Its such a long time! Cheapest way to get a marriage cert

[Heather Positive Thinker]

I havent done research for so long I may be out of touch, just wanted to check - I need the marriage cert of an Albert Edward Best and an Elsie Jezard who married in Greenwich in 1927. Im a bit flumoxed over Alberts parentage and dont want to do an educated guess as its a close rellie of my sisters OH, so important.

Many thanks. Its so long since I shelled out £7 and sat shaking as I opened an envelope

[Rick]

£9.25 from the GRO

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp

[Guest]

gawd Heather its gone up since then ;)Ricks right GRO still

[Vonny North West]

Yes, GRO is still the cheapest it can take a full 7 days to reach you sometimes longer. They now put an estimated dispatch date on your order so you do know roughly when to expect a delivery.

Vonny

[Chrissie Smiff]

Local offices are quicker and only the same price Heather but I don't think many of the London offices do (or like to do) certificates for genealogy.

[susan h]

Chrissie, my local Registry Office [Leeds] charges £10.00. I've never ordered from them as find it cheeky to charge more than GRO - so I can't say whether it's a quicker service.

[AntonyM]

It is generally much quicker to use a local office - if you phone them they tend to send them out within a day or so of the request, and are usually willing to do some form of checking that you have the right record before issuing a certificate which GRO no longer do. But they do charge £10 (+ 50p postage in some cases)....and they have the original registers if you need to check signatures etc.

[Darksecretz]

Chrissie, my local Registry Office [Leeds] charges £10.00. I've never ordered from them as find it cheeky to charge more than GRO - so I can't say whether it's a quicker service.

Nottingham charge £10 too plus £1 extra for them to post it to you!! [and it takes between 4-6 WEEKS] this applies to FH certs ONLY.. if you want a replacement B/cert and want it within the hour it will cost you £25!... disgusting...

[Darksecretz]

I havent done research for so long I may be out of touch, just wanted to check - I need the marriage cert of an Albert Edward Best and an Elsie Jezard who married in Greenwich in 1927. Im a bit flumoxed over Alberts parentage and dont want to do an educated guess as its a close rellie of my sisters OH, so important.

Many thanks. Its so long since I shelled out £7 and sat shaking as I opened an envelope

Ancestry have a LOT of marriages now online/London/Mdx from the LMA Heather.

[Darksecretz]

ah, I see it is classed as Kent

[susan h]

Nottingham charge £10 too plus £1 extra for them to post it to you!! [and it takes between 4-6 WEEKS] this applies to FH certs ONLY.. if you want a replacement B/cert and want it within the hour it will cost you £25!... disgusting...

Express service in Leeds e.g. there and then is £30.00, priority service either by phone or in person (order before 3.00pm for same day post) at a cost of £20.00.

I agree, Julie, the local office charges are disgraceful, they must make a fortune issuing copy certificates. I shall continue to use GRO.

[JayG]

Local offices are quicker and only the same price Heather but I don't think many of the London offices do (or like to do) certificates for genealogy.

It was the GRO that set the £10 fee for local offices, not the local offices themselves. Alot do only charge £10 but alot also charge p&p, admin fees etc.

These are the fees for my local office

Standard service £11.50 - Certificate dispatched within seven days of receipt of application. Certificates will be posted out using second class postage.

Service whilst you wait £13.50 - All over the counter applications.

Priority service £16.50 - Specific requests for same day postage received before 2.00pm (to be posted first class on the day of receipt of request).

Guaranteed next day service £21.50 - Specific requests for guaranteed next day delivery received before 2.00pm (delivery before 1.00pm).

Luckily i've not had to order any certs for a long time as i'm at the stage in my research where all my lines are back pre 1837 and i've got all my direct line ancestors' certs.

[Darksecretz]

[/B]

Express service in Leeds e.g. there and then is £30.00, priority service either by phone or in person (order before 3.00pm for same day post) at a cost of £20.00.

I agree, Julie, the local office charges are disgraceful, they must make a fortune issuing copy certificates. I shall continue to use GRO.

ditto Susan, when and IF I order any cert, firstly I shall look to see if it is in one of the online databases, LMA etc.. Parish registers and/or Familysearch.

as a last resort I will then get from the GRO..

[Darksecretz]

I agree, Julie, the local office charges are disgraceful, they must make a fortune issuing copy certificates.

mmm seems they are cashing in [or trying to!!] on the Family History Bandwagon...

[JBee]

Cost me £15 a few weeks ago though usually around the £10 mark.

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Blow me, have gone up havent they! GRO it is then. I think I have the right father because of his occupation but as we know, no good guessing. So Ill spend the money.

Thanks everyone.

[Lilly the flower]

Nottingham charge £10 too plus £1 extra for them to post it to you!! [and it takes between 4-6 WEEKS] this applies to FH certs ONLY.. if you want a replacement B/cert and want it within the hour it will cost you £25!... disgusting...

Hmm if you think thats bad, I have been waiting eight weeks!!! for a birth cerf, they don't answer their phone or their emails....i think I will be knocing on their door very soon... it quite local but still a train and a bus..and the time of course, wish i gone to the GRO now....yea 10 pound plus 50p....shall we name and shame.... LOL...Lilly

[margaretmarch]

mmm seems they are cashing in [or trying to!!] on the Family History Bandwagon...

And why shouldn't they? what we do is a hobby and should not in my view be funded by the taxpayer locally or nationally - these services are not set up to cater for us but for people who have to use them to register the relevant events.
As a taxpayer I would be very upset to find that resources were being used to provide services for a pastime.
Margaret

[Janet in Yorkshire]

And why shouldn't they? what we do is a hobby and should not in my view be funded by the taxpayer locally or nationally - these services are not set up to cater for us but for people who have to use them to register the relevant events.
As a taxpayer I would be very upset to find that resources were being used to provide services for a pastime.
Margaret

That rather depends on whether or not the person delivering the service has been drafted over from other duties to deal with the request or employed specifically to deal with family history requests. In that case I would probably agree.
If, however, the request is put to one side until someone has a long enough space in their schedule to meet the request, then no, it would be a part of their normal duty.

I feel the same about some of the "handling" charges in record offices. The last time I went, there were 3 staff members sitting at a desk, all chatting about non-work related activities. Someone approached the desk and asked for help - a member of staff helped them to find the correct fiche, assisted them in finding the exact record and then took the fiche off to the one reader/copier and made a copy, which was handed to the requestee, all at no charge, apart from the standard copy fee.
At the same time, someone phoned and asked for a look up of a baptism, and for a copy to be made and posted to him/her. As well as the copying fee and postage, there was also to be a handling charge (this is applied for each separate document searched) and also a research fee - minimum charge half an hour, which was quoted for this request.
One of the staff chatting was assigned to do it - it took 5 minutes from leaving the station to her returning, complete with copy.
The first case had taken up more staff time. Neither member of staff had any other task to do at that time. Both searches were carried out in the help yourself film/fiche area and the document section/reading room had its own additional staff, so there was no call on their time. The staff were on duty and being paid; I could see no difference between the two requests in terms of staff time and effort.

Jay

[Chrissie Smiff]

Nottingham charge £10 too plus £1 extra for them to post it to you!! [and it takes between 4-6 WEEKS] this applies to FH certs ONLY.. if you want a replacement B/cert and want it within the hour it will cost you £25!... disgusting...

That really surprised me Julie. Only a few years ago Nottingham told me that if I popped in by about 10.00 it would be ready for me by 3.00pm for the usual cost (whatever it was then). If I wanted them to do it by post I could pay the postage and it would take about 3-4 days to arrive. They were very helpful too and checked the details I gave were right before taking my money.

Basford too have always been brilliant and found it for me while I waited. Mind you, I had actually popped in personally. They commented on how interesting it was that the bride's father was a cinema manager.

Belper were fantastic too. I rang up one morning as we were going to go to Matlock that day and I asked if it would be possible to get a death cert. The actual registrar gave me an appointment for later that morning and was waiting with the certificate to see me in her office when I arrived. The usual GRO price too. She was even happy to chat about the name on the death cert (yes, it was Ligna Vita's :D)

It has never cost me more than the GRO unless I sent a SAE or payed the postage and whenever possible that's how I do it.