Genealogy Chat

Thanks for that Christine, can you make the requests online for YorkBMD? And do you know the cost?

Christine - Are the Lister in Leeds the ones I mention or by you saying there are millions do you its guesswork?

Hi This is the website: http://www.yorkshirebmd.org.uk (one of a whole lot listed on http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/) The ref acts as a link to an application form. The different counties vary as to whether or not you can apply online or have to use the post or phone - and whether they can take credit cards or only cheques. The fees are the same as for GRO - i.e £7 if you quote the relevant ref (GRO refs don't apply for local ones and vice versa). Some local offices are extremely helpful - there are a couple of threads about which local offices do/don't help genealogy applications. If you have a look on the site yourself, you'll see that there are screeds of LISTERs in Leeds area - but the names/DoBs in combination mean that the ones I spotted are very likely to be yours. The tricky bit would be to identify which others might also be yours without having to shell out for all the certs to find out! Christine

Here's an illustration of the problem, but using Mary Ann... Yorkshire Birth indexes for the years: 1855 Surname Forename(s) Sub-District Registers At Reference PAWSON Mary A Morley Leeds MOR/7/228 PAWSON Mary Ann Leeds West Leeds WEST/44/40 There aren't any other Mary A PAWSONs born since 1852 or up to 1860 (or not transcribed on the site, anyway) but both the ones that are, are in the same likely year! Christine

So which is best local RO or GRO?

Opinions vary - largely based on experience, of course. Some of the offices are very quick, very helpful, and some absolutely not. (Worth a look for those threads on that topic, I think.) The certs from GRO are usually photocopies of the GRO register entries. That means that the transcription was done at the time, rather than recently, but it's still a transcription. Many of the local ROs send typed or modern-script transcriptions. I have seen it suggested that they'll send you photocopy-style certs if you ask. This is an extract from the welcome-page of the UKBMD site I mentioned: <<Quarterly, the original indexes were re-transcribed and then re-indexed by the central government and these indexes have been made available as the GRO indexes, many of which are available for viewing at web sites listed under the National button. (e.g. FreeBMD) However, the simple act of making this secondary GRO copy has introduced many errors and omissions in the national indexes - so the recommendation is to always look for an original data first, i.e. the local indexes.>> There's also a link there to an article on the topic. Christine PS - I have used both. Local offices tend to give more personal service; GRO online is pretty efficient - unless there's been a genealogy series on TV recently, and the surge in interest always slows them down terribly!

Thanks again to both Christine and Merry