GRO Certificates

[acorngen]

Yes because Ancestry hide living details and personally I dont care because you or I could get the same information for 9 quid a time. 

Rob

[Selina]

My last two arrived today.  All eleven were the ones I wanted which is good. 

Now I wish I had ordered more but have to draw the line somewhere I suppose.

Hopefully if more people keep adding postems to FreeBMD we may be able to acquire information that way.

Selina

[coombs]

My last two arrived today. One died in August 1873 and one in May 1874. The latter one died of rheumatism, heart disease and dropsy. Ouch. 

[Selina]

One of my 'deaths' confirmed what I had always been told and I understand it clearer now.  Another was not and I now think my father probably worried needlessly that he might have the same thing.

Selina

[Robert Fletcher]

I have just spoken to GRO about a delay of an order I placed in March. Due to the increase in charges for certificates there has been a rush on GRO to beat the price rise.
My order that was due out on 30th March did not leave until 9th April. So expect about 10 days delay. If you are like me overseas expect further delays due to volcano's and everything else.
Bob...

[stonechat]

Hi

I ordered 3 certs on the 4th April

2 death certs were my gt gt grandparents and were dispatched 20th April Arrived 22nd April

1 marriage cert of my wife's grandparents has still not arrived on today the 27th


However my  gt gt gradfather's death cert was worth it as it showed he had moved and become a colliery manager. He died about 5 years later but was buried with his wife where he used to live

I have since identified the mine where he was manager and found brief mentions in newspaper clippings

I tend not to order many death certs but it  shows how it can give an extra lead

[FosseWay]

I ordered seven certs on 23 March and six of them arrived on 23 April. I phoned them to query the missing one (the only marriage of the batch) and was told that the internal search system for marriages is still manual whereas births and deaths are electronic, so they take longer. This may help to explain some posters' queries above about marriages being delayed. (My missing cert has since arrived and thrown up some intriguing questions of parentage.)

I do also have two general questions about the service the GRO provides:

1. I take on board the explanation offered upthread for why each certificate is sent in a separate envelope, but this still seems daftly wasteful. I'm sure in the past I've ordered multiple certificates, including mixtures of Bs, Ms and Ds, and they've all arrived in the same envelope. It strikes me that if the system means they're mailed separately, then the system isn't fit for purpose and needs changing.

2. More importantly, why doesn't the GRO (E&W) offer a similar service to that of the GRO (S), of providing downloadable, uncertified, copies of the register for a modest fee? If you really need a legally admissible certified copy in Scotland you have to get one using a similar process to that in E&W, but if all you want is the information on a certificate for personal interest, you don't need this level of bombproofing. I'm 5/8 English, 1/4 Scottish and 1/8 Northern Irish, and moreover the records for my English ancestry are more complete than for my Scottish forebears, so I know a lot more about my direct ancestors and side branches in England than elsewhere. Yet I have a lot more BMD certificates for my Scottish relatives because I download them as I need them, as the cost is not too burdensome. At £7, never mind £9.25, per item in England, there's no way I'd do that. I'd imagine that plenty of other people are in the same boat. Therefore, I reckon the GRO would easily recoup its costs by offering 'uncertified certificates' for download at say £2 per item alongside the existing official service.

Does anyone know whether this has ever been mooted as a possibility by the GRO? The same goes for Northern Ireland, too.

[stonechat]

My last cert arrived yesterday a week later that the other two ordered the same day

Fosseway -I agree with your sentiments - I have never heard of this being a possibility.

If downloadable certs were cheaper, I could get a lot more death certs - particular those who died before a full life span

[Guy Etchells]

I ordered seven certs on 23 March and six of them arrived on 23 April. I phoned them to query the missing one (the only marriage of the batch) and was told that the internal search system for marriages is still manual whereas births and deaths are electronic, so they take longer. This may help to explain some posters' queries above about marriages being delayed. (My missing cert has since arrived and thrown up some intriguing questions of parentage.)

As I have already explained.

I do also have two general questions about the service the GRO provides:

1. I take on board the explanation offered upthread for why each certificate is sent in a separate envelope, but this still seems daftly wasteful. I'm sure in the past I've ordered multiple certificates, including mixtures of Bs, Ms and Ds, and they've all arrived in the same envelope. It strikes me that if the system means they're mailed separately, then the system isn't fit for purpose and needs changing.

It is wasteful but at the same time it is very logical.
The GRO system is geared to produce the certificates in the shortest possible time.
This means that some certificates may be ready for dispatch before other certificates.
Imagine the complaints if they held back a number of certificates because one was delayed due to either having to be written by hand (due to the master being illegible) or due to having to go through a manual checking system.

2. More importantly, why doesn't the GRO (E&W) offer a similar service to that of the GRO (S), of providing downloadable, uncertified, copies of the register for a modest fee? If you really need a legally admissible certified copy in Scotland you have to get one using a similar process to that in E&W, but if all you want is the information on a certificate for personal interest, you don't need this level of bombproofing. I'm 5/8 English, 1/4 Scottish and 1/8 Northern Irish, and moreover the records for my English ancestry are more complete than for my Scottish forebears, so I know a lot more about my direct ancestors and side branches in England than elsewhere. Yet I have a lot more BMD certificates for my Scottish relatives because I download them as I need them, as the cost is not too burdensome. At £7, never mind £9.25, per item in England, there's no way I'd do that. I'd imagine that plenty of other people are in the same boat. Therefore, I reckon the GRO would easily recoup its costs by offering 'uncertified certificates' for download at say £2 per item alongside the existing official service.

Does anyone know whether this has ever been mooted as a possibility by the GRO? The same goes for Northern Ireland, too.

Yes, it has been mooted, not only by genealogists but by the GRO and by the Government but it cannot be provided.
The legislation that covers England & Wales prevents the registers being copied in such a way.

The Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1953 states-

"34(5) A certified copy of an entry in a register or in a certified copy of a register shall be deemed to be a true copy notwithstanding that it is made on a form different from that on which the original entry was made if any differences in the column headings under which the particulars appear in the original entry and the copy respectively are differences of form only and not of substance.
(6) The Registrar General shall cause any certified copy of an entry given in the General Register Office to be sealed or stamped with the seal of that Office ; and, subject to the foregoing provisions of this section, any certified copy of an entry purporting to be sealed or stamped with the said seal shall be received as evidence of the birth or death to which it relates without any further or other proof of the entry, and no certified copy purporting to have been given in the said Office shall be of any force or effect unless it is sealed or stamped as aforesaid."

It is however in theory possible to get a copy of register entry of birth, marriage or death for an event registered between 1836 and 1875 without being provided with a certified copy.

The exiting government did try to change the law with regards to the provision of certificates starting with a White Paper in 2000. Unfortunately the did not realise that they had to comply with legislation (or they did not understand the legislation) and were compelled to abandon their feeble attempt.
Since then they have been too embarrassed to try again.
Cheers
Guy