RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Leanne. on Friday 30 August 13 11:11 BST (UK)
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everyone had to use their birth name on all legal documents. Makes it hard when people use their middle names or names they were know as.
Recently I have discovered someone who used her partners last name on a census, they weren't married but were living together as husband and wife.
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I think it would be easier if everyone's certificates of anything had a full genealogy attached! As for names - in my experience they get spelt a variety of ways, middle names are dropped - or invented! The worst ones are where family members are known by a nickname which has nothing to do with their real name. My grandmother, Annie Eliza, was called "Peachy" and one of her brothers, whose marriage I'm still looking for, called his wife "Doll" but her real name was Florence!
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Our ancestors wrote on the back of their photo's, and not just "Mother", or "Father", or first name only.
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I think they knew it would make it too easy for us ;D
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I think they knew it would make it too easy for us ;D
Yeah .... right on ...... we would not have rootschat and life would be sooooo boring. :( :(
Joe
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Every member of the family had an unusual, easily identifiable first name, such as Denmilne. Made tracing him so much easier ;D
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...there was a lot more information online.
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scotlandspeople.com made images available right up to 2012.
There was an englandspeople.com, a walespeople.com and an irelandspeople.com which all operated the same way as scotlandspeople
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The Irish enumerators gave the county of birth instead of just "Ireland" :-\
Carol
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I had listened to my Grandmother's stories more often.
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...I could concentrate on one ancestor at a time rather than keep being side-tracked
Rishile
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I'll second that ;D
Carol
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My mother had put names on photos and I had listened a bit more carefully (but I was only about 9 years old). I have some lovely photo's but don't know exactly who they are. :( :(
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If my dad had written more than Bill and Nellie on the back of the photo. He knew who they were but I can't make the names fit the tree ???
Regards panda
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All of the above ;D
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My Nellie was hard to find as her name was actually Ellen ;)
Carol
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If we could go back to our childhood for a while and make notes to bring forward
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..... all record offices and the GRO would recognise the distinction between BMD certificates needed by family historians and those requested for other purposes. I'm thinking that it would be good if they could just scan in the original entry and email it to us, or send a photocopy by post. It would keep the costs down for them and us. I just find it irritating to have to wait for a hand written/typed formal copy of the requested entry I don't really need and then pay £9.50 or so for it. I have a feeling that if they did this and brought the price down a bit they would receive far more requests and generate more income for themselves in the process.
Janet :)
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...I could concentrate on one ancestor at a time rather than keep being side-tracked
Rishile
And I thought that was just part of being a family history nut! Lol
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..... all record offices and the GRO would recognise the distinction between BMD certificates needed by family historians and those requested for other purposes. I'm thinking that it would be good if they could just scan in the original entry and email it to us, or send a photocopy by post. It would keep the costs down for them and us. I just find it irritating to have to wait for a hand written/typed formal copy of the requested entry I don't really need and then pay £9.50 or so for it. I have a feeling that if they did this and brought the price down a bit they would receive far more requests and generate more income for themselves in the process.
Janet :)
And that would require common sense, something that public servants seem to have little of, in my own experience.
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Still happens I'm afraid. My stepfather lived with my mother for years before they were married yet he was always known and recorded by her previously married name. Screwed up quite a few documents as effectively my three half siblings all carried the wrong surname as did their children. Fortunately they all had daughters so no lasting 'damage' done.
Here in Wales of course it is very common even today for men to use their middle name as their first, as for Jones the Dairy, and Jones the Post..... nightmare Butty boy bach!
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..... all record offices and the GRO would recognise the distinction between BMD certificates needed by family historians and those requested for other purposes. I'm thinking that it would be good if they could just scan in the original entry and email it to us, or send a photocopy by post. It would keep the costs down for them and us. I just find it irritating to have to wait for a hand written/typed formal copy of the requested entry I don't really need and then pay £9.50 or so for it. I have a feeling that if they did this and brought the price down a bit they would receive far more requests and generate more income for themselves in the process.
Janet :)
And that would require common sense, something that public servants seem to have little of, in my own experience.
It would also require a change in the law! (in England/Wales) ::)
And, of course, it would take the nearly the same amount of labour - so how would it be cheaper, and still generate a profit?!
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..... all record offices and the GRO would recognise the distinction between BMD certificates needed by family historians and those requested for other purposes. I'm thinking that it would be good if they could just scan in the original entry and email it to us, or send a photocopy by post. It would keep the costs down for them and us.
In Ireland a photocopy of a BMD costs 4euro ...
It might generate income in England/Wales ... I'll happily take a chance on Irish photocopies at 4 euro, but I agonise very much about buying English ones - I know if they were cheaper, I'd buy several "less important" ones
regards eadaoin
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And, of course, it would take the nearly the same amount of labour - so how would it be cheaper, and still generate a profit?!
Yes, I see that the person would need to search for the record but scanning it and then emailing it would take a few minutes at most. I would much rather see a copy of the actual entry rather than a typed or handwritten copy, surely that would save time? I know that some record offices do that now, but only some. Also the formal certificate paper they use must be expensive so they wouldn't need that. I think the biggest savings they could make would be by using email instead of snail mail - no need for an envelope or a paper copy or postage costs. And finally, I'm no economist but it seems logical to me that if the price were reduced many more requests would be received = more income. Countless people on Rootschat, including eadaoin here, have said that they would buy more certificates if the price was reduced - I certainly would. Just my thoughts :)
Janet
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It still requires an Act of Parliament, in order to change the current law, though! ::) ::)
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Following the example of the Scottish GRO and putting records online would be a start, but I gather the proposal to do something similar in Engalnd and Wales has been shelved.
Imber
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It still requires an Act of Parliament, in order to change the current law, though! ::) ::)
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I'm curious to know what exactly English/Welsh law says on this subject. I'll have to see if I can find some info online. Laws can be changed if enough people lobby parliament and set out a convincing case. How come Scotland and Ireland have managed to set up a more sensible system? Hmmm ::)
Janet
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I speak from Australia, so please be kind, but surely it wouldn't require an act of parliament to change a government department's system of doing things?
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Whenever asked questions, the GRO (and District Register Offices) always state what they are allowed, BY LAW, to do or not do! ::)
I can't find the relevant piece of legislation, but I know it exists!
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Whenever asked questions, the GRO (and District Register Offices) always state what they are allowed, BY LAW, to do or not do! ::)
I can't find the relevant piece of legislation, but I know it exists!
I am interested in this and found the following which describes the Department as a 'Non Departmental Public Body' (NDPB)
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/ac_role.pdf
Joe
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Interestingly the Act for registering Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England. [17 August 1836] 6 & 7 Will. IV. c.86 states that;
XXXV. And be it enacted, That every Rector, Vicar, or Curate, and every Registrar, Registering Officer, and Secretary, who shall have the keeping for the Time being of any Register Book of Births, Deaths, or Marriages, shall at all reasonable Times allow Searches to be made of any Register Book in his keeping, and shall give a Copy certified under his Hand of any Entry or Entries in the same, on Payment of the Fee herein-after mentioned; (that is to say,) for every Search extending over a Period not more than One Year the Sum of One Shilling, and Sixpence additional for every additional Year, and the Sum of Two Shillings and Sixpence for every single Certificate.
http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/View?path=Browse/Legislation%20%28by%20date%29&active=yes&mno=4044
However this section is not included in the 1874 Act, which only states that;
Section 32. The Registrar General shall supply to every superintendent registrar suitable forms wherein to make indexes of the register books in his office, and such superintendent registrar shall cause such indexes to be made and to be kept with the other records of his office.
All such indexes, whether made before or after the commencement of this Act, shall be kept by the superintendent registrar with the records of his office, and shall be delivered wuith the same to his successor in office, as directed bt the principal Act.
Every person shall be entitled at all reasonable hours to search the said indexes, and to have a certified copy of any entry or entries in the said register books under the hand of the superintendent registrar on payment in each case of the appointed fee.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1874/pdf/ukpga_18740088_en.pdf
Stan
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Whenever asked questions, the GRO (and District Register Offices) always state what they are allowed, BY LAW, to do or not do! ::)
I can't find the relevant piece of legislation, but I know it exists!
I am interested in this and found the following which describes the Department as a 'Non Departmental Public Body' (NDPB)
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/ac_role.pdf
Joe
Joe, that document relates to The National Archives?
BMD certificates/Registers aren't held by TNA!
GRO (General Register Office) and district Register Offices, are part of Her Majesty's Passport Office and oversees civil registration in England and Wales. It maintains the national archive of all births, marriages and deaths dating back to 1837
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As interesting and topical as the discussion has become, we have drifted off topic. So, to put us back on track, here's another.
It would be good if.......
Some family history societies stopped being so small-minded and joined in larger projects like the National Burial Index as one example.
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Joe, that document relates to The National Archives?
BMD certificates/Registers aren't held by TNA!
GRO (General Register Office) and district Register Offices, are part of Her Majesty's Passport Office and oversees civil registration in England and Wales. It maintains the national archive of all births, marriages and deaths dating back to 1837
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Of course you are quite correct KG ........ I must have been off on one of my meanderings again