Ordering certificates from the GRO online

What is the GRO? If you have ancestors from England, you recognize this as the General Register Office. In America, this would be the town hall or courthouse that holds records such as births, marriages, and deaths. Records date back as far as 1837 when it was required by law to register these events. Prior to this time, most records are held by the local parish.

It is quite simple to order copies from England online. For many of my ancestors, I actually ordered the records in London and then had them mailed home. You can't just walk in and ask for a certificate, you have to order it.

In order to order it, you will need to find the record that you want to order. You need to know what district the event was registered in and the page number. You can find this information by going to the BMD register online.

You can search for the event you are looking for by name. Be creative. I ended up having to search by surname name (last name) only to find what I wanted. It takes a little determination but be persistent and think outside the box.

The cost is £9.25 per certificate which includes the cost of mail. This is inexpensive when you consider the alternative, a trip to England.

This sounds easy and ordering from the GRO is easy. Getting the correct certificates, however, is not so easy and I tell you honestly that I have ordered quite a few that turned out not to be for the person I was looking for. How can this happen? When it comes to marriages you are assuming that it is your ancestor but you are only seeing the name of one person getting married. When the certificate arrives, you will see the parents names and this may end up being the wrong person.

So far, however, all the certificates have been for people who ended up being related in one way or another. I have two certificates that I just ordered and received and even though I didn't get the answer I was hoping for, I have no regrets.

English Genealogy: GRO

For many Americans, your genealogy search is going to take you back to England. Depending on the time period you are dealing with, this can be easy or it can be difficult. 

In 1837 civil registration was mandated in England. What this means is at this time all births, marriages and death were registered with the Civil authorities. These registers can be accessed for free online at http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ . All the years are divided into four quarters so while you will not get exact dates, you will get the quarter in which the event was recorded. Once you have the information about the quarter that the event took place you can order an official certificate from the GRO (General Register Office). 

A work of caution, it is easy to end up ordering a bunch of certificates for people who are not really your ancestor. Many people have the same name, Unless you have a very unique name, the possibility is high that you will make at least one mistake. 

I have ordered many certificates over the years both through the mail and in person in England and I have ended up with several that are relatives but not the person I was looking for. The good news is, to date, I have never got someone who was not related to me at all. Be sure in a marriage that you find both spouses in the same quarter.

If your ancestors are prior to 1837 then the process is entirely different and I will write about that in a future post.