocopy isn't always possible, but it's definitely best to mention it.

[Olde Crone]

Also the point that an unknown number of events never made it as far as the GRO.

I have six certificates in my possession which do not appear in the GRO indexes, or if they do, are so mangled as to be completely unrecognisable as my relative. One has his middle name listed as his surname by the GRO which caused me huge grief until Lancsbmd transcribed THEIR indexes, with his surname where it should be!

OC

[Toots]

Thank you for your advice.

I will definitely order from registry office for my next certificate if there is a possibility of a photocopy.

[Joy Dean]

There used to be a couple of threads on GR, Toots, about obtaining certificates and they disappeared; so I "resurrected" them: on the first page of genealogy chat board at present http://www.genesreunited.co.za/boards/board/genealogy_chat/thread/766478 and http://www.genesreunited.co.za/boards/board/genealogy_chat/thread/1262438

There is probably something in here, too.

[Toots]

Thanks Joy

I'll go and have a look

[Glen TK]

Diving into my cert collection for an example of a local issued cert brought up this marriage cert, probably the best example to have as it's quite easy to see that there are handwriting examples from different people, the GRO version would have been completed by a clerk and therefore the writing and signatures would have appeared similiar throughout

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m146/glenintinselknickers/cert%20demo%20shot/Croppedsignatures.jpg