Birth Certificate

[tazzy]

Can anyone tell me where I can apply for a copy of a Birth Certificate in 1848 in Toronto.
My Great Great Grandparents, William Simpson & Bridget Maher had 3 children.  Mary Jane Simpson born in 1844 in Halifax and  James Simpson born in 1850 in Kingston.
My GG Grandfather, William, was a sergeant in the 2nd Batallion rifle brigade and they were Roman Catholics
I recently found on Ancestry that they had another son called John William Simpson born on 1st February 1848 and baptised on 24th February in Toronto.
I applied to the GRO in England, where I ordered Mary Jane & James's certificates from about 10 years ago and now they're saying that I have to apply to Canada because they don't hold documents. 
I contacted the family history centre in Toronto who just sent me the same documents on Ancestry

All I need to know is where do I apply for the actual birth certificate.   So frustrating

[polarbear]

I’m afraid there won’t be a birth certificate in Ontario for that time. Registration of births only began in Ontario in 1869. You will only find a baptism record for your time frame, which it appears you might have?

PB

Added: one would think that you should have been able to get the cert from the same record set the other 2 came from. Strange.

[tazzy]

As I said, I have a birth certificate for James Simpson born in 1850 in Kingston so afraid your answer doesn't make sense

[Lisa in California]

Quite a few of my ancestors were born in Toronto prior to 1869.  I’ve never found birth certificates for any of them.  As PB mentioned, official birth registration began c1869 (at least, that’s what I was told by government agencies when I started searching).

I have found a couple of church records for my ancestors.

[tazzy]

I've just phoned the GRO in England again and spoke to a different person who said the previous person obviously didnt understand
.They are most definitely available.  I've just ordered

[aghadowey]

I've just phoned the GRO in England again and spoke to a different person who said the previous person obviously didnt understand
.They are most definitely available.  I've just ordered

Since official registration of births in Ontario didn't start until a bit later and G.R.O. is for registering English births I'm wondering if the birth records from G.R.O. are from the overseas births register? I know Find My Pat, and perhaps Ancestry? have them in their database.
In Find My Past there is one for a James Simpson 1850 Kingston, Canada (British Armed Forces And Overseas Births And Baptisms collection)

[tazzy]

Yes, I fdid say that in my original post.

My GG Grandfather was in the Army there

[aghadowey]

No you didn't actually say that in so many words. What you wrote was

Can anyone tell me where I can apply for a copy of a Birth Certificate in 1848 in Toronto.
My Great Great Grandparents, William Simpson & Bridget Maher had 3 children.  Mary Jane Simpson born in 1844 in Halifax and  James Simpson born in 1850 in Kingston.
My GG Grandfather, William, was a sergeant in the 2nd Batallion rifle brigade and they were Roman Catholics
I recently found on Ancestry that they had another son called John William Simpson born on 1st February 1848 and baptised on 24th February in Toronto.
I applied to the GRO in England, where I ordered Mary Jane & James's certificates from about 10 years ago and now they're saying that I have to apply to Canada because they don't hold documents. 
I contacted the family history centre in Toronto who just sent me the same documents on Ancestry

All I need to know is where do I apply for the actual birth certificate.   So frustrating

Since you didn't mention it was an overseas registration rather than an Ontario birth certificate there was some puzzlement, both at the G.R.O. and here on this thread, since it was pre birth registration in Ontario. Sounds like it's all sorted now 

[Lisa in California]

Thank you aghadowey for kindly and correctly pointing out where there could be confusion.

tazzy, I mistakenly thought that the military reference (and religious affiliation) in the original post was inserted in order to include all known facts, which is what most of us try to do when asking for assistance.

Only having ever ordered one document (possibly two?) from the GRO, I was not familiar with their holdings.  I try to be as helpful on RootsChat as possible, but as I’ve rarely ordered from sites outside of Canada and the United States (U.S. for my American husband), I haven’t paid much attention to their wealth of information. Other RootsChatters excel in their knowledge of sites such as the GRO; I would rather develop North American skills in order to help those searching in Canada and America.

…Sounds like it's all sorted now 

Agreed.  In the end, the important thing is to learn all we can about our ancestors. I hope the document is of help.