Genealogy Chat

Hi i also used the local registry office (edmonton) they first checked to make sure they had both certificates then rang me to say they had them they were posted the same day and received them the next day thats service for you they were really helpful to.They ocst me £7.00 each certificate Tracy

JoJo don't know what happened in your case. Website for Leicester shows the standard fee as being £7. Are you sure they didn't charge you for a specific search - £15 seems incredible. As the registry offices are government owned they all have standard charges - what can differ is whether or not they charge for postage and quite a few of them ask for SAEs. Perhaps it was an error on the assistant registrar's part and they didn't like to own up to it? Shame it's put you off. On the whole local registry offices are better than the GRO although oneor two of them can get a bit shirty and I believe one or two (perhaps London way) don't do it at all. But I still swear by them even if my local one is one of the one's who are shirty (Harrogate office if anyone's looking!).

Obviously got someone who did not know what they were doing. The office was very busy. I did explain what I wanted and filled the form in with all the information I had. i.e. Full name date and place of birth for both people. They took two weeks to arrive as well and were folded into small envelopes! JoJo

ordered 3 certs from West brom RO on wednesday about 12.30pm, got a phone call from Graham (yes we are on first names terms) about half hour later to say one of the birth certs had a different mom did I still want it? said yes and collected them at 2pm Excellent service from the people, if only I could order all of mine from there, Just done a mass order on GRO been as waiting time is good only got charged 7 per cert with GRO numbers Linda

Jo Jo I'm not sure if I've misunderstood but the GRO reference wouldn't help the staff at a local register office as they have different reference numbers. Heather

Jo jo You got TWO certificates - did you pay £15 each for them, or £15 for two? As for the GRO, there are two places on the form where you can put reference checks - one is free, the other costs £3. It goes like this: Please send me copy of Birth Cert 1b 276 for Joe Bloggs. Father to be Fred Bloggs. If 1b 276 is the bc for Joe Bloggs and the father is Fred Bloggs, you get it for £7. If Joe Bloggs/Fred Bloggs is wrong, you dont get the cert, but you do get charged £3, for their trouble in finding it and looking at it. Further down the form somewhere it says Reference Checking point. This is where you want them to compare two birth certs - you want the one which has Fred Bloggs for the father, but you dont know if that is 1b 276 or 1b 279. So you are asking them to find TWO certs, but only send you the right one. Cost £10 i.e. £7 for the correct one, and £3 for finding and looking at the wrong one. If you had ordered these certs separately, giving the same information for the father as Fred Bloggs, you would have paid the same price, so its as broad as its long. OC

Anyway, Valerie, it sounds as though something funny happened when you tried to add the reference check the first time and then again, so it treated it as 2 references, and so charged for the second one. Kate.

I agree I must have assumed as there was 0 in the reference checking box it hadnt worked I have emailed them will see what they say, it should have a figure 1 in the reference box so you know it has accepted it.