Genealogy Chat

I can find Vol. number, page and line number, for my relatives, but where can I see more detail of these registers, I think need this information for confirmation.

Welcome to the boards Jean.

The index is purely that. To order a certificate for £9.25 go to
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/

If the record you need is for a person now deceased , if you'd like to give us some details we may be able to find more info on other subscription ( or free ) sites.

Unfortunately people get the impression from advertising etc. that all you have to do is sign up to sites such as Genes, Findmypast etc. and you can find out all sorts of things with no extra cost. These sites only give you the means for finding the documents you really need.

Family history research is an expensive hobby ..........I know because over the course of about 13 years I have spent literally thousands of pounds. I have about 100 certificates and all sorts of other documents, army service records, print outs from record offices etc. etc. The money soon mounts up.

Kath. x

Thank you Kathleen - I'm beginning to find out. Paid subscription for a year in advance thinking I would need the time to search and search. Found almost all I can - without spending more - in a couple of days. Need to see the record to identify people properly. Don't want to be paying for the wrong thing!!

Unfortunately we have all bought certs that turn out not to be The One !! It's par for the course I,m afraid .

It's nor possible to see the info without buying the cert ALTHOUGH Ancestry do have parish record copies of London marriages and some outside London depending on the boundaries at that time . That is nice to see as it's the original writing and signatures and can be printed off .

FindMyPast also have a good selection of parish records (with images) for various parts of England and Wales. Their military records are good, too.

Sometimes there may be a mention of a marriage or death in the newspapers (British Newspaper Archives - also on FindMyPast) which can give useful info.

FamilySearch (free site) has unindexed parish record images for parts of the UK which, whilst not searchable, can be easily browsed if you know the parish(es) and timescale for an event.

FreeReg (free site) can give useful transcriptions. There are also Online Parish Clerks (free sites) for certain counties that give loads of information, although not necessarily images.

Buying a certificate is a last resort if the above options fail.

Doesn't matter if you don't have access yourself to the other subscription sites, other people on here are always happy to look information up for you if you give details.

Thank you for all your responses. Its good to know there is help out there. :-)

Find My Past has free access this weekend. Its mainly the same records as Genes - they use the same data base - but you may find something new on there.

More on indexes:

Here's a couple of hits from the GRO index

Births Jun 1902 (>99%)
HINDLEY Lena Wigan 8c 48

Births Sep 1902 (>99%)
Hindley Doris Wigan 8c 21


One can also buy BMD certs from the local registers office that now holds the registers (in this case, Wigan & Leigh).
Some of these local rego offices have their local indexes at least partly online, see:
http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/local_bmd

Here's the same two hits
Lancashire Birth indexes for the years: 1902
Surname Forename(s) Sub-District Registers At Mother's Maiden Name Reference
HINDLEY Doris Aspull Wigan & Leigh ATHERTON ASPL/57/80
HINDLEY Lena Wigan Wigan & Leigh ATHERTON WIG/228/240

As you can see, the local indexes don't have the same info - indeed they can't as they store there records in a difft way from the GRO, so they must have a difft local ref.
Here, the local ref is decoded for us - it isn't always.

You can see the local ref includes the mum's maiden surname in this case, even though the GRO index doesn't pre-1911q3.
The local ref must include the subdistrict, which in this case allows me to exclude one of these births from my interest.
The last item in the local ref is either an entry # or a page # - Bs & Ds above 100 must be entry #s; entry #s are usually used for marrs, so one knows who wed whom, even pre-1912.

Here's the GRO index hit:
Marriages Mar 1893 (>99%)
Atherton Jane Wigan 8c 104
Foley James Wigan 8c 104
Hindley Joshua Wigan 8c 104
Karney Ann Wigan 8c 104

and the matching local hit:
Lancashire Marriage indexes for the years: 1893
Surname Forename(s) Surname Forename(s) Church / Register Office Registers At Reference
HINDLEY Joshua ATHERTON Jane St. George, Wigan Wigan & Leigh C30/7/267

The local refmust name the rego the marr is in - either a church or the registrar's own rego - decoded for us here.


Josh & Jane were in Aspull 1901 & 1911.


It's always worth checking if there's a local rego hit for your GRO hits