Genealogy Chat

The short certificate is normally cheaper, but none of us bother with them as it doesn't give us any details other than what we had already found to get the certificate in the first place. When you send off for certificates, always be sure to say that you want 'the full birth certificate for....' etc. It costs 7.00 at the moment. I bet you're really fed up about this but we all have to start somewhere, and even those of us that have been at it for a couple of years can still learn new tricks, so don't be so hard on yourself. Good luck with your research.

Doris.....put all you know on here....let us help you find the ref?

As everyone has said, you need to get the full cert - you can look up the GRO ref and buy it online for £7 or just ring the office local to the event and buy it from them.

As Sam says, you have a short certificate. You need to look up the GRO reference and send for a full certificate. This will give you the details of the mother including maiden name. Good luck Keith

Mother's maiden name only started to appear in 1911. Births between 1901 & 1911 can be difficult to identify reliably, and not much will change until the new DOVE database is launched (which will have reindexed the entire GRO records right back to 1837). The 1911 census, coming along in bits between about now and 2011, will make things easier too.

Hi Wizz - very little I'm afraid. Name, dob, register, entry no. and district. This is my husband's father, the bmd record does not give his mother's maiden name whereas the bmd record for my own parents does give the mother's maiden name. One record is 1902 and the other 1911. Did info. recorded change between these two dates do you know?

Hi Doris,what details do you have on your cert.One of us could help out. Wizz

Hi Doris, I suspect you've got a short certificate which doesn't give parents. If you send for the full certificate it should have details of mother and father. Sam x

I have a birth certificate for a relative born in 1902 but it gives no details of parents. Should there be a fuller certificate at GRO giving more details? Being a newbie I'm stumped where to go from here. The marriage cert. gives the fathers name but shows him as deceased in 1929.