Genealogy Chat

.

Does anyone know of an easier way to get copies of an entry if you are unable to physically get to the Records Office in question? Last week I contacted one to obtain copies of 3 baptism entries and a marriage and have been advised that the charge is £25 an hour. I replied that I do not require them to search, I have the dates and the church from IGI, I just want to see the entries in order to verify them for myself, but they are saying that unless I have the references for these entries then all they can offer is the search facility. It seems a bit expensive for 4 photocopies! Has anyone else managed to get copies any other way? Thanks Lou

Hi Lou, A few years ago it was possible to get copies for about £1 from most ROs if you had the church and the exact date. Sadly the popularity of our hobby has meant the ROs have increased charges or they would be copying all day. Ask the RO if they have a list of local researchers. I have a couple of contacts who will copy entries from the film of the records for me and charge £2. It costs 50p - £1 to do a copy on the machine so I don't think the charge is excessive. If I want a lot of copies I order the film at the LDS and copy them myself. Gwynne

What a shame Lou, it must depend on the records office as I have in the past contacted offices to ask if they could confirm a date I had got from the IGI and they sent a photocopy of the page for the cost of copying and postage. One office which did quote a 'search fee' only charged for a half hour search which included finding and copying baptisms of my two gt gt grandparents and their marriage entry. I didn't have reference numbers, just ages and place of birth from census entries but I had given them enough details to find the info quickly. They searched a couple of years either side of the years I'd quoted and even provided me with the names and baptism dates of some siblings who they had found. None of this will help with the office which hasn't helped you though. Perhaps if you ask on here someone will be able to get visit the office and copy the entry for you?Good luck Judith

Thanks everyone I suspected that it was, as Gwynne, said, that the increase in the hobby has increased the demand for their time and services. I recently obtained copies of burial records from Essex for 65p each copy which is why I was surprised at the response this time. I shall have to do as suggested and either try and find someone who is likely to be going to the Records Office at some time in the future or try and find a local researcher who can locate them and copy them for me. BTW Ruth, any idea who would hold the records for Mountsorrel???? Lou

Ive had stuff sent to me from different record offices, Whitehaven charged me £20 and hour,just to verify what I had already told them really.Said it took them 2 hours,so i owed them £41.50(£1.50 p & p) Last week I called Darlington RO,looking for burial records.I only had the month and the year that my gt gran died and the woman was very helpful,found the record I wanted and also 2 more with the same surname(Uncommon for the area) She said If you would like copies its £2 for postage and copying,so I sent a cheque off for £6.2 days later I got the details of the 3 burials and also my cheque returned.She had meant it was only £2 for all 3 copies not £2 a copy. I guess its just depends on certain areas. I wish all my rellies were from Darlington lol Anna :-)

If you are sure of the parish then you can purchase copies of the fiche which you will be able to go to your local FHC and get copies from that. The fiche I have bought are £2.5 each and hold about 20 or more pages per fiche. certainly covers a few years. so you may be able to confirm more than one christening. It may take a few weeks for them to get copies and send them to you. Irene

Do you belong to a Family History society? As secretary of my local FHS I am always willing to do free research (within reason) for memebrs. Looking at a parish register when the date, church etc is known would take a few minutes so something I woulod be willing to do for a member. Jane

Just for future reference for anyone searching in Durham, the record office there charges £2 for a photocopy of an original entry in the parish register. Mind you on each occasion I have given them the exact parish and date, but never the less I have always found them really, really helpful. Nicky x

Thanks everyone Chris, Will get back to you, I'm sure I could use the help if you're offering. Ruth/Dea Thanks for that. It wasn't Leicester on this occasion who couldn't help. I just thought I'd ask as I've just located a missing rellie who was born Mountsorrel, not Derbyshire as previously suspected! Jane I'm not a member of a FHS although I think that might be the way to go. Until now I've always been able to just jump on the train (usually with one or both of the babies in tow!) and gone to the Records Office, found what I needed, tramped around graveyards and gone and taken photos of the areas where my ancestors lived. It was always a huge adventure and I got a real buzz out of doing it all for myself and physically seeing the registers, the graves etc. Now I'm housebound, all that has changed and I'm having to rely more and more on other people to do things for me and rely on Register Offices to be willing to do me copies. I can't even get to the nearest LDS centre at the moment either. So very frustrating. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....thank you, feel much better now! Lou

Blow me Lou, thats a lot of dosh for a couple of photocopies - I contacted an office last week for a photocopy and said Id pay - I hope they get back to me first if they expect that sort of money! There must be a rootsweb site you can go on that covers the area, they are always very helpful.

Hubbie, bless him, doesn't get it! I was moaning this morning about the difficulty of obtaining these entries and he leaned over my shoulder and said 'Why do you need them? It says the date there. On the screen. What more do you need?' Errrrm....PROOF! To see it for myself! Lou

If you want anything copying at Leicester i'll probably be there Wednesday night, if not Saturday morning. Its 50p a copy when you do it yourself Paula

Paula Thank you. If you think they might have the records for Mountsorrel, I'd love a copy of the entry I found on IGI for Betty and the possible marriage of her parents Lou

Whats her surname and the year?

Hi Paula Betty SHENTON baptised 12 Mar 1786 Mountsorrel, Leics Father Samuel Shenton, mother not named (at least not on the IGI record) Confusing cos from the IGI entry she seems to have had a sister baptised as Elizabeth! Lou

Well the good news is that Mountsorrell records are at Leicestershire RO but bad news is i can't seem to find your woman. There is only about 15 baptisms in 1786 so theres no way i can be missing it, the writing is relatively easy to read. There is a Shenton in that year but its a Francis son of Francis. I've looked about 5 years either side. Looking at the indexes there are two churches and the one i have checked is St Peters, there is also Christchurch but the registers for that don't start until the 1800's. One strange thing i did notice is that on the fisches i was looking at it said south end on all of them, then on some of the earlier records 1750's there was North end and south end in the same book but recorded seperately. So maybe there are some North end records for the later 1700s. I am at the records office again saturday morning so i will ask at the desk. I did find a burial s end Sept 7 1777 for Thomas son of Samuel and Sarah Shenton. Paula

Paula Many thanks for your time and trouble. I will check the IGI entry again and make sure that I gave you the correct information and I'm fairly sure it wasn't an LDS member submitted entry although I have to say, honestly, that I can't say I noticed! Lou UPDATE No it doesn't say anything other than the info I posted and its not LDS member submitted. Phew! Thought for one horrible minute I might have got the year wrong or something and sent you on a wildgoose chase!

It says this on LDS website Mountsorrel is a township with two chapelries, one in Barrow-upon-Soar parish and the other in Rothley parish. so maybe it might be under the name of one of the other villages. Will check Saturday. It 'should' be easy to find once i have the right fische. Paula

Was at the records office this morning so asked at the desk. There were two churches in Mountsorrel but the other one was only built in 1800s as the village got bigger and needed another church. They suggested that perhaps the IGI record was from a non conformist church. Does anyone know if its possible to find this out from the IGI? If not then it is quite possible that the IGI record has been mistranscribed