GRO digital images

[Josephine]

Thanks for the tips; I'm having a blast with this!

[Sandrafamilytree]

I've bought quite a few records since this facility was made available and I'm finding the information on 'informants' really useful.

For example, I always had a hunch that my ancestor moved North when three of her sons dispersed to other parts of the country, rather than remaining in Norfolk. So I now think that was correct, as I've found what is almost certainly my relative in Hartlepool, with a very likely 'informant.'

Quite a few of my relatives have common names and I was holding off ordering records at the higher price, as I was fearful I'd end up with too many 'misses', but this is making research a lot more affordable.

Really hope they make later deaths available too.

[coombs]

The relationship status to informants "present at the death" is hit and miss as to how they related to the deceased, although I often found they were a relative outside a parent or child registering a parent's death etc, but often they were a neighbour if the ancestor died at home. One died as a baby in 1839 and the informant (which I know was the gran through other documents) was his grandmother but relationship was not given on the cert.

[farmeroman]

It's certainly a much cheaper option. I do like to have them in the full certificate format though, so I've been experimenting inserting them into a blank template and adding the text as on a normal certificate.

The results are promising, but the only blank template I managed to find online was low resolution and somewhat blurry.

Has anyone else tried this and found a high-res template?

[jc26red]

It's certainly a much cheaper option. I do like to have them in the full certificate format though, so I've been experimenting inserting them into a blank template and adding the text as on a normal certificate.

The results are promising, but the only blank template I managed to find online was low resolution and somewhat blurry.

Has anyone else tried this and found a high-res template?

If you are able to use one of the numerous photo editing apps then I would suggest making your own template by scanning a certificate you have already received, deleting out the details and date you received it from the gro. “Save as” a a blank template. Repeat for each birth, death and marriage templates.

I might just try it too 

I should add… these should only be used for your own private research purposes otherwise we could get into trouble.

[farmeroman]

It's certainly a much cheaper option. I do like to have them in the full certificate format though, so I've been experimenting inserting them into a blank template and adding the text as on a normal certificate.

The results are promising, but the only blank template I managed to find online was low resolution and somewhat blurry.

Has anyone else tried this and found a high-res template?

If you are able to use one of the numerous photo editing apps then I would suggest making your own template by scanning a certificate you have already received, deleting out the details and date you received it from the gro. “Save as” a a blank template. Repeat for each birth, death and marriage templates.

I might just try it too 

I should add… these should only be used for your own private research purposes otherwise we could get into trouble.

Yes, I should have mentioned that these are for "personal use only" and should not be shared online.

I have messed around with editing software, but haven't got a good result yet so I was hoping for a lazy online solution. FWIW I use Infinity Designer for picture editing, primarily for annotating old maps, adding polygons, etc, but I'm not that experienced with it yet.

I must admit that I'm pretty pleased with the one that I have done so far with the blurred template; it looks so much better than the B&W scrap downloaded from the GRO, especially with the yellowish background colour I applied (RGB 250/244/230 seems a pretty good match to the original template). I also added the Application number, Registration District, year and county to the header.

Edit: Getting the hang of Infinity Designer now. Almost there...

Edit: Done. I've now got a perfect template and can insert the B&W GRO scrap with the correct colour into the template and add the text in a few minutes. Looks as good as a GRO original. Really pleased with the result.

[Deirdre784]

Guess we all have different ways of doing things. Adding to the template sounds great, but I actually snip the details out from the certificate (an image not really), and add to the relevant section of my family tree book. The full certificates are rather large but the snipped bit fits perfectly.

[farmeroman]

Guess we all have different ways of doing things. Adding to the template sounds great, but I actually snip the details out from the certificate (an image not really), and add to the relevant section of my family tree book. The full certificates are rather large but the snipped bit fits perfectly.

My BMD certificates are all embedded into individual family Word documents as a small image with a one line comment below and a link to the full image which pops up on a mouse click. All my documents are fully (Windows) machine transportable so I can just copy the entire family tree file structure to a memory stick and mail it to anyone that wants it.

As you say, each to their own...

[Deirdre784]

Lots of options i expect 😀