Genealogy Chat

ive heard that its taking about 3 months for a certificate to come through from GRO at the mo and that i can order a certificate from the local register office and it will come to me alot quicker. is this true and what is the difference as surley everyone would be doing this and recieving certs quicker??

I don't think I've heard about 3 months before - more like 3 weeks I think. With local offices, it's probably a matter of luck; I waited almost three weeks for one from Lincoln a few months ago.

Natalie Births and Deaths from a local office are easy. Marriages are a little different. Depending on the size of the place and how many churches a place has. You usually have to know which church they married at to order the cert locally. Ring and ask first. Margaret

My experience of local offices has all been excellent. Return of post, even when they said it would take longer for a "family history" cert. On some of the other threads where this topic has surfaced, they say some offices have really gone out of their way to be helpful. On the other hand, the London offices have a reputation for being rather less than helpful - they may steer you back to GRO if it's a "family history" certificate. On http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/ there's a list of the local ROs which have their own seaarchable sites. They usually have a link to generate a part-completed application for the cert - if you find what you're looking for. Christine

Natalie Register offices vary - I have found them to be quick, but some London ones refuse to provide certs for genealogy purposes :-( so you have to get them from the GRO. I have tended to order them from the GRO because I often order several at a time, all from different areas. Also the GRO send a photocopy of the entry, whereas some records offices provide a recently written (specially for your request) or typed copy which is another person's interpretation of the original writing. nell

The last two I received were 1) from GRO - typed (the only typed one I've had) 2) local office - photocopy/scan

If you can get to the local county records office they should have the parish records on fische which for marriages are the same as you get if you order a certificate, at Leicester it only costs 50p to get a printout which is slightly less than £7!!!

I use southampton Registry office, and I ring up one day and it is delivered the next, but if my anscestors dont come from Southampton then i do it on 1837 which I hate as I am so impatient and need it and want it there and then.