Genealogy Chat

I understand the price for downloadable virtual certs will be 3.50 - but who knows? I agree with Nell,and I also think its a rip off to have to pay 7.00 for a wrong cert!!!! Olde Crone

Actually, I think they should grade the pricing for certs. So, for example, ones which give all the forenames of a person, plus have witnesses with unusual names who are thus easier to trace, and which are legibly written should be more expensive than the bargain certs - you know what I mean, -the ones that are written by drunken illiterate spiders who dance with inky feet all over the page. -marriage certs say 'of full age' give no occupation for the bride, don't mention that the father of the groom is dead and generally don't allow you to move your research on at all. -Death certs that tell you someone died of 'old age' when they are in their 90s, and where the informant is someone you've never heard of -birth certs that just give a village name and just say male or female. nell

Non of mine were born or lived in Scotland, just happened to be there when granny died, why they were there is amystery--I just struck lucky I guess!! Hoe much do you reckon thy will charge for virtual certs? do I ned to start saving today

Sorry - I had forgotten that there are those extremely lucky people whose relatives had the decency to be born/married/died in Scotland! If you have seen the images on-line then of course you have virtually GOT the certificate anyway. I was talking about we poor underprivileged English, who have to save up, send off and wait for the b**** certs! Still, never mind, soon WE will be able to view virtual certs on line too - me, I can't wait for that happy day (2008, was the last I heard, anyone know different?) Olde Crone

If you pay the money Scotlands People ask for the intrnet search you don't need the certificate. My irish ? american cherokee indian GG granny popped her clogs in Glasgow of cerebral apoplexy in1922, it gives the address she died at , her parents names and occupations and mothers maiden name, who was present when she died ie my GG Grandad, what his occupation was and the name of the doctor was---who needs a certificate after all that lot? The only thing it doesn't tell me is what the heck they were doing in Scotland, in their 70's away from all their family in Ireland!!!!! or what happenedto granda who dropped off the face of the earth about then, or if there is any truth to the rumour that runs in the family that she was born in Philadelphia and was part Cherokee---- the womans giving me a cerebral apoplexy!!!!!!! Carol

Oh yes, good idea about the gift vouchers. Or better still, once the manic rush engendered by Who Do You Think You Are has died down again and the GRO staff are left twiddling their thumbs and drinking more coffee than is really good for them, they could have a Happy Hour once a week maybe. All certs ordered then cost £1. Or maybe a Buy One Get One Free offer - maybe linked to marriage partners. So you order your great great grandfather's birth certificate, and you get your great great grandmother's birth certificate free. Or maybe they could give loyalty bonuses - you know the kind of thing. You get a token with every cert you order and when you have collected say 10 tokens, you can trade them in for a free certificate. Why don't we all just take over the GRO - we have so many good ideas! Tina

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this wonderful thread. I have really enjoyed it. ITV knew what they were doing when they bought you up. You are the best thing since sliced bread. Might I be allowed to offer a couple of helpful suggestions? a) Save money for certs by running after taxis rather than buses, or even hire stretch limos --white ones if possible with cocktail cabinets. b) Why doesn't the GRO have a gift voucher scheme, a la amazon or many other on-line shopatoriums. Just think, an easy option for hopeless present buyers, i.e. the men in your life, and what joy when the e mail pops into your inbox ''So and so has just sent you a certificate gift certificate for x x pounds.'' It'd have to be at least fifty, or they'd look cheap. Well, I can dream. For me, even if I can send off for them, they get lost on the way out here....

Nell, I have that one sorted. Pick up all the census you have printed out - In MY case, LOTS!!! Go into the bathroom and stand on the scales - paperwork in hand. !! Then order all the certs you need. Once they have arrived - go through all the paperwork and tear it up. Go back into the bathroom with just the certs!! I guarantee - you will be lighter.!!! Dea x

The problem with giving up certificates is that it doesn't help you to lose weight, so as soon as I have found something I can give up to pay for them, I will be getting some more.

i too have a McGuire in my tree (allegedly) through marriage. havnt quite got there yet, we are in the north east of england.

Ang - Been there - Done that.! - That was the first thing I sacrificed when I joined this site and took up this 'hoddy' (addiction ! ?) I noticed that if you didn't dust for a couple of days - the dust settled, BUT, If you didn't dust for a couple of weeks - It was still there. People would come to visit, look a round, and think - god ! - She hasn't dusted for days - when really - I hadn't dusted for weeks. Therefore - Once a month is good !! - If you visit me at the beginning of the month you think I am wonderful and If you visit me at the end of the month - I don't open the door !!!!!!!!!!!! Dea x

Sorry can not give up the ciggies, would not recognise the laptop if it wasn't under a cloud of smoke! I am however prepared to give up housework. This will save money on cleaning products so more money for certificates. It has an added bonus of having more time to sit & internet search for more certificates. With some of the amazing cost cutting we have discovered I think Gordon Brown better watch out!!

James - as far as I know there is no point ordering a certificate from Scotland if you have already looked at the image on Scotland's People. I believe it would just be a hard copy of the same thing. But if you are looking for a birth, marriage or death that took place after the cut-off date that they have for the online images of each, you would have to order the certificate. The GRO (England and Wales) is separate from the Scottish GRO, but I would imagine all the Scottish ordering info is somewhere on the Scotland's People site. As I say, though, unless you are after something that is too recent to be on there you wouldn't need to order the cert. I think you can order a copy of some 'Old Parochial Register' entries from Scotland's People where the image is not available online (yet), so if you get far back enough you might end up doing that. But there probably won't be as much information on those as there would be on the civil registration entries. As for Ireland - that is a whole other ball game! Kate.

My latest cert arrived yesterday,19 days after I placed the order.

Mothers Day? What Mothers Day? So far there has been a deafening silence from my children. I realise now of course that I have missed a golden opportunity. What I should have done is dropped some fairly unsubtle reminders a few days back, and then when they turned round and said (as I know they will), 'But Mother, you said you were giving up chocolate so we did not buy you any. And when we buy you flowers you leave them dead in the vase for weeks and weeks.' That is the point where I should have said, 'Buy me a certificate instead. I'll leave you a list of what I want'. Ah me, why do I always have these good ideas too late. Tina (unloved and unwanted)

Oh you lovely people, really needed cheering up today so had a read through and had a really good laugh. Sue, you could always go for cheaper accommodation. I've booked in at the LSE so that I have money left over to order the certs when I go searching at the Family Records Centre, and I'm drooling at the thought of my first visit to Kew.

Yep, you guessed it kate - Scotlands where ALLLLLLLLLL the relies are from BUT with an Irish sounding name like mine (McGuire) I'm expecting to have to jump over to Ireland sometime soon. Thanks Sue, I might just go ahead and order some (how exciting). Seems nice and tidy too to have certs and especially if they have extra bits of info on them :-) Are they typed up? Cause some of the ones I've seen online are really hard to read - hate to get someones occupation wrong. Especially when I found one with the word (illegitimates) directly under Fishworker. Thanks for the clues to happy family hunting - I'm finding it addictive :-) So is it better to order from GRO??? or Scotlandspeople???? Are the same people??? James, It's pouring with rain in New Zealand and England just pipped us for the Gold medal in badmington mixed doubles - sadness.

Hi, Love the idea of this thread however I wont give up chocolate but as easter is coming up I could just eat the kids chocolate (they're too young to know any differnt) so could save a bit there. Can't take up smoking to give it up as my husband hates smokers and would divorce me. May have to think about what he costs me, maybe should take up smoking! LOL. Could someone tell me what site to look at to get Scottish certs on line? Is it very expensive? Thanks Toni PS could luck to those trying to give up to save money.

James - pick me - I can answer that one!! NO - they don't charge us any extra for sending the certs to NZ. SO>>>>>>>the answer is to order as many as you can afford so that you are ahead of the game for when they cotton on to this. The downside is that we wait extra long for them to arrive....and....the postie sometimes leaves them sticking halfway out of the box in the rain, so by the time you get home from work to get the mail in, it's soggy....but I have had them arrive as quickly as 6 days! I'm on a certificate-free diet at the moment, as I'm saving my cents to stay in exhorbitantly expensive UK accommodation on my long-awaited UK trip this August/Sept, and our naughty little kiwi dollar keeps sliding down the graph :-(. Have fun, and order online from GRO. Sue (in NZ)

Having just consumed a year's supply of chocolate (3 x daughter's Mothers Day offerings of Thornton Continental) and not being prepared to give up smoking (because I roll my own, which is a saving of about #30 per week anyway) I have nothing to give up! Oh, I could give up drink I suppose - I HAAAAATE whiskey, so shall give that up, saving myself 12 quid a week, or 14 quid if I can find a dearer brand to give up. If anyone in my family points out that I don't actually drink whiskey, I shall immediately confess to having been a secret tippler all these years of course. Um - don't know how you can do your family tree without actually getting certs. I reckon at least a third of my certs have produced a surprise, including the most annoying one of the mother not being who you confidently assumed she was - a lot can happen between census, you know! And the father not being named either - another false trail if you assumed it was the man she was living with some years later. And the most annoying ever - my 3 x GGF turning out to be illegitimate, but 'adopted' by his Uncle and Aunt unofficially. This means that the previous five generations are wrong! Olde Crone