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  • birth certs

    Hi all,
    sorry but i'm totally new to all this forum stuff!
    hopefully this is not a silly question! Is there anyway to view birth CERTIFICATES freely without paying a fee? (in the U.K.) i really want to trace my family tree but finances are sparse! i know my dads D.O.B. and even a ref page for that birth but not being knowledgable in this field i'm lost! any help?

  • #2
    There is no such thing as a silly question, its the most sensible way of finding out what you don't know.

    No, you can't view birth certs unless you buy them. If you have the ref it will be £7. I understand the bit about finances but family history isn't cheap, though there are lots of free resources.

    I would strongly advise that you get birth certs for at least your parents and grandparents to enable you to go back.
    ~ with love from Little Nell~
    Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

    Comment


    • #3
      Hello geeze and Welcome to FTF.

      I know how expensive this can be, but you do need the confirmation otherwise you can go for miles in the wrong direction.

      A lot of us here (me included) have done that.

      Have you asked your family if they already have any certs? Sometimes you need them (in Australia anyway) for starting school or getting driver's licences, etc. You may find there are already some around and you can photocopy them.

      Comment


      • #4
        You don't say which part of the UK your family are from. If they are from Scotland then you can download certificates (but only quite old ones) on a website called Scotland's People, and although it isn't free, it is cheap compared to the cost of English and Welsh certificates which do cost £7. I'm not sure what the cost of Northern Irish ones is at the moment but I think it might be slightly higher than England and Wales.
        KiteRunner

        Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
        (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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        • #5
          Your best bet is ask around the family for any certificates photo's etc that you can copy - also any family stories etc. You never know what people have hidden away and didn't know they had.

          Once you can get back to the census's then at least you hopefully will have the person you're looking for and parents and siblings with ages and place of birth which will help in identifying the correct certificates.



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

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          • #6
            birth certs

            thanks all so far!
            i know grandparents names, just need to get D.O.B's (will get sis to look at headstone down south.) they were about in 1901 so should get somethings from census! cheers for now!

            Comment


            • #7
              Dates of birth can be found on army service records, passports etc. so you might be able to find that info without buying a cert.
              ~ with love from Little Nell~
              Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

              Comment


              • #8
                It is true that certificates can add up to be an expensive exercise but there comes a time when you will need to purchase one or two to keep you on the right track.
                With a bit of research and help when needed then you can find the best certificate to help clarify a certain situation. You don't need to get every certificate for every individual straightaway but the most important ones are for your direct lines, once back to the years covered by the census it pays to combine the information from the assorted census returns, the increasing number of parish records, local history websites etc. It's suprising just how much you can find online and there are often a few ways of searching for something that is a useful guide to the "who, where and when" questions that crop up.
                http://www.flickr.com/photos/50125734@N06/

                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

                Comment


                • #9
                  I agree with Glen, you do need to get certificates to ensure you are on the right track.

                  However, you don't need to buy them all at once! Put your small change in a jam jar and every time you have £7 buy a certificate.

                  However, do have a good scout round the family first as you may find they already have certificates and other useful family papers. There is nothing more annoying than spending £7 on a cert and then your Auntie Joan says "You should have asked me, I've got the original" lol.

                  Meanwhile, ask questions on here.

                  OC

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                  • #10
                    Where do I get the English BMD certs for £7 each?

                    Until now I have only needed the Scottish ones via ScotlandsPeople.

                    Hugo

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                    • #11
                      You can get them here if you know the reference its £7

                      General Register Office (GRO) - Official information on births, marriages and deaths

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                      • #12
                        Jill,

                        I have the reference. It is for my grandparents marriage cert. I have their names, the year, the quarter, the city and a ref 8b 265.

                        I have seen the site on here before and made a careful note of it. You can guess the rest . . .

                        Many thanks,

                        Hugo

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                        • #13
                          The info on English certs is different too, we have an illustrated guide to certificates along with links and information to ensure you use the correct site and know how to get the best price (eg the £7) in our wiki.

                          All About Certificates - Family Tree Forum
                          http://www.flickr.com/photos/50125734@N06/

                          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

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Well thats my first GRO England cert ordered.

                            Now I wait.

                            Hugo

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                            • #15
                              There is one fly in the ointment...

                              You do need to get certs to be sure you aren't rushing off wasting hours researching the wrong family. BUT Just as people lied - or were a bit vague about accuracy - on the census, so they did sometimes on certificates.

                              Marriage certs may have fathers' names where none is really known (to spare embarrassment of admitting that parents weren't married), or father's (or own) occupation is promoted a bit (ag labs become farmers, journeymen become masters), or ages are improved (a bit older to be able to marry without parents' permission; a bit younger if the spouse is much younger).

                              My g-g-mother shed seven years to bring herself down to only a few years older than her almost-21-year-old husband! Her father is described as a farmer, rather than ag lab. I wasted a bit of time because I had believed her age on the marriage cert, so was looking for someone who didn't exist in the censuses.

                              I had a few Scottish records to get for my tree. Since I wasn't trying to prove anything for a court, it was so lovely to be able to get uncertified images of the original records - and it was so much less expensive that way!

                              Christine
                              Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

                              Comment


                              • #16
                                Ah yes, Christine, there are a lot of lies told on certificates...but at least you can usually tell if it is YOUR liar on the cert, or someone else's!

                                One of my Scottish 3 x GGMs made herself 13 years younger at marriage. She carried the lie consistently through her long marriage - no more children after the age of 31, lol - but her eldest daughter reported her death and gave her correct age.

                                I can just imagine the conversations in that household....don't tell your dad how old I am and I'll buy you a new bonnet...

                                OC

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                                • #17
                                  Originally posted by Olde Crone Holden View Post
                                  Ah yes, Christine, there are a lot of lies told on certificates...but at least you can usually tell if it is YOUR liar on the cert, or someone else's!

                                  One of my Scottish 3 x GGMs made herself 13 years younger at marriage. She carried the lie consistently through her long marriage - no more children after the age of 31, lol - but her eldest daughter reported her death and gave her correct age.

                                  I can just imagine the conversations in that household....don't tell your dad how old I am and I'll buy you a new bonnet...

                                  OC
                                  LOL

                                  my gt gt grandmother was guilty of this too - knocked 10 years off her age at marriage (presumably to hide the fact that she was marrying a "toy boy" 8 years her junior)
                                  Her age is inconsistent through the censuses, I suspect it depended on who was asked, though she never managed to age 10 years in between

                                  Her husband had the last laugh though. Her age on her death cert is 10 years OLDER than she actually was :D Do you suppose he over-compensated :D

                                  all this lead me a merry dance trying to find her birth, but fortunately all her official documents have both her names - Elizabeth Martha - so I'm pretty sure I ended up with the right one, which also means that her last child was born when she was really 42, which looks reasonable to me.
                                  Vicky

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                                  • #18
                                    me again, the virgin searcher!
                                    having joined geneologist on a freebie (10 credits whoopie!) i have discovered my dad and grandmother both registered at royston. heres the nievity bit. can i view certs there without purchaseing? so i can get names of grans parents! as a start!

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                                    • #19
                                      There is no way of viewing English or Welsh certificates without paying £7 for them. The General Register Office (GRO) has made it an absolute rule.
                                      Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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                                      • #20
                                        Originally posted by geeze34 View Post
                                        me again, the virgin searcher!
                                        having joined geneologist on a freebie (10 credits whoopie!) i have discovered my dad and grandmother both registered at royston. heres the nievity bit. can i view certs there without purchaseing? so i can get names of grans parents! as a start!
                                        Welcome to FTF Geeze

                                        Is that Royston Herts?

                                        What dates are you talking about here?


                                        Joanie

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