Genealogy Chat

I go to the GRO first everytime. Except in one case, they have never failed me. When I then phoned the relevant local RO I spoke to a very helpful lady who gave me all the information I needed over the phone - so I saved £7; but would I get that service every time - who knows.

nudge
CC

I found this really useful.

Left a SAE with my request. They returned form as No Trace and return my cheque!

Pam

n

Just nudging up to keep really useful info handy. Thanks to all who gave it. Jayne

Some register offices are taking applications online now.

n

Jean i will send you a pm with some links.

Glen

n

hi marian,

you can order as many as you want.
i went into mine to order they gave me some forms and i filled in five.
took them back to the desk and paid for them.
they posted them to me the next day.

or you can send by post with a chq.

i found it easier if its local to you to go in and do it.

meercat.

Is it possible to order more than one certificate at a time.I have around five local that I need to get. Marian

Glen

Thanks for the information. Back to pen and paper.

Ann

Local to where the event occured.

Each register office hold the records for their own area only so for example an event in Berwick would not be available in the Birmingham register office.

Most of the local offices will take telephone and postal applications, some take them online but not all, and remember if they cannot supply a certificate then you don't pay a penny and there is no additional charge for reference checks.

Hi everybody,
When you say local R O. Do you mean local to yourself or local to where the BMD occurred?

Ann

With the GRO, you would receive a refund of £3 (I believe) if they could not find the person. The Register Office would return your cheque if the person could not be found. For the Register Office, the exact date of birth is not required, but the quarter and year and district would be needed. Sometimes a person would have been found on a census with parents, and one wishes to find out more about the parents as well as the child. In one case, a certificate I received was registered by the grandmother: fantastic - took me back another generation! In my experience, Register Office staff have been happy to discuss the matter on the telephone.

This is useful, but it appears that you need to have most of the information to be able to order from the RO rather than GRO, where as with the GRO you only need the vague info. So, if you didn't have parents name and the persons dob, you wouldnt be able to order the birth cert, when the reason you're probably ordering it is to find out who the parents were??

http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/birthsmarriagesdeaths/certificates/copy1.asp#births This site states £7. Happy hunting!

I'll have a look at that site. You never should be charged more than £7. Some London ones do; some don't. I had one from Poplar. You can write to them and telephone them. Register offices do NOT - excuse the shouting, please ... :-) - want the GRO refs; they do not mean a thing to them. You need to word the letter to them to the effect that if the person is the son / daughter / husband / wife / mother / father etc of ......... , and the cheque will be returned to you if the person cannot be found in their registers.

I thought the London offices wouldn't accept inquiries. I have just sent for 2 deaths for Stepney and Poplar, I can't put ref checking in because of lack of info on a mans cert can you write to the London ones?

Just checked on line with the West Lancs site to order a cert. on line and they are asking for £25.95, is that right????? Kathlyn