GRO Birth cert ... ordered 5th May

[Rachel Scand]

Has arrived !!

I am so shocked ....
Ordered at 7pm on Monday (Bank Holiday) ... Estimated despatch date 12th May !!!!!!!!

It was folded of course ... but never mind, it's here
Is this a record ? It's second class postage

[vikki brace]

I ordered mine on the Sunday, with est dispatch date of the 12th, and it arived this morning.

I am really chuffed, although they only sent one, still waiting for the 2nd one I ordered

[borobabs]

I ordered mine before that on the 1at May dispatch for 8th and still not here sob sob

[Northern Light]

:D Its not a record but maybe a joint one as mine were ordered exactly the same time as Rachels and they both arrived this morning..2nd class post!

Poor Babsy, maybe tomorrow..

[Joan of Archives]

Ooooo I ordered mine on the same day, well OH's common name one lol

It hasn't turned up yet :(

I ordered a couple before, some mine, some his & mine came really quick so I have come to the conclusion that the more unusual names turn up more quickly, lol!

[Rachel Scand]

Isn't it strange ... there doesn't seem to be any reasoning
I mean if you've supplied the ref then there's not much they have to do their end.

Fingers crossed for you Babs and Joan ;)




I'm about to order another, so hope my luck holds out :D

[Uncle John]

Perhaps the surge following the exhibition has died down.

[Wilf]

My two birth certs were due for despatch on the 6th and arrived today.

I cannot get excited about them as they are for both my sons :D
We need full birth certs for passport applications.

I wish i'd got full ones at the time and not short 'free' versions:o
Hindsight though is a great thing and I keep thinking of the certs I could have bought instead

Allie x

[JBee]

My 6 outstanding death certificates arrived eventually whilst I was away.

I'd allowed 2 weeks but they didn't arrive in time for me to do any research using them!!

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

I mean if you've supplied the ref then there's not much they have to do their end.

Michael W Foster had written a couple of books about the GRO - amongst other things, he is a family historian who lives in New Zealand. He is the only "outsider" to have ever been allowed to study at the GRO......This is what I've understood from the second book, plus my comments in [brackets]:

Before revisiting Southport in 2000 I was warned about the new system of film storage that has been introduced. Row upon row of open racks have been replaced by one short row of seven floor to ceiling carousels...........

One film holds the records for one GRO volume for one Q for births, deaths or marriages......The films are housed in individual metal cassettes on a single spool.

In 1998 [Michael's previous visit] the films were stored in a large system of open racks. Staff went round with a bundle of cert applications and picked the films required from the racks.......

The films are now stored in the huge verticle carousels in open trays. 15 films to a tray in rows of 26 trays. At any one time about four rows of film are visible, but each tray has to be pulled out to see the contents........The rest of the films are hidden in the rest of the carousel ......Each carousel holds 40 rows of films or 15,600 films in total. There are 7 carousels so that's room for 109,000 films.

With the carousel system only one person at a time can pick a film from one carousel, having revolved the unit to reveal the correct drawer and checked the contents for the right film. This takes a lot longer than the previous method.

Picking films and replacing them correctly has become a specialist task and has become sequenced because of the time taken. Each bundle of applications is now sorted so that films can be picked out or replaced with minimal carousel movement [hence certs ordered by one person end up in different envelopes], in order to speed up the process. Whilst 200-300 films are being replaced, no films can be got out, which also slows the process. With the old rack system missing films could be noted easily. With the new system it is not obvious a film is missing until the carousel has been revolved and the appropriate tray pulled out. Also a birth film put back in the deaths section could be easily spotted with the old system, but not with the carousels.

Staff estimate that at any one time 4,000 films are in use. Applications can be held up if the appropriate film is in use, so it is important that films are replaced in storage as soon as possible. However, the carousel system has led to films being out of storage for longer periods.

The GRO is a hardworking office with a high volume of work and emphasis on productivity and throughput. The office opens at 7.30am and shift work continues until late evening, six days a week.

[and from another source] In 2005 the GRO was issuing approx 30,000 certificates per week.

Some bits above are quotes from "A Comedy of Errors - The Marriage Records of England and Wales 1837-1899" by Michael W Foster, a fab book that has saved me loads of money as understanding the way things go wrong and have gone wrong at the GRO over the last 170 years has saved me from buying quite a few wrong certs!!

[Northern Light]

Thanks Merry, thats an eye opener! and so interesting..

[Lynn The Forest Fan]

I rarely use the GRO now, but have just ordered my grandad's birth cert from them, despatch date 16th May. I hope it comes quickly!

[Rachel Scand]

Goodness Merry
That sounds frighteningly complicated

I rarely use the GRO now, but have just ordered my grandad's birth cert from them, despatch date 16th May. I hope it comes quickly!

My next one (marriage cert) also has a despatch date of 16th ... so the weekend could be a stumbling point

[Mary from Italy]

What a ludicrous system, Merry, I can't believe it

I ordered 3 death certs on 26th April for despatch on 2nd May.

Two arrived on 5th May, and I'm still waiting for the third :(

The best service I ever had was from Bradford RO - I ordered a cert on the Monday and it arrived (in Italy) on the Wednesday.

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Sounds about normal for office workers in this country Mary! I expect the carousels were organised by someone who had never dug out a film or had to put one away in the right place.

When I worked in a bank, if a customer wanted a copy of one of their cheques, I used to have to put on my coat and a pair of communal wellies (I kid you not) and go down to the basement, which was a series of numerous corridors about a foot wide, between shelving with hundreds and hundreds of boxes of filing on each side. The wellies were needed because the floor was often flooded (the building was condemned in WW2, but this was overturned in 1947). Also the temperature was always freezing, hence the coat. When the correct date's cheques had been located they were usually all stuck together because of the damp conditions!! Also there was a storeroom of leather bound ledgers which I only had to visit once. We found the correct ledger (1920's) and pulled it off the shelf. When we opened it there were no proper pages, just a load of dust and some very dead "maggots".

I wonder what the health and safety people would make of that now? I'm talking as if it were decades ago.......I left there nine years ago!!

[Lynn The Forest Fan]

Well the cert I ordered arrived today, right on schedule! I didn't think it had arrived, as I was expecting a large envelope, but am happy none the less

[Olde Crone Holden]

Merry

Ah, but all will be solved when the DOVE project goes on line! They will never need to use the films again.

OC

[Little Nell]

OC

When being the operative word. And all the certs that never got as far as the GRO still won't be there, however the information is accessed.

If only my gt grandma had gone to a little village to marry her 2nd husband - that way the local reg office would be much more obliging than Islington, who repeatedly referred me to the GRO despite my telling them that the marriage wasn't in the GRO indexes.

[Rachel Scand]

Well the cert I ordered arrived today, right on schedule! I didn't think it had arrived, as I was expecting a large envelope, but am happy none the less

Unfair !!!!! :D
Is that the one you ordered with despatch date 16th ?
Mine has not arrived :p

[Lynn The Forest Fan]

Unfair !!!!! :D
Is that the one you ordered with despatch date 16th ?
Mine has not arrived :p

Ye, thats the one *smiles smugly*