Genealogy Chat

Has anyone posted a thread with guidelines on how to order certificates online from GRO, I haven't come across one in my searches. This is my first time ever and it looks far to complicated, am getting confused & frustrated. Also is the same ref numbers on ancestry BMD Index eg Vol 4 a Pg 89 the same as what the GRO index ref will be.??? I may just give up and try the good old fashioned way by post.

It is very easy to order online. You have to tick the box that states you have the GRO reference number and you will be charged £7. If you do not fill in the reference number the charge is more. Take your time, it will show you all your request before you confirm your order so you can check to see if you have made any mistakes. The more often you do it the easier it will become. It does save you postage as if you order by post you have to provide a stamped addressed envelope and then there is the stamp for your letter. Good luck Irene

Right, you have found GRO online? You have the GRO ref (bmd/ancestry are the ones!). You are asked if you have the GRO ref. Make sure you tick that box as yes. You are asked what the event is. Birth/Marriage or Death You are asked what year it is You then complete the bits they need - may be the name of one of a married couple (you can put both if you know them). Dont worry if you only know one! You use the ref you have. You will have the year already. The area, quarter 1,2,3 or 4 (ok?) the volume and the page no. Put all those in. (not sure if thats the order of them, but you can work that out) It will ask you if you want to have a ref check. If you are sure its the right one then you dont want a check. You can ask for points like, you only want the marriage cert if the brides fathers name is Fred. It will cost £7. It will show you what cert you ordered. Oh they ask something like What reference is this? Dont worry, you dont have to put anything in there or you can make something up - just so you know what this cert is (thats if you order lots of them really) It will then ask you to complete your card details and thats it! Keep the reference they give you in case of queries and keep the despatch date handy. Good luck, if Ive complicated that or left anything out, let me know.

The GRO website is www.gro.gov.uk The volume number and page number are the details you need, together with the year, and quarter. Make sure that when you see the question 'Are GRO refs known' you tick the box for 'yes', otherwise you will be charged more than the £7.00 minimum. Reg

It is not too complicated. You go to the site and click where it says ordering certificates online. Then you tick the box for whichever it is, birth, death or marriage. Then you fill in the relevant details and there is a space for the year, the name,GRO no. vol. and page, also the quarter(jan feb march/ apl may Jun/ Jul Aug sep/ or Oct nov dec. Then there is a box that says ref check and this means that you can specify that they check parents names or such. This helps to prevent you getting the wrong one. Then you proceed to payment (£7.00 for full cert with Gro number supplied.... dearer without) and there you have it. Print off or write down details of transaction and reference number. They should then send you an e mail confirmation of your order. ...... and then you wait.... and wait. Good luck!!

ps. Yes! those are the same numbers. M

Thanks everyone for your tips. I'll give it another go. Ha, perhaps 3rd time lucky!

What do you know, it's worked, easy as pie and should have my cert in few days time.!!

Firstly Wherever you go to buy a certificate the cost when you know the reference number is normally £7.00 only. Just to give a bit of background. IF you are not on a computer then one place where you can get BMD info is the Family Records Centre (FRC) in Islington, London. They have a copy of all that is in the GRO, Southport. The ground floor of the FRC is split into 3 sections B M & D. On shelves are massive volumes for each year and each quarter year. So you think you know Grgrma Smith was born about 1847 then you go to the Births 'S' 1845 Jan-March and start searching. You may not find the birth until 1851 by which time you have lugged the volumes down and back to the shelves 24 times. They are not light weight plus the fact that you are standing at high desks for the whole period of your search. Having found the entry you note the Year, quarter and Reference numbers shown alongside the entry, fill in a form, make out a self addressed envelope (they are provided) and pay your money at the counter. You go home and wait for delivery which will come from GRO Southport. Now when you go to 1837online you will see photocopies of each page of each actual volume, FreeBMD or Ancestry (which uses FreeBMD dadabase) depends to a large extent on transcriptions, though you are still able to view the actual photocopy. Information you gain is sent by you on the Certificate ordering service of GRO. If you make a mistake in your order then GRO may search for no more than 18 months either side of the date that you gave but in all probability they will charge you for the look-up that you gave maybe incorrectly and refund you £4. If you read the blurb on the Ordering Service pages you will see that you can ask for express delivery etc., etc., and shows the charges for each service. You can also look up BMD on local/county registers in some cases, so that if you live N.E England you can do look-ups through : http://www.nebmd*co*uk/ change the asterisks to dots. You will see that the reference numbers differ from those on FRC or GRO and so they do with all local registrars, so if on one of the FRC or GRO type websites you find Vol and Page Nos. they will be meaningless in local or county offices. By the way if you are applying for a marriage certificate prior to 1911 give ONLY the name of the party you KNOW - the counterparty will be confirmed when you receive the certificate. OR you can stipulate on the order form that the other party MUST be ........... or the father's name MUST be - these are reference points. Same applies to Births where you dont know if you have the right Birth as no mothers names are given - state that send only if the mothers or fathers name is ........ Hope this helps you.

Thanks Joe, that's certainly helpful. Im going to print this thread as everyone's tips have being v helpful & so that I can refer to it in the future. This is all knew to me.