Genealogy Chat

It struck me that, in generations to come, people will hit a 'brick wall' when they get to me! There are false details on my birth certificate but I'm told that only my parents can alter it. As they died decades ago that may prove difficult! If anyone out there has managed to correct their own details, without costly court procedure, I'd be very interested. Thank you for your time, Denise

I believe they can be changed in EXCEPTIONAL circumstances, but this can only be done through the GRO. Just done a google and one piece of advice was to either e-mail the GRO or visit your local registration office for help and advice. If it were me, I would book an appointment with my local superintendent registrar, show them the cert, explain the problem and ask if anything can be done. Jay

Hi, I would go straight to the Register Office where your Birth was registered.....they should ammend it. My marriage certificate had my Dad's name mispelt, they changed it no problems. Stella X

Ask the GRO directly to find out what is possible. Go to the GRO website, click on Births, Can I Change a Birth Record at a Later Date?, Further Queries and it will give you e-mail and telephone contacts . Jack

Depends on what the errors are. As already said above, some changes need the General Registrar's say-so, so best to contact GRO directly. If you go and see the Sup Reg, they'll probably ring GRO anyway. The staff in the relevant section can deal with specific queries and should be the fount of all knowledge on that particular topic! Jack

Without giving away sensitive nfo, can you tell us what is wrong with it, then we can better advise if it likely to be changeable

I do know that any 'major' errors have to be accompanied with absolutely rock hard proof, which you may find difficult to supply so long after the event. If it is merely that your name has been spelled wrongly, that shouldn't be a problem. But for instance, let us hypothesise and say that the man named as your father on your birth cert is not in truth your father. You will have to prove this before the Registrar will change anything. You can see why if you think about it - we could all traipse along to the Registrar and say our real father was Elvis Presley, otherwise. Sorry, not trying to make light of your predicament. OC