birth certificate copies

[dinkey]

I rang the Register Office at Blackpool requesting a copy of the original birth certificate of my father only to be told that it was not possible and that a copy of the entry from the records would cost £7.

I am sure that someone told me that you can get copies of the original certs. Is this correct, or have I imagined it.

regards

dinkey

[PaulineJ]

There wa some discussion as to what you get from each Office.

My local (Halifax) copies out by hand the entry from the original books.

Southport sends a fascimile copy of the entry from the books they hold (which are themselves copies).

Some offices hand over a cert with a fascimile of the original entry in the relevant spaces.

Pauline

[Little Nell]

dinkey,

I wonder if both and the office are talking about the same thing but don't realise it.

At the top of my "original" (and that of both my sons) birth certificate - i.e. the piece of paper that gets handed to the parents when a birth is registered - are the words "Certified copy of an Entry (of Birth)".  This is for the current long certificate that gives all the info.  The only original entry is in the register books held by the Register Office.  Anything else is always a copy of those details. 

However I also have the "short" certificates of birth that I got when my sons were born and it only gives the barest minimum of details: name, date, place.  No parents names.  But at the top it says "Certificate of Birth".

Do you want the first option - in which case you are talking about the same thing?  Or do you want the second - in which case probably no chance.  I think they only give those to the parents, but please correct me if I'm wrong someone.

Nell

[dinkey]

Paulin & Nell

Thanks for clearing up  the confusion for me. It made me look at my marriage certificate and yes it is a certified copy and the original would be in the Registrars book that would have our signatures on it.

Yet something still lurks at the back of my mind that some one has said they got certs. of their ancestors showing their signatures on them. From what you have said that the only originals are kept in the registrars books, I don't know how they managed that.

Regards

dinkey

[Lloydy]

Dinkey, you're not going mad

I too remember seeing that someone said they had managed to get a coy of an "original" certificate which was much better because he/she could see their ancestors signatures.  I just cannot remember where I read it.

I have often wondered how that was the case because we would all love to see how our ancestors signed their names.

 

[Bee]

Hi Dinkey

I usually by my certificates on-line from GRO and they show the actual entry in the registers, (good practice in deciphering the registrars handwriting).

Whenever I've got certificates from the Hull register office the arrive all neatly typed, so I have to hope that they have deciphered the details correctly.

Bee

[Bee]

we would all love to see how our ancestors signed their names.

If all the marriage certs that I have are anything to go by then all my ancestors were good at was making a cross

[Darcy]

I had a stroke of luck regarding signatures.

After Anthony found my grandparents and great grandparents in Northern Ireland I checked the PRONI site as the men and woman of Ireland signed a Covenant in 1912.

I was thrilled to find the signatures of my grandparents and aunts and uncles I never knew.
 
Darcy

[pete_uk]

Dinkey, you're not going mad

I too remember seeing that someone said they had managed to get a copy of an "original" certificate which was much better because he/she could see their ancestors signatures.  I just cannot remember where I read it.

I have often wondered how that was the case because we would all love to see how our ancestors signed their names.

 

Whitechapel register office was certainly providing certified copies with facsimiles of the original entries when I visited there in late 2002. Having the original signatures is an enormous plus (for me at least), though there is one disadvantage - the certificates are longer and thinner, so don't fit neatly in my files.

Of course the other to way to get original signatures is to obtain a copy of the parish register entry for a marriage (assuming they got married in church).

Pete