Genealogy Chat

viewing birth and death cert. without having to pay? Do i need to know where that person was born or died? I am new to this so not sure what i should be doing. Any sites would be good.

You can't view the actual certificates without paying - only the entries in the index. If you want to see the contents of the certificate you have to order a copy from the GRO

Sarah You can't see certificates without paying. In order to see the info on the cert you have to buy it. Scottish certs can be seen online, but there's still a charge. As you are new, I suggest that you go to the homepage on this website and scroll down until you find Genealogy Resources. Click on Getting Started and read the bit on civil registration. Please ask if you have more queries. nell

I got a mail from 'Georgina' from the Birmingham area who said she is able to view birth and marriage certificates from the local area at Birmingham Central Library for no charge I'd not heard of this before - Can anyone confirm or deny this??

I'd agree with you Cali. Birth and death certificates are copies of entries in the registers held by the registrar and are not available to view. Perhaps Georgina meant she saw copies of the index, or maybe she was looking at marriages in parish registers post 1837 - which have the same layout and info as the certificate.

Cali...Go into your contacts and find Georgina and ask her what she actually found.Then post back on here and tell us.

Hi, Marriage certs are copies of entries in parish registers. If you know the name of the church you can search the parish register in the county record office or via the LDS. Birth and death certs you have to buy but you can see baptisms and burials in Parish records. Gwynne

The nice thing about looking at those entries is you get to see your ancestors actual writting. I have a photocopy of my grandparents marriage entry from the church records from the records at birmingham library. It's nice to see their familiar signatures :) Sioux

Ok - I've mailed Georgina and asked her to come into this thread and explain all.....!

Yes, I looked at the parish registers for my lot and it was quite choking to see their names and signatures or X for marriages and the little kids burials and baptisms. Mine went back to 1735 in the register - brilliant experience.

Hi Georgina, Parish records have baptisms not births (although sometimes the birth dates are noted). Not all babies are baptised in their first few weeks. Some are not baptised until they are adults. Birth certs give you the maiden name of the mother which you don't often get on parish records. It's important to distinguish between a baptism date and a birth date. Gwynne