GRO fees

[Parmesan]

That was a dubious practice to enable a percentage of the fee to be withheld, their lawyers have now agreed that that was unlawful.

if that's the case, can I get  the rest of my money back?!

[Plummiegirl]

This is from this  months"Your Family History" which has an excellent article on the GRO:

"The GRO holds in the region of 260 million records & over half of these records have bee digitized. 
Birth Records 1837 - 1934        Death Records 1837 - 1957          These are  the  record types most requested be members of the public applying to the GRO  for copies of certificates"
"If the applicant has not provided the GRO index reference number, a member of staff has to search to find it"
Once an order has been received:
"For records that have been digitized, this process is automated.  The application moves on to the production stage electronically and the production agent reprographically produces the digitized image onto a blank certificate"

Records not digitized (on some 90,000 microfilm cassettes) or others which produce queries are processed from microfilm.

[stanmapstone]

"Your Family Tree" is known as "Your Family History" outside of the UK. The content is the same in both magazines.

Stan

[MuttleyS]

Readers may be interested in a similiar discussion here:-
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,465491.0.html

genreaserch did you ever get a reply from GRO regarding how their system actually works? I think we would all like to be better informed.

Mutley,

It is probable that you were lucky enough to get a photocopy of the original book that was sent to the GRO.  I have just emailed teh GRO to obtain an absolute answer..........

Rob

[Sloe Gin]

Genresearch's assumption about original documents ("It is probable that you were lucky enough to get a photocopy of the original book that was sent to the GRO") was incorrect.  No original documents were sent to the GRO.  Instead, the local Superintendent Registrar sent copies of the entries each quarter - these were transcribed by hand.  The original book always remained with the local Superintendent Registrar and never went to the GRO.

See my post 45 above, which was confirmed by Guy.

[stanmapstone]

The relevant sections in An Act for registering Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England. [17 August 1836] 6 & 7 Will. IV. c.86, are
Section XXXII. Certified Copies of Registers of Births and Deaths to be sent quarterly, and the Register Books when filled, to the Superintendent Registrar.
Section XXXIII. Duplicates and certified Copies of Registers of Marriage to be sent to Superintendent Registrar.
You can see the full wording of the sections at http://www.rootschat.com/links/01f3/

Stan

[Sloe Gin]

And Section XXXIV (Superintendent Registrars to send certified copies of Registers to the General Register Office.)

And be it enacted, That every Superintendent Registrar shall, Four Times in every Year, on such Days as shall be therefore named by the Registrar General, send to the Registrar General all the certified Copies of the Registers of Births, Deaths, and Marriages which he shall have so received during the Three Calendar Months next preceding such quarterly Days of Transmission respectively

Thanks, Stan.

[acorngen]

Sloe The book sent to the GRO is original in so much as it is not a photostat of any other book.  You also fail to make note of my post prior to that when I said a copy of a copy.  I do take the point though that it could be misconstrued and I will in future make it understandable for all.

Just because Guy confirms something does not make it correct although on this occasion he was.

Muttley I did get a response and didn't post it because others had already explained the situation quite adequately.

Rob

[Mean_genie]

Going off at a slight tangent, Plummiegirl, I'm interested in the 'Your Family History' article on the GRO that you mention in so I'd like to get a copy.  Was it the British magazine, or the American one?

Thanks

Mean_genie