Genealogy Chat

I am new to this and would like to know how you actually view the original birth, death and marriage records please. I have gone into the view original tab and it shows me a typed list in many cases with a reference number on the end of each record. Can I find these records on here or do I need to contact the Registrars office in the relevant area?
Thank you for any help with this.

Hi Jane

Unfortunately you can't view the original records without actually buying the certificate.

Once you have found the birth, marriage or death you are looking for then you can order a copy of the certificate from the GRO, which can be done online. Don't be tempted to buy from anywhere else as its usually much more expensive than the GRO standard charge of £9.50.

www.gro.gov.uk

If you're lucky enough to have ancestors in London then you can view original copies of marriage certificates for church weddings for quite a lot of the London churches. Ancestry hold these records.

Ancestry also have London baptism records - obviously not the original birth certificates but thrse records can be quite helpful.


Again, if you're lucky to have ancestors in Norfolk then the IGI (Family Search) have masses of original copies of church records online.

And if you have rellies in the Medway area of Kent then Medway Cityark is a fantastic resource.

Original birth, death and marriage certificates cannot be seen on this site nor on any other. Certificates are ordered from the General Register Office -
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/
or from the local register office.


This is a useful site:
http://www.thosedixons.net/certificates/births.html



Some parish registers can be seen in the ancestry site and others, which can be found by searching.

Happy hunting :-)

Jane, those typed lists with reference numbers you mention, are what we call the indexes.
When you come to order certificates from the GRO, as Joy and CherryBlossom have advised, you will need those reference numbers. They give the location of the record in the original ledgers where the birth, marriages & deaths were written up.

Don't be afraid to ask any questions....we were all new once!!
Good luck.

K

I've just been to the gro site to order a cert.
It used to be that you could ask for a ref check. (fathers name on a birth cert) to try to avoid buying wrong cert.
I am not seeing that capability on the gro application (online) now.
Where am I missing that step ?

Thanks, Brian

I think they stopped the checking facility when there was the last price increase on GRO.
Some people order from the local office where the registration first occured and some of these will still check before issuing a certificate.

Gwyn

The issue with reference checking was that it was time consuming and cost money, hence the GRO previously kept part of the fee even if unsuccessful. However this was found to be technically illegal and so without the possibility of legislation in the near future it had to be withdrawn, as they were unwilling to provide the service for free.

However, the GRO are still bound to try and issue a cert even if the GRO ref is not known so there is in effect a loophole by using this "non-quoted reference" route

Thus, following the withdrawal of the original reference checking facility the GRO confirmed that if a customer applies for a certificate from them and does not have a GRO reference, but they are able to supply sufficient information to help identify the record they will search in the year they quoted together if necessary, with a year either side. So, if you provide info such as the father's name you are in effect getting a 'free' ref check. If they cannot find the record on this basis, they will refund the fee in full.

Using the "non-quoted reference" route does entail the likelihood of a longer response time for those using the "standard" service. GRO aims to despatch on or by the 4th working day for those quoting a reference, but on or by the 15th working day for those without such a reference.

Thankyou Gwyn and InspectorGP, I will try the loophole route, time is not an issue for me, I just don't want to waste 9.50 on a wrong cert !

Brian