RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: thebounder on Wednesday 03 February 16 07:00 GMT (UK)
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During a visit to the UK in the summer, I plan to visit the GRO at Southport to check on recent BMDs not available online. Can anyone tell me if they allow cameras to be used to record data, or, even better, if they allow you to download data to a memory stick ?
I have tried sending them an email but, despite including GQ in the subject line as requested, I just get a standard reply informing me of their opening times. Telephoning them is no use either, I just get the engaged tone.
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Hi
Do you mean the more recent GRO Indexes? If so they are available at several libraries in England but I'm not sure whether the GRO itself is one.
Andy
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I don't think you will be able to visit the GRO at Southport to check on recent BMD. For any date after 2006 INDEXES are available at
Birmingham Central Library
Bridgend Reference and Information Library
The British Library
City of Westminster Archives Centre
Newcastle City Library
Manchester City Library
Plymouth Central Library
Certain Local Authorities have later indexes on line.
Stan
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Hi Bounder,
No, I don't think you can go to the GRO in Southport either. I would select one of the libraries Stan mentioned and pay a visit. If you go to the British Library I think you'll have to register first.
Good luck
CD
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Just be aware that it's only the Indexes you can see, not the data from certificates.
GRO are not permitted to divulge information from certificates - you have to buy a copy to see that! ;D
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If you can get to the British Library in London to view the "indexes", you can use your camera to take images from the microfiche without charge, the BL has recently relaxed its camera policy. The basic indexes though still don't contain the extra information that we want to see.
Westminster Archives do not allow you to photgraph the indexes which are less than 100 years old and do charge a camera licence fee.
As far as I'm aware the only general public access to the GRO at Southport is to collect pre-ordered certificates which have already been bought and paid for.
They do not give you access to the microfiche indexes.
If you're looking for recent deaths after 2007, Ancestry have the 1st quarter 2007 online and then partial information upto 2013 collected from other sources such as obituaries and grants of probates.
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Thanks for the information. I will actually be staying in Southport for a few days, quite close to the GRO, and I thought it would be easy enough to just walk to it, and view the indexes. I guess the nearest library would be Manchester, anybody know the camera policy there, I don't particularly want to spend all day there with my pencil and paper, if I can avoid it. I have quite a few records to look up.
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I guess the nearest library would be Manchester, anybody know the camera policy there,
See http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_studies/522/contact_details_and_access_arrangements/3
Stan
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If you're looking for recent deaths after 2007, Ancestry have the 1st quarter 2007 online and then partial information upto 2013 collected from other sources such as obituaries and grants of probates.
I'm confused about Ancestry's 2007-2013 death index.... I think it's mis-named, it leads you to believe it's the same as the earlier indexes they hold. And it doesn't give much detail about where the information comes from. It says about 55% of the deaths from this period are covered... I've found quite a few relatives on it, but failed to find some who I know died around this time.
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See http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_studies/522/contact_details_and_access_arrangements/3
Stan
Thanks very much. The link provided a lot of useful information, and I now have a much better idea of what I shall find when I get there. Sounds like a long way from handling the large printed indexes at Somerset House when I first started this hobby, 45 years ago.
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There's a sort of family history helpdesk manned on Tuesdays at the Library in Southport - afternoons, I think, by the local family history society. I'm sure that if you contacted one of them, they'd know what is and isn't possible. The site for the Society is, I think, North Meols (that's "Southport" in old-terms) easily found online - although it eludes me at this moment.
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If you're looking for recent deaths after 2007, Ancestry have the 1st quarter 2007 online and then partial information upto 2013 collected from other sources such as obituaries and grants of probates.
I'm confused about Ancestry's 2007-2013 death index.... I think it's mis-named, it leads you to believe it's the same as the earlier indexes they hold. And it doesn't give much detail about where the information comes from. It says about 55% of the deaths from this period are covered... I've found quite a few relatives on it, but failed to find some who I know died around this time.
It certainly is misnamed. I recall when this subject was raised before someone said the coverage was nearer 20 per cent in some periods. Add to this the source of some of the data is dubious ie it gives death dates which are actually burial dates recorded in newspaper obituaries and my advice would be its best avoided if possible (I accept this will not be feasible for some people)
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The recent deaths on Ancestry, although far from complete, can and do give clues which give me the opportunity to investigate further and in a lot of cases save me from doing a potential and time consuming yearly death search from 2007 to 2013 and then quarterly (GRO has reverted to this format again) from 2014 - Sept 2015, currently 14 searches for some deaths I have to look for.
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Here is an BMD index of what is left of Durham up to 2010.
https://gro.durham.gov.uk/pgPublicSearch.aspx
Born Loana Bowes in County Durham she spent all of or parts of 1911-1912-1913-1914 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, returned to England a few days before the outbreak of WWI. Born July 4 1910, a good day to remember when in the USA.