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The Common Room / Re: British Newspaper Archive subscription question
« on: Today at 09:01 »
I used both for many years, but having found that the FindMyPast search engine is much improved I now just use that and haven't renewed with BNA.
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Family History Beginners Board / Re: Marrying Cousins
« on: Friday 31 May 24 10:34 BST (UK) »there is a still a social stigma about it that was used by people with superior attitudes.
I wonder if anyone ever said that about Queen Victoria marrying her 1st cousin, Albert !
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Family History Beginners Board / Re: Did a Registrar travel to villages to collect info, please (& unusual wedding?)
« on: Thursday 30 May 24 19:33 BST (UK) »
If the local Dr was also the registrar I suppose he could certainly register deaths whilst visiting/attending the deceased, so it is possible, but not certain that that is what happened.
A register office wedding would have taken place in the office of the superintendent registrar wherever that was at the time( a newspaper search may reveal that). The proportion of register office marriages grew slowly from about 1% in 1838 and got to 15% by 1900 so it would have been unusual, but not exceptionally so. A register office wedding at that time might indicate a couple of different religious denominations perhaps ?
The note in the bottom right of the marriage certificate should be the signature of the superintendent registrar who would have conducted the ceremony. It is difficult to make out but it might just say something like..."F Wood Supt Regr Pro tem" ...i.e. temporary.
Being a GRO certificate it isn't an image of the original register, so Lincolnshire may be able to provide a more accurate certificate for you if necessary.
A register office wedding would have taken place in the office of the superintendent registrar wherever that was at the time( a newspaper search may reveal that). The proportion of register office marriages grew slowly from about 1% in 1838 and got to 15% by 1900 so it would have been unusual, but not exceptionally so. A register office wedding at that time might indicate a couple of different religious denominations perhaps ?
The note in the bottom right of the marriage certificate should be the signature of the superintendent registrar who would have conducted the ceremony. It is difficult to make out but it might just say something like..."F Wood Supt Regr Pro tem" ...i.e. temporary.
Being a GRO certificate it isn't an image of the original register, so Lincolnshire may be able to provide a more accurate certificate for you if necessary.
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World War One / Re: WW1 RAF Driver Rigger unable to find medal entitlement
« on: Thursday 30 May 24 11:23 BST (UK) »
One of the quirks of medal eligibility - my grandfather was in the RAF from 1st April 1918, and didn't serve overseas, but he got a medal.
It isn't my area of expertise, but as I understand it - because he started in the RNAS ( Royal Naval Air Service) not the RFC, he qualified under the navy rules and was awarded the War Medal ( which I have), but not the Victory Medal. Those who served with him, but had started in the RFC were subject to the army eligibility criteria of needing overseas/active service and didn't qualify for either.....I believe there was some friction about it at the time.
It isn't my area of expertise, but as I understand it - because he started in the RNAS ( Royal Naval Air Service) not the RFC, he qualified under the navy rules and was awarded the War Medal ( which I have), but not the Victory Medal. Those who served with him, but had started in the RFC were subject to the army eligibility criteria of needing overseas/active service and didn't qualify for either.....I believe there was some friction about it at the time.
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The Common Room / Re: GRO Fee increase
« on: Tuesday 28 May 24 14:20 BST (UK) »Thanks Antony, although the price of certificates last increased in February 2019, from £9.25 to £11
The then still new pdf option went up in price from £6 to £7
Quite right - my mistake
And digital images have only been available for less than a year, already there is a 20% price increase!
True - although the £2.50 price was originally set during the initial test phase so goes back another couple of years for those involved, but I agree, quite a jump.
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The Common Room / Re: GRO Fee increase
« on: Tuesday 28 May 24 14:17 BST (UK) »I see that PDF’s of Death Certificates are now available from 1837 - 1957.
Romilly.
PDFs have been available to 1957 for a long time.
Digital images being available for deaths was extended up to 1957 last November (2023)
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The Common Room / GRO Fee increase
« on: Tuesday 28 May 24 09:19 BST (UK) »
For those not aware - the reason for the GRO ordering system being unavailable yesterday was because new fees have been introduced from today.
The last increase was in2016 2019 - it needs government legislation to change them and the new fees were passed by parliament on the 7th May in the "The Registration of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Civil Partnerships (Fees and Records) (Amendment) Regulations 2024"
The last increase was in
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Family History Beginners Board / Re: Do I have an image of George Blow's original death cert.? Views on correction?
« on: Monday 27 May 24 21:18 BST (UK) »I originally ordered paper copies of birth or death certificates from the GRO, as I thought they would be a more enduring record than a digital record from the GRO’s PDF service. A few months ago I noticed that the GRO had a new, almost immediate service for supplying digital images. I ordered a few. These did appear to answer my queries very quickly! But I began to realise that these entries must be taken from some kind of return, copied by the Registrar from the original registration. I thought that the particular digital image for George’s death might not contain all the information which was available.
To avoid any misunderstanding ....
ALL GRO supplied records - whether a paper certificate, a PDF, or a digital image are taken from the quarterly returns copied and sent in from the local registration offices (who hold the original registers).
Each of the three ordering options will get you exactly the same information, and use the same image - the exception being that digital image option won't show any marginal note if one is present ( PDF and paper certificates will), but that isn't because it isn't there on the copy held by GRO it is because the automatic cropping process that produces the digital image cuts it off. The fact that there has been a correction and therefore there should be a marginal note of some kind, is shown by the underlining.
Errors creeping in during the quarterly return process (or during copying and indexing within GRO) are always possible and are certainly known to have happened, but are not very common. What GRO have should (hopefully) match what is on the original register.
Obtaining paper certificates from the local offices is as close to the original source as you can get, but will cost you a lot more and there is no guarantee they will send you a certificate made by photocopying the actual register - they may just copy the information out by hand onto a blank certificate.
My preferred option is almost always to use the much cheaper digital image option whenever available and then I can always choose to order a PDF or certificate if I think it necessary later. It makes research a lot quicker and much cheaper.
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Family History Beginners Board / Re: Do I have an image of George Blow's original death cert.? Views on correction?
« on: Monday 27 May 24 11:50 BST (UK) »
The terminology you need is "original death registration" there is no "original certificate" - a certificate is always a certified copy of something else.
Corrections to death register entries probably aren't as common as those on births, but they do happen. People make mistakes. It may well have been the registrar who spotted the problem when preparing his quarterly returns at the end of September.
The certificate you have from Lincolnshire does look like it has been made by copying the original register entry. Most simple corrections would be written in the margin. Being quite a long note this one was probably written at the bottom of the register page - but I've seen corrections written on slips of paper stuck into the register before.
So it looks like they have managed to copy the register entry and the correction note separately and then combined them onto the certificate blank for you. If it is is important a polite enquiry to the Lincolnshire registration office who supplied it for you would hopefully get an explanation.
Your second image isn't a certificate - it is an image of the copy of the quarterly return sent by the registrar to GRO.
It illustrates nicely the limitations of using the digital download service. The underlining on the entry shows that there have been some changes made, but the digital download doesn't show the marginal notes, so you can't see what those changes were - they would be shown on a pdf or paper certificate version of the entry.
Corrections to death register entries probably aren't as common as those on births, but they do happen. People make mistakes. It may well have been the registrar who spotted the problem when preparing his quarterly returns at the end of September.
The certificate you have from Lincolnshire does look like it has been made by copying the original register entry. Most simple corrections would be written in the margin. Being quite a long note this one was probably written at the bottom of the register page - but I've seen corrections written on slips of paper stuck into the register before.
So it looks like they have managed to copy the register entry and the correction note separately and then combined them onto the certificate blank for you. If it is is important a polite enquiry to the Lincolnshire registration office who supplied it for you would hopefully get an explanation.
Your second image isn't a certificate - it is an image of the copy of the quarterly return sent by the registrar to GRO.
It illustrates nicely the limitations of using the digital download service. The underlining on the entry shows that there have been some changes made, but the digital download doesn't show the marginal notes, so you can't see what those changes were - they would be shown on a pdf or paper certificate version of the entry.