Missing GRO Record

[RW1]

Hello

I'm interested in seeing the death certificate that I've found on freebmd.org:

GREENE, MALE - SEP 1861 PANCRAS VOL 1B PAGE 86

I have looked at the scanned image used by freebmd.org and believe this is transcribed correctly in freebmd.org, but I cannot find it on the GRO website inquiry in order to buy the certificate.  Other entries from the same sheet, eg WILLIAM HENRY GREENE, Clerkenwell, 1B, 340, do appear on the GRO website.

I've tried the "phonetic" and "similar sounding" options on GRO, as well as anything I thought GREENE may have been mis-transcribed as.

I phoned GRO and was told not to use the free entry, paper certificate order screen (£11), using all the correct details, as GRO wouldn't be able to find it either and I'd get an "incorrect order details" response (and lose my £11).  But I was advised to send in a query to "firstpointofcontact@gro.gov.uk", which I did and enclosed the scanned image from freebmd.org.  I assumed (wrongly) that GRO would correct the entry (however it was wrong), it would then appear on the website and I'd be able to order the certificate.

I had a reply from GRO saying "index holders are aware of the existence of errors and GRO does not guarantee the accuracy of the data supplied".  Who are "index holders"?

GRO also states that due to the scale of the task of updating errors, "it would be impossible to update all the copies of our indexes".

GRO also suggests that I send a photocopy of the death certificate to GRO, PO Box 2, Southport PR8 2JD.  I wonder why they think I already have it!  Or where I got it from!  Or what they will do with it, if they don't correct errors!

The only solution that I can think of is to contact the actual register office in London (Pancras or successor)?

Many thanks for any other suggestions.

[josey]

That sounds like the GRO being extremely unhelpful. Yes  maybe the register office is the only way to go. Have you found a burial?

Is this the birth?
GREENE, -       GREENE 
GRO Reference: 1861  S Quarter in PANCRAS  Volume 01B  Page 130
 

[RW1]

Is this the birth?

GREENE, -       GREENE 
GRO Reference: 1861  S Quarter in PANCRAS  Volume 01B  Page 130

Yes, I believe it is - child of Charles Greene and Selina Greene (also née Greene).

[josey]

Did the couple live to be on the 1911 census, where a wife stated years married how many children born alive & how many still alive.

[RW1]

Did the couple live to be on the 1911 census, where a wife stated years married how many children born alive & how many still alive.

No, and they also lost at least two other children soon after birth (I have the burial records for those, confirming the address, but not for this unnamed one).  In fact, only their first child survived.

[josey]

Sounds like it could have been rhesus incompatibility to me.... What were the ages & causes of death of the two for whom you have found burials?

ADDED - not that this would help you request for the 1861 death certificate....

[Tickettyboo]

There is a facility online to report a missing index entry to the GRO
https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_report.asp

Choose Missing Entry in the Death Index and complete the details you have from Free BMD.
Put a comment to say you can see this in the old printed index but its not in the online one and ask that they review and amend if needed.

It can take a while for them to both review and amend but in my experience it does get done. I reported a missing entry from the births index on the 12th July, its now included in the online index.

You have to keep checking back on your reported errors list to see if its been dealt with and what the outcome was.

Boo

[RW1]

Sounds like it could have been rhesus incompatibility to me.... What were the ages & causes of death of the two for whom you have found burials?

ADDED - not that this would help you request for the 1861 death certificate....

I suspect that Charles and Selina were first cousins - I am working on trying to prove this!  Unfortunately, the St Pancras Cemetery register does not give cause of death.  Daughter Julia was only 8 hours old; son Charles was 3 months.  Their eldest child, Ernest Charles, appears to have been unaffected by any chromosome(?) problem, at least to the extent that he married and had a family and lived to be 82.

[RW1]

There is a facility online to report a missing index entry to the GRO
https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_report.asp

Many thanks for this.  I will give it a try - perhaps I was just unlucky with the GRO respondent to my email.  There was no suggestion to do this.