Family Research is an expensive business

[OUI]

I'm quite new to the family tree research but is anyone else finding that getting to look at birth certificates, death and marriage certificates on GRONI becomes quite expensive after a while?

[Romilly]

I'm quite new to the family tree research but is anyone else finding that getting to look at birth certificates, death and marriage certificates on GRONI becomes quite expensive after a while?

Yes, definately!

If only England and Wales had the same system as Scotland...

Romilly

[ggrocott]

There are some free resources out there, but it depends where your family are from.  If you are lucky enough to have family in Staffordshire or around Bath you can do quite a bit without buying
certificates.  Look at the resources area on the various are forums

There are also various other free sites, although I feel less than there used to be.  Try a google search for the name and area you are looking for.  Go to Genuki.

This is why subscribing to one of the commercial sites, or using library editions is often cost effective if you cannot get to local records offices/archives.  It is also why we all value the help of people willing to do lookups, without them research would often be impossible.

[Elwyn Soutter]

I'm quite new to the family tree research but is anyone else finding that getting to look at birth certificates, death and marriage certificates on GRONI becomes quite expensive after a while?

GRONI charges £2.50 per view whereas Scotlandspeople charges around £1.60 or thereabouts, so fairly similar. England used to charge £9.25 to get a certificate though there is currently a pilot scheme for photocopies which is a bit less. And some countries such as Australia charge around $40 I believe, so GRONI aren’t too bad.

Be aware that some Northern Ireland certificates are available to view free on the irishgenealogy site. Births in Northern Ireland 1864 to 1917, marriages 1870 to 1921 & deaths 1878 to 1921 can all be viewed free there. You just need GRONI for the years outside those bands.

[panda40]

Compared to the price of a packet of cigarettes which go up in smoke and cause illnesses I think it is a reasonably priced hobby to have. Yes some parts are expensive but compared to other hobbies such as car restoration or following a premier football team it is relatively cheap. I think some people expect to do this hobby without out laying out some cost.
Personally I find it is the amount of time spent on it that is the biggest outlay. I used to have to spend a day at the archives looking through parish records on a film reader, very time consuming. I am more than willing to pay an annual subscription so I can view the same records online. I can do this at home now and because they are indexed I can search more effectively.
Cost is always relative to the end result.
Regards panda

[Kimbrey]

FindmyPast also has a lot of Irish Catholic records and the image may also be available

Kim

[Regorian]

Most of my research was pre Internet. I had to drive 40 miles to London to Bush House for GRO, Portugal Street round the corner for Census returns.

Once I had got back to 1837 it was PR's in Gloucestershire CRO and then Gwent CRO. 80 miles?

If I was starting from scratch now I might not resent annual subs to Ancestry and Find My Past. I must have driven thousands of miles and spent thousands of £'s.

[aghadowey]

I'm quite new to the family tree research but is anyone else finding that getting to look at birth certificates, death and marriage certificates on GRONI becomes quite expensive after a while?

I use other (free) resources to find information from Northern Ireland counties and actually end up purchasing very, very few certificates from GRONI.

To give some examples-
Emerald Ancestors- using marriage search you can get year and district plus first name(s) of spouse.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=791218.0
If you have a couple in 1911 census and they are listed as being married 20 years then putting in the groom’s name in the free search might allow you to discover year and district of marriage so that you can find it in Irish Genealogy marriages- particularly helpful with common names.

PRONI Will Calendars https://apps.proni.gov.uk/WillsCalendar_IE/WillsSearch.aspx
Can help to find date of death, address, spouse or other relatives even if there is no Will and/or only extract is available.

Belfast Cemetery database https://ssl.belfastcity.gov.uk/burialsearch/burialSearch.aspx Dundonald, Belfast City and Roselawn cemeteries- gives name, residence, date of death & burial & age then if its not a burial in public ground will show others buried in same plot

Catholic Parish registers- often pre-date civil registration but coverage varies from parish to parish-
https://registers.nli.ie/

For Antrim & Down records-
https://www.ancestryireland.com/search-irish-genealogy-databases/

Lots of other resources in the Resources boards for Ireland-General, Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone

[Chilternbirder]

I didn't even think about researching the Scottish side of my family in pre internet days.

The other thing is that, with Ancestry or FindMyPast, you can get a far better guess at which are the right certificates to pay for.