Genealogy Chat

Hi

I don't know if I dreamt this and I possibly did but I thought that with the GRO when obtaining certificates ie: birth, if you gave them the reference and page number and the mum and dad's name then if it wasn't the right person they would not issue the certificate and only charge you half the price of the certificate - now this may be wishful thinking

Have I got this wrong?

Thanks

no its true i sent for a cert and they couldnt find it,it was my fault i put 2 names in.Igot a full refund credited to my bank a/c

They no longer offer the reference checking facility (it was withdrawn on the 6 April when they put the price up).
So you now pay £9.25 for a cert that you hope is the right one.

Thanks

I will have to be more careful now, glad it was in place because I thought I was going mad

xx

I have sent for certs. to the local registry office, where the event was registered, and most of them are willing to do look ups. If it is not the cert. requested, they have sent the cheque back.
Liz

Putting in additional non-mandatory information, such as the parent's name(s) is NOT reference checking.

However if any of what you quote is incorrect, (even if the rest is correct) then the application is likely to be rejected, on the basis that it could not be found and you get your money back.

Reference checking involved a member of the GRO staff trolling through the registers either side of the cert you specified looking for the first instance of a match with your reference point, in the event that the reference was not on the cert you asked for.

There was an additional charge for this, which, it turns out, was not authorised by current legislation. So as it was not practical to provide this additional checking service for free, it was withdrawn.

Sorry InspectorGreenPen, I have to disagree with you.

If you put in extra information regarding parent's names on the first page of a certificate order form online then these would not be checked at all.

However there used to be (before April) a separate Reference Checking page at the end of the ordering process where you could enter parent's names and there was no extra charge for this to be checked. If the names you gave were correct then the certificate was sent at the normal price. If they were wrong then the certificate was not sent and you got a refund of £4 out of the £7 you paid.

Kath. x

Hi everyone

The certificate I recently requested was only two weeks ago and I put the name of the mum and dad on the request (with the mum's maiden name aswell) and they sent the certificate which obviously didn't match and wasn't like say the dad was right and the mum's name was different, they were both completely different to the names I had given, so I would say that they no longer look for you, they literally just give you the birth, marr or death cert that you have requested regardless of any add information provided.

Shame really - especially as I had a 50/50 chance of the one I chose, hopefully the other one I have now requested is the right one, but only found out there was another sibling after the 1911 census showed there were 3 children born and not 2 like we had thought - then it was guess work as we didn't know the other siblings name as never knew they existed.

A lesson learnt I think

xxx

Kath, We are both right to an extent. There were actually two checking options, not one, both of which have been withdrawn.

You are referring to Checking Points. Reference Checking, which I was alluding to, involved the GRO searching for one year either side for a match with the reference that you provided.

I was under the impression that, currently, if you added additional information on the first page, this all had to match, but stand to be corrected if this is no longer the case. Is the situation different if you do not supply the GRO reference, perhaps?

This was the press release

"Customers are asked to please note that there will be a change to the GRO fee structure which will take effect from 6 April 2010. Further details can be found on the IPS website at www.ips.gov.uk. Please note in addition that GRO have reviewed the range of services which we currently offer. We have been advised that there is no clear remit in statute for charging for a service to check additional index references, or to retain partial fees. In order to ensure full legal compliance, and in view of the fact that we cannot afford to offer this service free of charge, we are regretfully withdrawing our reference checking service from 6 April. This will include the withdrawal of the "checking points".