Genealogy Chat

dodgy site www.gov-certificates.co.uk charges over the odds anyway and apparently is a shopping mall address in bournemouth, not a government department.

Always get your certs from the official site: http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/ nell

I saw this site myself when I was looking for the official site. They charge £23!! for a a Certificate, which they say is dispatched within 15-22 working days and certs which would norm be next day from the offical site are £50!! and are dispatched within 3-5 working days.

There was a thread earlier in the week about this site, also call Research-UK. If anybody has ever dealt with them check your statements for more payments taken from your account, the police are dealing with it. Keith

When you look at the indices for a bmd it has a reference by it eg. 6a 27 which is the volume and page number. You need this reference to order a certificate from the GRO.

The text on their website is dodgy too. The punctuation is terrible, the page header says 'Birth Certiciattes' and they even manage to spell Bournemouth without an 'e'! I might drive over and check out the postal address. BTW I also checked out the 'www.research-uk' site which was 'temporarily offline' and redirected me to 'www.gro-certificates', also offline. Seems to be a pattern emerging here.

I just took a drive over there and discovered that the address is occupied by a printing shop called Bournemouth Office Services. Of course, this may or may not have anything to do with the website - I'll give them a call tomorrow and see.

> why not use the local Register Office Most don't provide any online order/payment facility. Cheers, Bill

Hi Micheal, I have sent you an e-mail direct. Sheila

Micheal, The GRO reference is the volume code and page number you find beside entries on the index images on 1837online eg April May June 1881 Deaths SMITH Sophia 67 Islington 1b 136 means the death was registered in the 2nd quarter of 1881 in Islington registration district and the GRO reference is volume number 1b page 136 1837online isn't a scam, it links you to the official GRO website http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/ The problem arises when people Google GRO and the expensive site comes up

Bill But many local register offices DO provide on line services, they just dont advertise them, that's all. I always use the local office whenever possible, a certificate is only £7 and very often they dont charge a search fee if its wrong. If the Local Office doesnt appear to have on-line ordering services, I fiddle around on Search, till I find an email address for the relevant office - takes ages of searching sometimes, but its worth it - they are usually so surprised to hear from anyone by email, they answer right away! Average time for turnaround is seven days but some are very quick indeed, SALFORD for one, turns them round in two days. Good hunting Marjorie

I've found two other expensive sites: bmd-certificates(co_uk) and UKcertificates(com), both of which charge £25 for standard delivery and £50 for express. It may all be perfectly legal for all I know (I've emailed the official GRO site for clarification), but I think it's appalling profiteering. I think the GRO should do something to stop it.

There are a lot of Local BMD site links on http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/ - if you click on the 'Local' icon. Some of the sites have online ordering, some are open to phonecalls. If they go for postal service, then they often have part-completed forms online for you to print and finish off before posting them. You just have to remember that the only bit of the GRO ref that's any use is the year & quarter; the Local Offices use their own refs. Fees are the same as GRO. I've always had very good service. I gather some London ones are less helpful. Christine

I don't think it's a crime to charge silly sums as long as the person receives the certificate, within the time specified. Many FAQs of these sites are carefully worded; I know where they are being deliberately evasive, but a newbie wouldn't. For example, they will say that the company is private offices and therefore the public cannot go and search there; what they don't say is that they don't actually have the index and the FRC is two doors down and open to everyone. Rip-off; yes. Illegal? Probably not.

I used UK Certificates before I knew about local offices when I was a newbie. They were a nice company to deal with and the certs arrived on time but I spent a fortune before some kind soul told me to stop buying from there.

Twinkle Its not the fact they are charging high prices, they are just dipping into peoples accounts at a later date, thats why the police are involved, and why if you have dealt with them, check your statements. Keith

Sorry, I haven't yet got round to calling that Bournemouth print shop to see if the gov-certificates website is really based there. However, I did get a reply from the GRO, who said that several such 'agent' companies are currently being investigated by their solicitors and Trading Standards. They're also planning to raise the profile of the official GRO website on search engines.

> But many local register offices DO provide on line services I never said they didn't... what I did say was that they don't often offer online PAYMENT services. If they do, its one of the best keep secrets of the web. Cheers, Bill Sydney, Australia