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Purchasing BMD certificates.

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  • Purchasing BMD certificates.

    Speaking to someone yesterday who has bought Birth, Marriage and Death certificates for most of his 300 odd Family Tree Members, I wondered if this was the 'norm'?.........A rough calculation suggests that he could have spent nearly £10,000 on certificates which is way out of my league. I only purchase certificates to help me continue my research.
    What do FTF members do?

  • #2
    Initially I only bought them for furthering/confirming the research and then they weren't necessarily direct line, but then when the price was about to go up, I decided to get them for all direct ancestors - my maternal grandparents being first cousins saved quite a bit of course!! I still have two to get. One who doesn't seem to have been born (actual registers have been searched for him) and another whose burial I have but the death doesn't appear to have reached the GRO.
    Caroline
    Caroline's Family History Pages
    Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

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    • #3
      I see the case for direct line but at todays prices, it's nearly £30 per person..............long live the OPCs

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      • #4
        My aim is to get a birth, marriage and death certificate for all of my direct ancestors. Getting there gradually, but still a few to go, including some tricky death registrations to locate!
        Elaine







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        • #5
          Originally posted by AlanC View Post
          I see the case for direct line but at todays prices, it's nearly £30 per person..............long live the OPCs
          It does help with marriage certificates when you find the subscription sites such as Ancestry and FMP have parish registers to view online - saves a bit of expenditure.
          Elaine







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          • #6
            I learned the hard way that you HAVE to buy the certs, imperative for ancestors. Three times I have relied on other evidence - including OPCs - which, while the information was accurate, did not actually pinpoint my ancestors and it was only after eventually purchasing the certificates that it became clear I had followed the wrong lines and had to dump YEARS of research. That research had cost me far more than whatever it was for a cert at the time!

            OC

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            • #7
              I have birth certs for all my direct line born post 1837 and all their marriage certs, though not all the death certs yet. I also have birth certs for a number of siblings where their older brother/sister was my direct ancestor born prior to 1837. Then there are some sibling marriages where both bride and groom had the same surname which I have bought because I suspected they were distantly related, and then there was the one for a distant cousin of an ancestor who had such a colourful life that I wanted to know more (the wicked Joses Badcock who cut his wife's nose off and wrote dreadful poetry)

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              • #8
                It's interesting to note the preference for 'Direct Line' ancestry...........not insurance

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                • #9
                  Like most of you I would aim to have all certificates for our direct lines, but until I win the lottery.....

                  If I purchased certificates for everyone in my tree it would set me back a hefty £92,500! (a quick estimation based on 2/3 living after 1873).

                  So far I have only bought certificates where I have needed them to clear uncertainty, and that includes some in side branches. Sometimes I see an intriguing story developing and I just have to know!
                  Last edited by PeteW1959; 10-04-14, 10:41.
                  Co-ordinator for PoW project Southern Region 08
                  Researching:- Wieland, Habbes, Saettele, Bowinkelmann, Freckenhauser, Dilger in Germany
                  Kincaid, Warner, Hitchman, Collie, Curtis, Pocock, Stanley, Nixey, McDonald in London, Berks, Bucks, Oxon and West Midlands
                  Drake, Beals, Pritchard in Kent
                  Devine in Ireland

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                  • #10
                    I have certificates (where available) for most of my ancestors.
                    For my remaining ancestry, I have relied heavily on the parish records in the local record offices. Recent inclusion of online images has helped enormously - I am indebted to the LDS for all the wonderful online images for the Norfolk parishes.

                    Jay
                    Janet in Yorkshire



                    Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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                    • #11
                      Did you Heir Hunters this morning where they sent for two possible birth certs and found they were for the SAME person who had been registered by her father in two different RDs. They presumed the father must have decided he got the first one wrong. They were identical in every other way. Twice the price!!! The name by the way was JONES!
                      Anne

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                      • #12
                        Well, I have found that the only way to be sure you are on the correct tree line and to find out about sibling lines of Grandfathers and Great Grandfathers is to buy the certificates. I know that I have 10 Sibling Birth Certs for my Great Grandfather and some of the marriage and death certificates and have a whole A4 file full of other certificates, so I have not dared to count the cost!! However, I did buy many at £5 and quite a lot at £7.50 but I must have around 60/70 certificates. Some I am still looking for and will purchase when I find them, whatever the cost!

                        There is no other way. So many of the silly trees on Ancestry would not be there if people had bought certificates. I have seen four trees on ancestry, with my family attached to their erroneous trees, and I automatically think these people cannot be bothered to purchase certificates!!

                        If you were to count up the cost of any hobby over many years you would find similar costs and 10k over 30 years would probably work out at a modest sum per year of around £350. What does one spend on magazines/papers/cigarettes/golf/petrol to go places?

                        People do forget that Family History is a hobby for life so wait a few months to buy a certificate if expensive today.

                        Janet
                        Last edited by Janet; 10-04-14, 12:35.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by AlanC View Post
                          Speaking to someone yesterday who has bought Birth, Marriage and Death certificates for most of his 300 odd Family Tree Members, I wondered if this was the 'norm'?.........A rough calculation suggests that he could have spent nearly £10,000 on certificates which is way out of my league. I only purchase certificates to help me continue my research.
                          What do FTF members do?
                          I don't understand that as civil registers only go back to 1837 so unless he is tracing ancillary lines he would not normally need 300 odd certificates to get back beyond civil registration.
                          Earlier than 1837 it would be copies of Parish Register entries.

                          I have been lucky as much of my research into late ancestors was done before 1974 when it was possible to view the registers at Superintendent Registrar’s offices and take a copy direct from the pages rather than purchase a certificate.
                          But I have bought thousands of microfiche of parish registers to enable me to track the lines through earlier generations.

                          By the way if you want the historic registers open support the campaign to open Historic Registers at
                          http://anguline.co.uk/ohrn.html by contacting your MP today.
                          With your help we will succeed.
                          Cheers
                          Guy
                          Guy passed away October 2022

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                          • #14
                            i have all the certs for direct line ancestors- in australia, ireland and england. there are some ancestors in germany where i'm not sure when they died (a whole lot just vanish, others i need archival research), some in ireland i have yet to tackle (are they from city or county with same name), one in scotland i have but am unsure on, and a whole bunch in mauritius that are inaccessible. there are also a few ancestors that i periodically discover survived for civil registration in england. and i get them when they pop up, as they are about 2 each time.

                            i do aim to get all the certs for aunts and uncles eventually, and i have started with methodically (on mum's english family) going through the siblings of great grandparents. i don't usually buy certs for cousins ( though with the australian side i don't have an order, whoever is interesting at the time. don't help later when i wonder if i have printed the cert off) unless i think they will help- when the family is small, when i'm trying to track descendants for photos/stories, or when i think someone fits in and can't crack it unless the certs are bought.

                            my paternal grandfather's family seem to have no descendants apart from us, so i have been buying all the deaths for his aunts and uncles and they seemed to have one child each, buying whatever certs i can for grandfather's first cousins in the hope of tracking living descendants. i have no idea what my grandfather's father looked like, though his mother had other relationships, through her other descendants i have photos of her. someone out there must have something.

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                            • #15
                              have to add these days the price is the same no matter what country i'm using.

                              victoria in australia charges $21 per cert (uncertified image) used to be $17.50 online. i tend not to buy from other states (NSW is like $40 a cert, i have the one direct ancestor from there, south australia is $49 i'm sure- it took ages to get the direct ones fromt here, they include about as much as english certs do, are heavily transcribed in the index, and couldn't justify the cost till i decided all or nothing).

                              9.50 pounds equates to about $20, and the irish ones were about 10 euro a few years back (i only needed 2, but can't wait for the irish ones ot go online, have a lot now to investigate)

                              all these parish registers have saved me so much on marriages of aunts and uncles. and some cases cousins. they have also helped me rule out possible marriages without buying anything.

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                              • #16
                                So far I have only purchased birth death or marriage certificates to make sure I had the correct person, or to look for further information, especially as our NSW certificates are full of useful information such as parents names, place of birth, how long lived in colonies, children's names.

                                I have not purchased as many as I might, as parents names are included in birth and death indexes when they are known, so sometimes its only the ones lacking that detail that need to be purchased for the other information.

                                I have though, purchased certificates out of sheer curiosity (eg the family with 5 running numbers in the death indexes - why ? there was a flash flood at the camping ground and they all drowned, dreadful story).

                                NSW has three transcription agents who will supply uncertified certificate transcriptions for under $20, half the cost of one from the Registrar, and just as good for family research (actually better sometimes, as they decipher the difficult writing !)

                                Di
                                Last edited by dicole; 10-04-14, 13:15.
                                Diane
                                Sydney Australia
                                Avatar: Reuben Edward Page and Lilly Mary Anne Dawson

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                                • #17
                                  I wish I had been more selective in what Certs I used to order, I wasn't very methodical so have some repeats, complete waste of money.:(
                                  I also cannot resist the urge to get some that aren't direct lines, some of them have proved very interesting especially Death Certs.
                                  If I had the money I would buy every one as I dont like loose ends.

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                                  • #18
                                    I have as many direct line as I can find plus many twigs too. I've learnt the lesson of not purchasing parents and grandparents certificates early on as I did follow the wrong line because there were two families of the same name with same names for children (not related as far as I can see). My relative had died young and I pounced on the wrong census info and wrongly researched back into the 1700's.

                                    I'm fortunate in that many of OH's are Scottish so a visit to Scotlandspeople on several occasions has been worth it plus downloading images too.

                                    Ancestry with it's parish records has been a boon too.



                                    Researching Irish families: FARMER, McBRIDE McQUADE, McQUAID, KIRK, SANDS/SANAHAN (Cork), BARR,

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                                    • #19
                                      Originally posted by Anne in Carlisle View Post
                                      Did you Heir Hunters this morning where they sent for two possible birth certs and found they were for the SAME person who had been registered by her father in two different RDs. They presumed the father must have decided he got the first one wrong. They were identical in every other way. Twice the price!!! The name by the way was JONES!
                                      Anne
                                      I remember that one first time round (this week is repeats). But I can't work out how this happened - the registration is held at the RO covering the place of birth, so the "foreign" registrar should have passed the details to the "home" RO. Unless of course the father gave two different places of birth.
                                      Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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                                      • #20
                                        As Janet remarks above, so many of the silly trees on ancestry would not be there if people had only bought the certs (or found some other kind of proof). Many trees have my 2 x GGF on there, complete with wrong wife and wrong family - just as I had, before I bought the cert which flagged up his name change! I (and the other researchers) had taken his name at face value in 1871 and tracked him back on the census etc from that. Wrong - parallel families!

                                        I suppose it all depends on how old you are, lol - but I've just had a quick count up, and only my 2 x GGPs forward were born, married and died inside civl registration, so that's 90 certs, plus the few 3 x GGPs who married and died inside civil registration - say another 20 certs = 110. Half my line is Scottish and all the certs cost me round about £100 to download, along with other stuff. A well spent £100 in my opinion. The other 60 or 70 certs (some wrong ones, some side lines etc) have been amassed over the last 30 years or so. There's no hurry with this hobby, they aren't going anywhere!

                                        OC

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