UK GRO

pinkypinky

*Slight rant*

I ordered a marriage but accidentally typed the wrong first name of one party, despite having the correct reference numbers. I realised immediately and went on to their contact form to notify them of the mistake. The contact form is ridiculously long and you have give all your details again (instead of just your order number) but the box to type your query is the very first thing on the form, which was not at all clear, so I went the whole way through the very long multiple page form waiting for the section where I could explain the problem and didn't find it, which meant I had to do the whole bloody form again when I realised it!

Then 5 days later I get a nonsense reply saying "terribly sorry, we can't amend orders, so if we can't find what you want, we'll just refund and you can try again".

So I'll just have to wait and see if my card is charged the astonishing £9.25 one certificate costs. (and posted - hello 21st century?)

What an inefficient system! Only civil servants could have come up with it.

Hermy

At least their certs are perfectly legible.

EDIT: Plus you can order on line.

Tullyneasky

The England/Wales GRO doesn't issue 'research copies' of bmd certs. Does any country other than Ireland?
It issues genuine bmd certificates, on watermarked paper, for £9.25. The same thing in Ireland via GROI or certificates.ie costs a much more astonishing €20.
Since the watermark is intended as proof of validity/provenance, they obviously can't be sent by email.

pinkypinky

I realise they're certified copies, but they were offering pdfs not so long as a trial, which I believe was very successful.

RGM

Tullyneasky wrote: »

The England/Wales GRO doesn't issue 'research copies' of bmd certs. Does any country other than Ireland?

Some American states do if the record is old enough.

Alicat

I recently discovered an English marriage in the family, and I thought I was going mad that I couldn't find any sort of copy online. Can't believe it costs so bloody much! It must cost an arm and a leg to get a decent chunk of English genealogy done.

KildareFan

Maybe we need to follow the example of Reclaim the Records - New York records are being put up online for free, following freedom of information requests http://www.nycmarriageindex.com/

tabbey

KildareFan wrote: »

Maybe we need to follow the example of Reclaim the Records - New York records are being put up online for free, following freedom of information requests http://www.nycmarriageindex.com/

That's good! nowI must find some ancestors who married in NY city since 1950.

Hopefully it will improve the chances of other authorities following suit.

tabbey

pinkypinky wrote: »

*Slight rant*

I ordered a marriage but accidentally typed the wrong first name of one party, despite having the correct reference numbers. I realised immediately and went on to their contact form to notify them of the mistake. The contact form is ridiculously long and you have give all your details again (instead of just your order number) but the box to type your query is the very first thing on the form, which was not at all clear, so I went the whole way through the very long multiple page form waiting for the section where I could explain the problem and didn't find it, which meant I had to do the whole bloody form again when I realised it!

Then 5 days later I get a nonsense reply saying "terribly sorry, we can't amend orders, so if we can't find what you want, we'll just refund and you can try again".

So I'll just have to wait and see if my card is charged the astonishing £9.25 one certificate costs. (and posted - hello 21st century?)

What an inefficient system! Only civil servants could have come up with it.

I also find the England & Wales GRO tedious. Yesterday having logged on with my email and password, I found a new level of bureaucracy, a verification code which they sent to my email address This is supposed to be a once off procedure, as it was the first time I had used the service since this feature had been introduced. Hopefully it is just that - a once off!