General Chat

Result! After sending very grumpy email to ONS, a very nice lady phoned me yesterday. After several crossed wires, I eventually got to the root of the problem. I had asked for birth date to be used as reference checking point for death certs. On the ONS print outs that Southport use, they are not given date of birth, so only use date of death - which was obviously wrong. I received my partial refund, and they've also sent my certificates out - which I received this morning. To be on the safe side, I think I'm going to order them by phone in future, but nice to know that they do actually respond to queries. Kate

This is a rather annoying feature isn't it. I've recently, after months of looking, found the GRO reference for the death of my Grandfather in 1978, but because I don't know the date of death I can't order a certificate. Is there any way around this ?

Kate & Paul. . . . . Just a thought here.... You say that you know the area and the quarter and year ? Is it worth a try to see if there's a reference to the death in the achives of the local paper. Or try making enquiries with the locial Funeral Directors. Also most crematorium have a book of condolences. MIKE

Good point about the local newspaper, it's something that was suggested to me a few minutes ago by a colleague (who's also into genealogy). As for local funeral directors etc - I wouldn't know who buried him - he was buried in a paupers grave, as when he died he was thought to have no living relatives - he'd been estranged from his daughter (my mother) most of her life and in fact she only discovered he'd died around a year later... I'll give the newspapers a try sometime. Thanks.

Have you tried ordering the death cert from the register office local to the area? Not sure if you need the date of death for this if you know the quarter. I'm told it's also a lot quicker than waiting for the GRO at the moment. Jeanette

That's also something I'd thought of trying. I hadn't bothered as yet as I've a lot of irons in the fire so to speak, and I don't need an awful lot from the certificate except the date of death ! But it's on my TO DO list and I think callingthe CRO would be the place to start...

Hi all, The date of death is only required when ordering on-line. Although the cost is slightly increased, if you place orders for death certs over the phone, you only need the GRO ref, and not the date of death. As already stated, that's the main reason most of us order death certs - to find out the date! Does anyone know why this is insisted on, for online ordering, anyway? Daft if you ask me! Debbie

Hi Kate, I knew the year, quarter and district of my grandfather's death but not the date so I downloaded the forms to order it and sent it off in the post. It took a little longer to arrive but was no problem. Try it!

Many thanks for all the advice. I will start ordering them over the phone I think. What was really bugging me was that I've already ordered and received death certs, with an 'invented' date of death, without any problems. I think I just wanted to moan really. Kate

Last month I ordered two death certificates online from GRO, both of whom had died in the last fifty years. I made up the death dates as I didn't know them. They came about two weeks later - no problem! You must have had a jobsworth and a slow one at that!

i got round this problem by ordering at thr FRc I explained to the man at the counter that i couldn't fill in all the boxes and he said no problem and i got my cert a week later Shelli