UK research

jos28

Me again, sorry to keep pestering you all but I'm looking for a few pointers. I've done a fair bit of Irish research (back to 1822). I'm familiar with how things work here but need to suss out the best way to research my ancestors in the UK. I have a thread going on a UK death cert for my Grandad's brother and thanks to yourselves I have found a wife and 3 possible children.
Do all the UK sites give references to indexes only ? Is ordering from GRO the only way to get ACTUAL certs ? Are UK church records online anywhere. I just want to find out if any living relatives exist. I don't need to trace a line back to Henry Vlll. It's only this one branch of the family that I need to do.

Any advice would be much appreciated

L1011

UK has three seperate systems:

England/Wales GRO, Scottish GRO and GRONI

Scotland has a hideously expensive census/certain certs online system at ScotlandsPeople; GRONI has a brand new 'advanced index' (all the data from the original register) system that's relatively cheap.

England/Wales all you have is the basic index at FreeBMD and then order the certs at full price. Church records are fragmented all over the place but Ancestry.co.uk has large amounts, as well as all the England/Wales censuses.

From what I've had to do, England is the most frustrating with the waiting times and Scotland is just painful financially.

jos28

Thanks MYOB for explaining things so clearly. I was hoping for a nice easy shortcut but that's obviously not going to happen. I'm so glad that I don't have many UK relatives to trace. It's hard to tell from the indexes if the offsprings are the correct ones. At over £9 a go it's an expensive mistake if you pick the wrong ones. The surname I'm researching is Glover so luckily that narrows it down a bit. Thanks again

shanew

I you have a specific area in mind, particularly in England/Wales, then it's worth checking for Online Parish Clerk websites (OPC) which transcribe local registers, and also local history groups..

Hermy

Ancestry also have the England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966 which you may find useful. I'm researching some Anglo-Irish folk at the moment and it has helped me untangle a few knots.

Jellybaby1

I'm lost with UK records too. I did get some help before here regarding records in one area, but now I need to check a few others and I just haven't a clue where to apply. Does every English county have a centre to apply to for certs?

shanew

GRO UK does civil certs for all England Wales. Registration Districts can have their own ordering systems, but you cant use the references from the National Index (FreeBMD etc) to order for these. Some are a little cheaper than the GRO but not all..

Ponster

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I'm lost with UK records too. I did get some help before here regarding records in one area, but now I need to check a few others and I just haven't a clue where to apply. Does every English county have a centre to apply to for certs?

I don't see much difference between Ireland and England when it comes to finding and ordering certs. I use FreeBMD up to 1916 and Ancestry from there on to get the index. Ordering on GRO is easy though those certs are expensive (they used only be £5 about 8 years ago).

odds_on

Try FreeBMD Births marriages and Deaths after 1837 - very useful site and FREE
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

nuffsaid

If your ancestors lived in Lancashire (including Manchester and Liverpool) the following websites could be useful:-

http://www.lancashirebmd.org.uk/

which gives the original index entries to the civil registration. For births the mother's maiden name is often shown. Also re-marriages are often shown.

http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

Online parish clerk for Lancashire. Gives the parish record entry for lots of parishes in Lancashire.