Genealogy Chat

nudge

Have taken good notice of the helpful tips. Just to underline the importance of the witnesses on marriage certs. I had saved for over a year the census details of a family of Donoghues but couldn’t prove they were the right ones as I didn’t have older children’s names. Finally last week had enough info to send for my grandmother’s sister’s marr cert. Witnesses Benjamin and Norah proved I had the right family after all, and Norah’s married name has opened up a new avenue to explore, as on the census her in-laws were living in the same street as other family members. This is the first real progress I’ve made on my grandmother’s family. Happy rellie hunting. Carol

Dea, If you order via .www.gro.gov.uk/gro then you can fill in boxes for parents names or cross ref to surnames etc. just look for the reference box at the bottom and click on it to bring down the details box. If you order via local authorities you may have to send an hand written note with your order saying what your parameters are. good hunting Dave

Dave, Many thanks for this thread. I'm not a 'newbie' but I have never thought of investigating witnesses who I don't recognise as relatives. Perhaps I can now trace some missing G G Aunts. Rosemary(Essex)

Informants on death certs are more likely to be close relatives rather than friends. I mean who would you get to be present at your dying mother or fathers bedside, a friend or a family member, so if you get the wrong cert, or if you are still unsure if it is the right one, check and then research witnesses at marriages or informants on death certs. Witnesses were also often relatives.

Ha! Ha! i have just read my piece on your first page, and guess what! the RIGHT one arrived last week and again it was the WRONG one, so don't be like me and give advice without knowing what you are doing!!!LOL> MOE!

Another little tip is check IGI. I have purchased several copies of wedding certificates only to find the details later on IGI. I could have used that £7 to buy another copy of a certificate to help my research. Good Luck Irene

I have received both photocopies of originals AND freshly typed or handwritten modern copies from the GRO. Similarly, I have also received photocopies of the originals when ordering directly from the relevant Register Office. I guess it depends on the day and who's finding your cert for you!

Just had a stroke of luck. I recieved a marriage cert and the witnesses were Joe and Ann Elizabeth Mallinson. No one in my tree by that surname but from my early childhood I remembered an 'aunt' Ann'Lizabeth but had no idea of her married name so now I was able to look up Joe Mallinson on free BMD and there he was marrying my great aunt Ann E Ellis Also I've just sent off for a birth cert 1839 the sister of my ggggrandfather who was born 1836 it might just solve a mystery of the unknown lady who was a boarder on one census, mother-in-law on another census and a mother on the next. Good hunting, Dave

Hi Again, Rose you can request a better copy if the writing is poor. Take a photo-copy and send back the original. Another tip I had an ancestor born 1837 and couldn't find a reference so I assumed that he was born before the start of the BMD referencing. Very annoying, but again I was able to send for a later sibling's Birth Certificate and so find the mothers maiden name.

I keep a record card at the front of each line in my folders, with a note of the name, type of cert and GRO ref. Then when I have a bit of spare cash I can flick through them, pick out the most 'useful' ones, cross them out and order them. Every few months I go through them and see if I'm missing any refs or if there's anything that I really ought to order. Seems to work for me. Regards Trudy

Has anyone mentioned that ordering on line you can do a reference check. My husband is still trying to find the birth of a Wiliam Williams, Oscroft Tarvin. From the census he knew the parents were Thomas and Martha so cross checked on 4 certs. I think they remove £3 for this . Still can't find him but through the brother Samuel, has mothers maiden name.

nudge

Another tip! Ask all your relatives if they have any of the old certificates. I never imagined any of mine would so was quite disgruntled when I told my cousin I'd ordered my g grandfathers marriage cert only for her to tell me she already had it! Debby

The only thing I can add is - Check, check and check again, never assume and don't be in too much of a hurry to order any Certificate. I badly wanted a birth cert for a Mary Lowther but as it happened I was strapped for cash and she had to go on hold, as it happens she was the wrong Mary..mine had been registered under her fathers middle name! (Confusing lot my Lowthers but that's another story) With some there will always be an element of doupt and you may have to take a chance. Oh and when you have a small colection make a note somewhere of the ones you already have - I've ordered the same Marriage cert twice by mistake too.

A couple of points to add: David and Nell - yes, the GRO will usually give you a photocopy of their copy (well, actually I believe they do it by computer now) but if it doesn't come out very well they may copy it out by hand or type it out instead. Also a local register office can often provide a photocopy of the original, but sometimes can't. I have a feeling that the original obtained in this way of a marriage cert would only contain the people's actual signatures if they married at the register office? Otherwise you would be better looking at the parish register entry if you wanted to see the signatures? (But in the only case where I really wanted to see the actual signature they had married at the register office, and the local register office sent me a copy.) Secondly, bear in mind if you order a birth certificate of a sibling instead of your ancestor that he or she could have a different mother from your ancestor, unless you are certain their mother was the same, i.e. you have the family on censuses before and after the birth of the sibling and the wife is the same on both and your ancestor was also born between the two censuses. Or something like that. What I mean is don't make the mistake of getting a younger sibling's birth certificate and assuming the mother was also the mother of your ancestor when she was really his or her stepmother. But certainly it can be a good idea. Kate.

To set the record straight as it were. I stand correcting on this but as I understand it local records were/are copied and sent to a centralised office in London - the GRO National Archives. If you request a certificate from the nationalarchives(.)gov.uk they use a template with a hole in it and photocopy the copy. You then get a certificate with the current date of issue and the old copied information. If you request a certificate from the Local registry office you get a photocopy of the original, again using a cut out template to give the current date of issue and issue number. Hope this helps

This is definitely good advice. I can't really call myself a newbie or novice anymore but I do get a bit over-excited if I think I've found mine. Over the last week I've ordered two lots of certs. First batch of 3. 4 days later a batch of 8. Because I was careless, the batch of 8 included 2 I had already ordered in the batch of 3. That could be either £14 wasted or £28 if they're the wrong ones. SO, definitely good advice David. Best wishes Jan xx

Don't do as i did. Looked for great g/father for weeks found him so excited sent for cert, wrong parents names. double checked and further down the image page was the right one, i just assumed the first one was him as everything seemed to match, i ended up going over all the birth pages again and some extra ones so lots of time wasted ....MOE!

Using the names of other siblings with less common names is often useful when searching census returns too. Don't forget to do as much as possible for free before you spend your hard earned brass as we say up here.