New GRO download feature? Will they extend births after 1922 at some point?

[coombs]

At the minute you can buy any death registered July 1837 to 1957. And any birth July 1837 to 1922. In time do you think they will make post 1922 births downloadable, or will it be getting too recent, as since several people born in the 1920s and 1930s will still be alive?

I know you can still send off for a birth cert after 1922 by applying and having the cert delivered, I think there are some rules about births less than 50 years old.

[Alexander.]

1923 births are now available as digital images. I believe they released these on January 1st 2024 (i.e. after 100 years). I doubt any births more recent will be allowed as digital images, due to privacy concerns.

[LizzieL]

I tried to order two birth reg digital downloads for births in 1923 a couple of weeks ago, but only available as paper certs then. Checked again just now, and as Alexander mentioned, they are now available as digital downloads. So looks like a rolling programme to release them at the beginning of the year following what would have been their hundredth birthday.
The two births are of a boy and girl with same surname and same mother's maiden name registered in same district, but in different (consecutive) quarters. I can only find one marriage between those two surnames that would fit.

[MollyC]

What happens when we get to 2034?  Will the indexes ever be completed?

[Maggsie]

Reading this post......  What country are you looking at?
If you go to familysearch.org they have births in the UK, well my grandson is listed in 1999.
One of my in-laws tried to get her Mothers death cert as she died when she was a baby and was told they don't have it.
I gave her the family search record, she took it to the office, they grunted and said Oh! we will get it.
She waited about an hour and got it.
Ireland are in there up to 1958 I am listed.
If you can't find anything try there.
Maggsie

[LizzieL]

The GRO (England and Wales) should have all BMD records from 1st July 1837 (assuming the parents bothered to register the birth) to present date - although there may be a slight delay with the most recent ones reaching them from local RO's.
The question was about the new feature of digital downloads. My birth record (1950s) is available there but NOT yet as a digital download, only as a full paper certificate

[AntonyMMM]

GRO have stated that births, more than a hundred years old, will be available as digital images so I would expect an extra year to be made available each January as as already happened this year. Hopefully by the time they get to 1934, additional funding will have been found to digitise further records, but who knows.

This 100 year restriction is purely an internal GRO policy and has no basis in law - nor do the additional requests for information you are required to give when trying to order " recent" entries on-line- such as births within the last 50 years.

[Bob Frewen]

In Ireland. GRO records involving  personal data are closed for the lifetime of individuals which is assumed to be 100 years. There also are GDPR regulations (e.g. Elector registers have been taken down from online). The 100 year rule also applies to the Census. There is a basis in law for this, it is not arbitrary.
Familysearch has done its own thing, transcribing GRO records over recent decades.

[MollyC]

The question was about the new feature of digital downloads. My birth record (1950s) is available there but NOT yet as a digital download, only as a full paper certificate

Thank you LizzieL for clarifying the context of my remark and thank you Anthony for clarifying the law in England and Wales.

Now I AM going off topic.  The inertia about completing the indexes has lasted so long that it seems it is no longer on anyone's to-do list.  The original work was contracted out, not actually completed, and has numerous errors and omissions.  If it were ever thought to be a worthwhile piece of work, it really should be part of the GRO's mainstream task until finished.   Is it proper in 2024 that anyone should be expected to work with, for example, all the original marriage indexes?  (Who married whom? - up to 1911, followed by poor quality originals which throw up many queries in FreeBMD.)

I know government departments are not allowed to make a profit, but if they were to increase the prices by a small amount for some or all types of certificate to finance this gradually, would that be a profit?  Proper indexes to facilitate supply of certificates seems like mainstream business to me.