Obtaining birth certificate

[Asa]

I ordered a birth certificate for a half sibling born in 1975 and made an informed guess at the exact date of birth. This was clearly wrong because I've been given a refund. Is there any way round this?

[Margaret in Burton]

I assume this was the GRO?

Have you tried the local office?

[Asa]

Yes, it was the GRO - I hadn't thought of that thanks. I understand the reasoning but it's frustrating

[Asa]

Unfortunately, the local office want date of birth too.

[Merry]

Where did you get your informed guess? Facebook??!

[Olde Crone]

Have you spoken to a real person at the local register office? You could explain the circumstances and say that all you want to know is do you share a parent with this person? I have found that local registrars will sometimes answer yes/no questions even if they will not issue the cert or give you any further info.

OC

[Asa]

Yes, Merry :) Can only be a couple of days out either way.

Thanks OC, I think I'll try that. I feel quite stalker like but it's just a case of having the facts.

[Libby9]

At the risk of sounding ditzy: I needed a copy of my marriage certificate as had misplaced the original, neither me nor hubby can ever remember whether we married on the 9th or 10th of the month (well it was 45yrs ago!) I rang the local register office and tried to explain that I'm not a scatterbrain just a silly old fool with memory problems, the lady I spoke to laughed and said 'that's not as uncommon as you may think' she was happy to post me a copy certificate.

So do try the local register office Asa, they are in my experience easy to talk to. One thing though, why is it necessary to give an exact date of birth? Is it because it's a fairly recent certificate? When I helped my cousin to find his half sister's birth reg he was able to order the certificate using the references, qrt, year and district of birth, the birth was in 1948 perhaps why he didn't need an exact date?

[Kit]

If you think you have only a few dates that it could possibly be start ordering from the first date through to the last.

If you are worried they'll knock you back, alternate between the GRO and local offices.