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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Topic started by: eryka91 on Tuesday 01 April 08 23:01 BST (UK)

Title: birth certificates
Post by: eryka91 on Tuesday 01 April 08 23:01 BST (UK)
Hello roots chatters,

I have had great success with people helping me before.

I wish to get copies of birth, and death certificates from england and scotland, but at a reasonable cost ( the pound to aussie dollar is not nice). I was using the "certificate man" but can no longer find his details.
I really only need a scan, biut the hard copy is nice.

Eryka Australia
Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: aghadowey on Tuesday 01 April 08 23:08 BST (UK)
Scottish certificates are available on Scotland's People website (depending on the dates- see their website for what information's on Scottish certificates, dates overed and how to order them).
Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: Keziahemm on Tuesday 01 April 08 23:45 BST (UK)
English certificates are available to order from http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/
They cost £7.00 each, don't know what the exchange rate is  :-\

Susan  :)
Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: eryka91 on Tuesday 01 April 08 23:55 BST (UK)
7 pounds is a bargin I paid 25 pound for the last one.
Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: tarnee on Wednesday 02 April 08 01:42 BST (UK)
l just ordered one in march from Australia conversion $15.60

Jean
Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: jeenie on Wednesday 02 April 08 03:11 BST (UK)
I don't know where you are based, Eryka, but if you are eg a member of the South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society you can get an overseas cheque from them - and $15-60 is less than 1/2 the cost of a SA Certificate !

Have you tried the 'services' of findmypast ?   You can get a 50-credit Voucher from the Genealogy Society of Victoria Inc for $A16-50, and this should be cheaper if you paid direct over the Internet, the current exchange rate being around £0-45 per $A, and Bank Corrency Conversion Fees probably in the vicinity of 33 cents.

Cost of direct Internet Purchase of £6 worth of credits from ScotlandsPeople in March has been between $A13-01 and $A13-25 (+ CC Fees).

freebdm will (also) help you track down who you are looking for.     :)  :)
Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: stanmapstone on Wednesday 02 April 08 15:13 BST (UK)
7 pounds is a bargin I paid 25 pound for the last one.

You have been misled Seven Pounds is the official price if you know the GRO Reference.

Fom Which? magazine January 2006"The government has warned people to use only official websites to buy replacement birth certificates. The General Register Office put out the alert on hearing complaints about www.gov-certificates.co.uk and other sites..... The company based in France....."
The General Register Office sells certificates from £7.
http://www.col.statistics.gov.uk/

Stan
Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: Keziahemm on Wednesday 02 April 08 16:33 BST (UK)
Hello Eryka, didn't mean to mislead you over the cost of certificates, I shouldn't have presumed you would know the GR0 reference  :-[

As Jeenie said freebmd will help in finding the reference, not all registers have been transcribed as yet.  The full BMD index is on  findmypast and Ancestry. (Ancestry also has partial freebmd index)

If you don't know the GRO Reference then the cost for standard delivery is £10.

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/


Susan  :)


Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: jeenie on Thursday 03 April 08 01:59 BST (UK)
Quote from: erika91 on Tuesday 01 April 08 23:01 BST (UK)
Quote
I wish to get copies of birth, and death certificates from England and Scotland, but at a reasonable cost . . .

To get back to Erika's original query, apparently non-members can obtain ENG/WLS BDM certificates through the afore mentioned SAGHS for $28, and Wills and Admons for $21; and SCT BDM certificates, photocopies over 100 yrs old for $20, handwritten transcripts $16, and certified copies $37.

No doubt (?) the respective Genealogy Societies in other (Aus) States have a similar service.

Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: John3 on Thursday 03 April 08 06:35 BST (UK)
Hi Erika, you can get some direct see UKBMD search (if the one you want is there click on link fill in form and post) not all places covered. John
Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: trish251 on Thursday 03 April 08 08:26 BST (UK)
Quote from: erika91 on Tuesday 01 April 08 23:01 BST (UK)
Quote
I wish to get copies of birth, and death certificates from England and Scotland, but at a reasonable cost . . .

To get back to Erika's original query, apparently non-members can obtain ENG/WLS BDM certificates through the afore mentioned SAGHS for $28, and Wills and Admons for $21; and SCT BDM certificates, photocopies over 100 yrs old for $20, handwritten transcripts $16, and certified copies $37.

No doubt (?) the respective Genealogy Societies in other (Aus) States have a similar service.



The only reason I could think of buying from ANY service other than GRO online would be if you do not have a credit card. Buying through the GRO service is fast and reliable. I get certificates in Australia within 10 days of ordering. The latest one I bought cost me $AU15.55 - 5 cents cheaper than Jean  ;D 

It takes a couple of minutes to register & your details are then available next time you wish to order.
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/
If you don't know or can't find the GRO reference, ask on rootschat - if it can be found it will be found  :) by someone on here.

Scotland is easier still - and cheaper
At www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk you can search for free but it costs 1 credit to view search results and 5 credits to download a bdm image. 30 credits cost 6 pounds. The last 30 credits I bought cost me $AU13.42 - about 45 cents per credit. A certificate will cost you 6 credits (1 for search & 5 for image) $AU2.70 - the cheapest certificates I have found in any country.

If you haven't used SP before, you can get caught with misspelling, so read a little of the help and also the discussions on Rootschat about doing the Scotland searches - again, if you have any problems with finding the right record, put a query on rootschat.

Hope this helps

Trish

Edit: The site mentioned by Stan seems to still be in operation - takes a while to determine a price (doesn't seem to be a "price list" link) but £23  is the current rate - one for the price of 3.3 and an extra £5  for recorded delivery.  I keep thinking I need a website. I could make a profit at half his prices!
Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: jeenie on Thursday 03 April 08 12:19 BST (UK)
Scotland is easier still - and cheaper
At www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk you can search for free but it costs 1 credit to view search results and 5 credits to download a bdm image. 30 credits cost 6 pounds. The last 30 credits I bought cost me $AU13.42 - about 45 cents per credit. A certificate will cost you 6 credits (1 for search & 5 for image) $AU2.70 - the cheapest certificates I have found in any country.

As inferred above, sp can be very cheap eg, $A13-01 + 33 cents Fees.  Very cheap if you know what you want, and get what you want, 1st go.  But as Trish has inferred, there have been postings re the difficulties of using sp (similar but not exactly like Vic BDM site).  Some additional tips :  cast a wide net eg, it costs the same to list about 15 matches, as 1;  Ages on Censes may be considerably different from that on a Death record;  searching for the married name of a woman will also match on her maiden name;  once a payment was debited against bank account, but not received by sp (fixed as soon as they were advised - on the next working day).

And if searching "English" records pre 1837, try freegen, and familyhistoryonline, and manyothers which no doubt Trish can recommend eg, cornwall-opc-database.org and freepages.misc.rootsweb.com  :D

But Eryka should have enough to go on, but is the above what she was after  ???
Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: trish251 on Thursday 03 April 08 15:47 BST (UK)

But Eryka should have enough to go on, but is the above what she was after  ???

What Eryka requested was a place to buy English and Scottish certificates/scans at a reasonable price. This has well been covered.

I did just notice that Eryka mentioned the pound to aussie dollar is not nice  at 45p to $1AU it is nicer that it has been for many many years. When I was in the UK in 2002 it was 35p to $1AU - quite a difference. It is a good time for buying from the UK in Oz dollars  8)

Trish
Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: tarnee on Thursday 03 April 08 22:56 BST (UK)
Hi Trish,

In the past l have paid nearly $19.00AU for certs from GRO so was a nice surprise to pay only$15.61AU. l don.t think you could get any cheaper than that.

Jean
Title: Re: birth certificates
Post by: jeenie on Sunday 06 April 08 04:51 BST (UK)
Note to Trish (in case you missed it) - have you seen ** Appreciation ** in The Lighter Side last reference 08 March 08 ?    ;D