General Chat

Not sure if I should post this :-)
but....

did you know that you can get the mmn pre 1911 ?

If you order a certificate from the GRO {via their site} when you login you are offered an "activation code" which comes via your e-mail,this then allows you to search{for instance births} with the Surname and First names{currently only a 2 year "window" is available} and the mmn is included in the results.

I hope the site does not crash :-(

That is interesting Elizabeth.

Thanks for thar Elizabeth x

Sorry, not understanding. If you order a certificate is the mothers own name not on it?

You need to actually purchase it before you can find out the mmn Dottie.

Elizabeth.......please can you tell me where on the page i can find the........Activation Code.

Edit..........No worries, i found it.

Island

Cannot get the URL to "copy" :-(

Go to the GRO sight as if ordering certificate - click on "order certificate" and when you go to enter your login details you will need an "activation code" {it is a new thing} that is sent to your e-mail address and you can click on it there and it is activated

The search gives you the mmn PRE 1911- without having to buy the certificate!

Well......

I have the e-mail and i have the activation code........and i have activated

Call me daft..........but can you tell me where to go from there please Elizabeth.

Daft Prickles. :-S

Bingo!!!

What would you like to do?

You click on .........Search the GRO Indexes

Brilliant. Thank you Elizabeth.......it works!

Yes - I have found the mmn of 2 of my grandfathers brothers - my gt grandfather married twice and could not find his marriages at all :-)

Yes Prickles, that's what I'm saying. The mothers name is on the certificate. I know it has to be purchased to see it so what's the advantage with Elizabeths method?
'If you order...' suggests making a purchase. :-S

I see the wording is different now

I've always looked at the marriage pre 1911 for mothers own name.

If you don't know the mmn.........it saves you £9.25 by not having to purchase the certificate.

Elizabeth has just saved me £9.25

;-)

Look up the marriage, it's always worked for me.

But thank you Elizabeth, I'll have a look later :-)

The birth i searched for was in 1838 Dottie.

So i had no way of looking up the parents marriage.

Not even on Family search?

I must say I thought the GRO only had registers post 1837 and even then they are sparse.
It's good to know that women existed pre 1911 ;-)

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp

PatinCyprus has just posted on a separate thread this link to the new GRO guidance and information

That is great news. Thank you.

Wow! Thank you for that Elizabeth

sometimes births, as most of you know, are registered in the fathers name(IF) you know it, but in the case of not married births...if you know the childs first name...search under the maiden name for any births

GRO does only have registers post July 1 1837 ................

what has happened is that they have digitised records for Births and Deaths with more information added, especially mmn on births, and have now made those available to search for free.

Then you can order the certificate if you want to know more ............ eg, the address or occupation of father, etc.

They say they are working on Marriages.

Note that not all birth certificates have mmn for some reason, so that can be a difficulty.


The only snag that I have noticed is that they do not seem to have a system to add mnths or yrs to the age of someone who has died, so just the number appears .......

........ bit disconcerting when you have a very distinctive name but the age indicates they were born 8 years before it actually happened. Then you realise it has to be them, and they were 8 months old!

Shame it only covers 1837 to 1915.