Genealogy Chat

Grrrr !!!!!

Currently very mad, after having sent for a marriage cert from GRO; I was looking for the marriage of Thomas Davies & Jane (surname possibly Parry), I have very little info on them, not even their age. I know Jane had a son 1899/1900 but he was either out of wedlock or possibly she had been married before.
If she had been married before then obviously it's difficult to know what name she put on the marriage cert. I located one possible marriage of a Jane Davies & a Thomas Davies 1902. Thinking I was being really clever I asked GRO to do some reference checking & said I was looking for Jane's father being Parry & her having married before. I never got an email so got quite excited that it may be the right one, but now that it's arrived Jane was a spinster whose name before marriage was Davies.

Anyway, to try to get round this I thought I'd visit the local register office. If I do, do you think they would be willing to let me look at a few options to establish which is the right one before I pay out for a cert? Also, I've never been in person before, is it better to make an appointment?
Here's hoping
Hayley

Not sure if they let you view. I have written to register office and said I would like a certificate if the mother's maiden name is ?or her father is? and enclosed a stamped addressed envelope with my cheque for £7 and they have returned my cheque with a letter saying no her maiden name was not ? or father was not? so I have saved myself £7 by not getting a wrong certificate. If you do this through GRO they take some of the £7 off you. Irene

Thanks Irene I'll give that a try. I did ask the GRO to do the reference checking thinking it would save a few pounds if it was wrong cert but clearly they haven't bothered as both points I asked them to check are incorrect

Sadly, actual registration records (and therefore certificates) cannot be viewed prior to purchase. The GRO does charge £3 for a partial search but local register offices will "usually" check for a certificate IF you spell out what your possible discrepancies MAY be.

There is a registered one name study of the surname PARRY.
Perhaps the researcher knows if or when Jane married Thomas.

Contact [email protected]

Thanks Gwyn, that sounds like a good option to me I'll give that a try

Hayley

I have written to County Registrations with a the details of event and could they check if it is right one, I always include a sae. I always get a polite in return.
Brian(i)

Thanks all, I think the local registry office is the way to go as I am a bit disappointed the GRO have not checked properly the ref I asked them to.

Hayley, this is going to sound daft, but did you actually click on the reference check link and then fill in the details, if not, they do not take any notice of additional details filled in on the order form.

Hayley.... I had exactly the same problem with the gro last week, had ordered online and clicked on the "reference checking " bit stating the grooms father must be John Furniss.....like you no email so thought I`d hit the jackpot.........but no, they sent the cert. the father was Nimrod furniss, have rung them and been told to send cert. back and they will refund £4.00........ would have been so much easier if only they had done the ref. check in the first place.

Nicky

My local register office is really helpfull.
I went in one day to get my gandmothers second marriage cert.
While I was there I asked the very nice lady if she would help me locate her first marriage & her birth cert. ( her birth was reg under a diferent name to that I was expecting it to be ).
The lady in the register office went through the books & made sure all the certs I wanted were the correct ones before I filled the forms in to request the copies.

My local register office also allows you to do your owm searches. I can't remember how much it is but you pay a certain amount & are allowed so mant hours searching.

I think the local office is always worth contacting.

Can i say that you should visit your County records office.rahter than register offices....I live in Nottingham, but my family origins are in Derbyshire.and i often go to Matlock Records office and they are extremely helpful........and you can view totally free of charge all the Parish records baptisms Weddings and burials anywhere in the County.......this is true of any County you want to research....
Hope this helps....

Derek

Good point, Derek - often a baby's date of birth (or in the case of two "married-in" relatives from Victorian times, an adult's as well if they converted to a new faith or just weren't baptised till they were older) is written down alongside the baptism record.

I have saved loads of money (obviously some key ancestors I have bought birth certificates for anyway) and found probably 100-200 birth dates (many of them from the pre-1837 period) for my ancestors just by going through the parish records. So I have got lots of birth dates for "extra" relatives who I would not necessarily have made a priority for buying a birth certificate for.

Sounds wonderful and I would love to visit the Records Office. My problem is that I am on the South Coast and all my rellies are North East and Scotland so the cost of getting there and B&B would be too expensive. Our local Records Office is brilliant and can go back to the 14th century with masses of info including maps, but is useless to me.
Ah well, one day......

Mary..somebody on here is bound to have parish record transcriptions for your search area...or at least can point you in the right direction...

Good luck Derek