Tony, if they got married in England or Wales then you can order it from the GRO, or if you know which district they got married in then you can order it from the local register office for that district.
Hi Merry and KR ...
Is there any advantage in ordering from a local register office ?
I've never tried it because I always find the whole process really confusing and have to get OH to order for me from the GRO (I'm sure I must have 'filling-in-form' dislexia !)
I have the birth cert for gt grandpa (from the GRO) but have never managed to find his mother's family. Is it at all possible that the GRO have the wrong surname ?
Hi Merry and KR ...
Is there any advantage in ordering from a local register office ?
I've never tried it because I always find the whole process really confusing and have to get OH to order for me from the GRO (I'm sure I must have 'filling-in-form' dislexia !)
I have the birth cert for gt grandpa (from the GRO) but have never managed to find his mother's family. Is it at all possible that the GRO have the wrong surname ?
Original signatures and a GRO cert has already been copied once from the original, so mistakes in copying can creep in.
However, reg offices with no indexing system usually won't do marriage certs without a date and venue as there are often dozens of churches to choose from and it would take them a long time to find the right record.
Possible, yes, Rachel. To be honest, I nearly always order from the GRO too but there can be advantages in ordering from the local register office - for instance, for a marriage, if they got married at the register office and you get a photocopy of the original certificate then you can see their signatures. And there should be fewer mistakes - again, if it is a photocopy of the original certificate rather than one that a clerk has written out or typed up for you.
KiteRunner
Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh" (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")
Many local offices do go the extra mile and are extremely helpful - a personal service which you will not get from the GRO online automated ordering service (because it is automated).
In addition, if you give the local office checking points, they don't charge at all for the wrong cert, whereas GRO charge a £3 finding fee.
And as Merry says, if you want the original sigs, the only place you will get that is from ther local RO. GRO don't hold any original certificates, they are all copies.
Final word - many London Registration Offices do not handle requests for family history certs, so you will have no alternative but to order from the GRO.
Not quite answering Tony but as a general point, there are many cases where a local office is the only place a record (and therefore certificate) exists, the system used to create the GRO index and copies of certificates (which are not the original documents) is quite complex and is the result of transcribing details several times. The process can lead to missing and incorrect entries.
I have a local and GRO version of a certificate, if i had relied on the GRO version only i would have thought it to be the wrong certificate, the details vary so much from the local version, only the date and venue is a match, all the names have some form of discrepancy on the GRO version, the local issued cert has the details i expected.
But as Merry says, unless you know the venue then many local reg offices will struggle to supply a marriage certificate as they may have several registers to check, each marriage venue (church, chapel and register office) has it's own register and within a city there can be dozens of venues.
Joseph Goulson 1701-1780 My sledging hammer lies declined, my bellows too have lost their wind
My fire's extinct, my forge decay'd, and in the dust my vice is laid
I have a local and GRO version of a certificate, if i had relied on the GRO version only i would have thought it to be the wrong certificate, the details vary so much from the local version, only the date and venue is a match, all the names have some form of discrepancy on the GRO version, the local issued cert has the details i expected.
I think it's probably fair to point out that the above finding is probably pretty rare
Originally posted by Merry Monty MontgomeryView Post
I think it's probably fair to point out that the above finding is probably pretty rare
True Merry
Sometimes you have to use all the resources available, most folks know my preference is for local offices but i'm lucky as Lincoln reg office are one of the best for service levels but without a marriage venue they can't supply a marriage cert, a quick look at the Lincolnshire Places Of Worship shows just how many venues there are, it must equate to thousands of registers!!
Joseph Goulson 1701-1780 My sledging hammer lies declined, my bellows too have lost their wind
My fire's extinct, my forge decay'd, and in the dust my vice is laid
The marriage of gr grandpa's parents was probably before 1837 as it doesn't show up anywhere, but maybe I should fork out for a birth or death cert of one of his siblings.
That ought to confirm gt gt gran's maiden name .. will start off by writing to the local office and see what happens. Come to think of it, the library people were very helpful
The marriage of gr grandpa's parents was probably before 1837 as it doesn't show up anywhere, but maybe I should fork out for a birth or death cert of one of his siblings.
That ought to confirm gt gt gran's maiden name .. will start off by writing to the local office and see what happens. Come to think of it, the library people were very helpful
The other disadvantage is that father may have been widowed and remarried. Hopefully to a woman with a different christian name, but not necessarily.
Phoenix - with charred feathers Researching Skillings from Norfolk, Sworn from Salisbury and Adams in Malborough, Devon.
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