Genealogy Chat

I am constantly using credits to view birth certificates, why cant I view parents names so that I can trace back??

Shane, you can't view the certificates only the index, to see the whole cert you need to order from the GRO.

However the births from 1911 on show the mother's maiden surname as well so you can often find a likely marriage, using Freebmd. Before that you may be able to find them on a census and work out the parents from that.

If you are stuck post some names on Find Ancestors board and someone will try and help :-)

Shane original birth certs are not online. You have to purchase them. What you can find in some areas are baptism records which shows the parents.

Edit: RR has added the next bit so follow her advice

Use freebmd to look up births marriages and deaths from 1837 - 1960 ish

Dont waste credits....you will not see anymore but it is FREE

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

Which site are you using where you have to use credits to find info which is free elsewhere?

You are not seeing certificates......you are seeing the INDEX

To see the cert, you have to buy it..........£9.25 ordered online from the GRO

But there are ways of finding the info...................depending on the time-scale

If you want help with this....post some names etc

Have you read the threads which have tips on how to do FH research?

You might find them beneficial

As this is Shane's first posting I have sent pm on how to get back to his message.

Thankyou all for responses, I am starting to get to grips with site now :-)

You will need the information from the index to order a certificate ;-)

Shane, people have mentioned ordering certificates from GRO, here is the link
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/

And only purchase from theGRO DO NOT use a middle man.

They are £9.25 All in from the GRO

You can order direct from some registration offices (more and more are not doign the historic BMD requests) but the charge 9.25/9.50 + p&p.

And if you go through other sites they have been known to charge up to £25.00 for this service, a complete rip-off.

As said before, if you do have any problems finding a Birth, Marriage or Death record just ask on here, people are more than happy to do look ups for others, in fact I know that many thoroughly enjoy the challenge.

:-D :-D

Update re local RO charges.

Apart from very recent ones which cost £7, these are now £10 per cert plus postage, typically 80p UK, £1.50 abroad. Many also charge extra for using your credit card to pay - my local RO charges £1.

I don't believe, by law, a RO can refuse historic BMD requests, as long as you supply the necessary information, however they can applications as low priority. I did see one RO indicating up to 28 days a while ago. My local RO is 7 working days after receipt.

I read some time either late last year or earlier this year that many are suspending the issue of historical certificates

I beleive this was down to 2 reasons

1: Many, especially in inner cities, are just too busy to do this work

2: Encourages use of GRO

But why go to an RO when it is cheaper to go the GRO.