Genealogy Chat

Is it the norm that certificates from the ONS are of poorer quality than those from the local offices

I get mine from ONS and have never had any problems with. I have not ordered from anywhere else. word has it they take longer to arrive from ONS (about 10 days is norm). Fi

All of mine have alway been ok except one of the last ones I ordered and the name I was looking for was illegible. I rang them and they told me to return it and they would either get me a better copy or write it out by hand. I hope I can read the next copy...... Julie

I had been ordering mine from the local offices as it was much quicker, however i've now found that some of the larger offices will no longer supply old certificates for Family History eg Southwark - might be worth a phone call to check before hand. Sue.

All original certificates are held by the district registrars so if you get a copy it will be from the original. Some districts copy out the details. Bob

Thanks for your input - Perhaps its just coincidence that the certificates from Swansea registry Office have been of better quality than those I've ordered online

I used to order from the ONS site but recently have taken to posting my order to the local office (Halifax). The main difference between the two is that the ONS copy the original (which might make the print feint?) and the local office rewrites the information onto a new cert. Another difference is that the ONS take at least a week to send them whilst the local office sends them by return post (as long as you send a sae with the request). One other thing though, when I was last ordering certs, I ordered 3 (one birth cert & two marr certs). When I received them, a with compliments slip was enclosed telling me that one of the marriage witnesses was a church warden (which I thought was a great thing to tell me as it meant I wouldn't be trying to crowbar this person into my family tree!), and that there was a pencil mark on one of the originals querying the age of one of the husbands. Also enclosed was a photocopy picture of the church where the two marriages took place! I couldn't get over how kind it was of them to do that. I don't think I'm gonna bother with the ONS any more. Rachel

They can't copy the originals Rachel, these are held by the District Registrars. The best you will get is a photocopy of a photocopy of the original. In earlier years the registers were copied out by hand and this was sent to the GRO. This was done every three months hence the quarters. When a register became full it was sent to the District Registrar. So depending on year and area you may get a copy of the original, a copy of a transcript or a new transcription. There doesn't seem to be any standard. Bob

Please excuse my ignorance, I have always ordered my certificates from ONS, how do I use a local office. Is it the office closest to me in Cheshire or do I use the office in the areas that I want to search in mainly Devon and Yorkshire.

Thanks Max That is what I needed to know. I'm based in Cheshire and the ancestors are mainly in devon and Yorkshire so back to the ONS

Linda I live in Perth, Scotland and order my certificates from the local office, not the ONS. If you go to Genuki, that site provides all the telephone numbers and addresses of the local offices. When I want to order a cert I just write to the local office (which in my case is Halifax as thats where my gran's originates from) giving them the qtr and year the event happened and any info I have such as parents, ages, etc (although i always say that even if the info i give them is wrong, please send the certs anyway!). I enclose a cheque (certs @ £7 each), and a stamped self addressed envelope. If I were you I'd try the same, or maybe ring the office that you want to order from first to check. In my experience the office has always sent the cets back by return post (I posted a request this morning and so I'm expecting a reply on Friday. Rachel

I stopped using ONS a while ago as I got fed up with waiting so long for certificates. Most of my relatives are from Sussex and have found that most registrars will take orders on the phone using a Visa card for payment. They will also take your telephone number and ring you back if the certificate doesn't match the details you give them, saving a lot of waiting time and wasted money. Brighton has been the best one so far for me, if I order in the morning the certificate usually reaches me in Nottingham the next day. If you look on FreeBMD the addresses and telephone numbers of the registration districts are listed. Pam

Watch out for mistakes on anything that has been transcribed, even in the local office. I wasted several weeks looking for a surname Goddard, as neatly typed on a 1926 copy by the local office, only to find that it was Gorrod when I located the original documents.

Brian is right about wrong info being transcribed sometimes when a cert is obtained from a local office. Because they are hand written or typed transcriptions they are open to error. When I got my grandads birth cert from a local office, his mothers maiden name was written as Rush. I knew for a fact it was Rust. That error could have put me off track for years. I also don't agree about local offices sending certs by return of post. Some do, others take over a week. Margaret

Hullo, I had an example of a "slip of the pen" on a birth certificate the date was given as dec.1894, ( making the mother as being 14years of age.........it SHOULD have been dec. 1897.. Bob