GRO- non pdf certificates - can anyone explain?

[Tickettyboo]

There must be a reason but its escaping me.

They say its not possible to order a pdf version of a marriage, death or birth outside their current time frame in the online database.

What's puzzling me is, if I order an £11 bit of posh paper I get said posh paper with an image of the register entry printed on it.

How does that work then? They obviously must either scan each one to order or they have a stock of images already.

If its scan to order, am I alone in thinking that if each time they did that (for all the years I've been buying these things, they also scan a couple each time from the earliest entries (and so on, each time doing a couple more from each register) and by now they'd have had most of the job done. Okay they'd have to keep a log of what's scanned and what isn't but computers make that easy.

If they have a stock of images (maybe photocopies) flog me that for a cheaper price - I just want the info, if its on a cert I receive them, scan them and then file them -  hand in the air they never see the light of day again.

Boo

[Jebber]

The paper version is either a handwritten or typed copy of the information, they are not scanned images.

The pdf version are copies of the digitised records of which only the births and deaths have been digitised for the dates given.

[Tickettyboo]

I have quite a few certificates from the GRO, they have 'images' of the register details printed onto the certficate. I don't think I am allowed to post the image on here, but I haven't dreamt it, honest!

I am looking on my screen at a birth cert I bought in 2008, from the GRO.
Its a pre-printed blank piece of paper, then when I ordered it, the district was typed at the top and under where the preprinting has the col numbers and descriptions there is a facsimile image of a register entry that was extremely likely  hand written on 28th September 1885. 

I'd bet my bestest cowgirly boots (the red ones that I love as they are so pretty and very comfortable) that its an image taken from the register the GRO holds.


Boo

[ThrelfallYorky]

Some years ago, for a special reason which I made plain when requesting, I asked if it was possible to have a scan or photocopy of the original, and after a quite well-mannered 'phone conversation, the request was fulfilled, and the original image was copied exactly.
Always found the "powers that be" very helpful.

[stanmapstone]

As far as I am aware the GRO do not hold the paper copies of the quarterly returns of B M D they are all on microfilm. There is a photograph of the Microfilm cassettes of the birth records in Michael Foster's book "The Marriage Records of England And Wales"

Stan

[Craclyn]

The scanning and indexing project took several years and ran out of funding before they got to marriages. For birth and death records they seem to have set the same cut-off limits as used in Scotland. Births over 100 year old. Deaths over 50 years old. They will probably be releasing more records into the online index anually so it now goes up to 1918 for births.

[AntonyMMM]

GRO paper certificates are usually produced by scanning the COPY of the register entry they have, I believe from microfilm (as Stan mentions) - it is not a scan of the original register entry (which GRO don't have access to).

Local registration offices can produce certificates by scanning the original registers if asked, but they don't have to, and many will refuse - especially if the register is in a fragile state. Most offices will produce certificates by hand writing a copy.

Part of the original phase of the pdf trial was to offer copies of entries that had not been already digitised for a fee - I think it was £8. That option was dropped after the initial trial. However the option for the £8 fee for previously un-digitised copies was included within the legislation that raised the prices recently, so it may be something that is offered again in the future.

[Tickettyboo]

Thanks Anthony, I do understand that the original registers are all held locally and the certs we get from the GRO are from their copy of each register.
Stan said that the GRO hold them on microfim, BUT if that info is good enough for an official cert then I would have thought the taxpayer could stand the cost of a microfilm reader that not only prints onto the preprinted cert paper, but can also scan to pdf? I don't understand why they can't provide those as a cheaper alternate to a paper cert.

Bottom line is that usually all I want is who was the bride's Dad and who were the witnesses, was the baby's Mam Mary Smith who married Fred Bloggs or Elsie Smith who married Charlie Bloggs kind of thing :-)

Are you saying that the current pdfs are from the locally held registers?

Boo

[ThrelfallYorky]

Ah, I think I got the certificate copy I'm talking of sent from a county record office, sorry if I confused.