Genealogy Chat

Bob I can't remember how local register offices obtained details of C of E marriages, but if the vicar posted them, there would be the same possibility of omission as there is in the GRO indexes. The indexing has been farmed out to India, with the usual possibilities of mistranscription. The only ray of hope, but I've not heard confirmation, is that you may get age at death, mother's maiden name and spouse's surname right from 1837.

Nudge

Robert, I am sure you can search the records in London Register Offices if you can afford it. I know my grandfather was born in Southwark on 14.4.1874. However, his birth is not shown in the GRO indexes. Got in touch with Southwark Register Office and they want to charge me £18.00 for checking to see if his birth is in their registers + £7.00 for the certificate. I have refused this offer. think it is extortionate. I have been extremely lucky in that his Army papers showed him to be a Catholic. On the offchance I got in touch with St. Georges Cathedral, Southwark and they found a baptism for him with the added bonus of showing my great grandmothers maiden name. Jean x.

Phoenix re-indexing the from the GRO registers is better than nothing but most of them are trancriptions(with errors). It won't solve the problem of the records that never got to the GRO. What a mess. Bob

Veronica in Dundas (and everyone!)........ I have just had a look again for the marriage that was missing from the W's in the 1850's index (and which also led me to realise they didn't have any Y's at all for that quarter either........) The entry was for the surname ''Wyllys'' and wasn't the 1850's at all, but Q3 1845. I am just having a look to see if the situation has been remedied on 1837.......................................................................... NO!!!!! The W's end with Eliza Wyatt (so no Mary or William Wyatt's that quarter!!) None for my Wyllys name, obviously, and there are no entries for anyone beginning with Y at all. I have just looked on FreeBMD and all these pages are available to veiw through their site!! Funny that 1837 say the pages do not exist anywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Merry

Just to cast a little extra gloom: The GRO registers are currently being reindexed. (It was suggested that the local registers would be more accurate, but wiser heads than family historians prevailed). Once the indexes are complete, it should be possible to search for entries online and probably download a digital copy of the original entry for a fraction of the price that certificates currently cost. If nothing else, this will eliminate the trancription errors and missing entries arising when the original handwritten indexes were replaced by typed volumes. On the other hand, contemporaries of the writers stood a better chance of interpreting handwriting correctly.

Veronica Sorry to slighty discourage, but I got a little fed up with seeing '1837online is complete' when it isn't and thought others should be told. :o)))))) Joy

Hi Everyone, i have the same problem as Little Nell my ancestor was supposed to have been born in Walford, ( sorry i meant Walworth), i have bought so many birth certificates all wrong ones ( anyone needs a birth certificate for Arthur Hughes i have about 6,), the only thing i can think of is that he was born in another borough but which one?and with the surname Hughes its an endless task. Madeline

Kate Told 1837online it was missing via email but haven't heard anything. Oh well, never mind. Joy

Helen I take your point about the difficulties if you don't know the district On the subject of local registrars I have seen this on other boards The 1837 act says, XXXVI. And be it enacted, That every Superintendent Registrar shall cause Indexes of the Register Books in his Office to be made, and kept with the other Records of his Office ; and that every Person shall be entitled at all reasonable Hours to search the said Indexes, and to have a certified Copy of any Entry or Entries in the said Register Books under the Hand of the Superintendent Registrar, on Payment of the Fees herein-after mentioned ; (that is to say,) for every general Search the Sum of Five Shillings, and for every particular Search the Sum of One Shilling, and for every such certified Copy the Sum of Two Shillings and Sixpence. XXXVII. And be it enacted, That the Registrar General shall cause Indexes of all the said certified Copies of the Registers to be made and kept in the General Register Office ; and that every Person shall be entitled, on Payment of the Fees herein-after mentioned, to search the said Indexes between the Hours of Ten in the Morning and Four in the Afternoon of every Day, except Sundays, Christmas Day, and Good Friday, and to have a certified Copy of any Entry in the said certified Copies of the Registers ; and for every general Search of the said Indexes shall be paid the Sum of Twenty Shillings, and for every particular Search the Sum of One Shilling, and for every such certified Copy the Sum of two Shillings and Sixpence, and no more, shall be paid to the to the Registrar General or such other Officer as shall be appointed for that Purpose on his Account. So we have a legal right to search local indexes and GRO and get a certificate from both and the London ones are acting illegally. As far as I know this is still law. (although I will stand corrected) Perhaps some one should challenge them. Bob

Yes, I remember it well, the page was definitely missing from 1837 online and I think another page as well. Did you ask 1837 what had happened to the pages when I gave you all the information about them? And if so, what was their reply? By the way, it wasn't Nottingham Register Office where I found it, it was the Nottinghamshire Archives and it was on their microfiche copy of the GRO indexes which is how I know the pages were missing from 1837 online. Kate.

I looked up my own marriage on 1837 under my name and couldn't find it. I only found it via my husband's entry. The registrar obviously couldn't read my father's flamboyant handwriting in the parish registers (he was the Rector and took the service)! Our surname was mis-spelled in the index. Christine

Bob wise words, but not much use if you don't know which local register office an event was recorded in, or its a London register office which doesn't supply certs for genealogy purposes! I have a great grandmother Emma Matthews, who was widowed in May 1879. She turns up less than 2 years later with her 2nd husband John Garvie on the 1881 census and in June that year their first child is born. No trace of a marriage in the GRO index. No marriage in her parish church Islington where she married first husband and was living in Islington when he died. No marriage in any church in Greenwich which is where they were on census night. So they could have married in any parish in Greater London - how on earth would I find them, apart from trawling through hundreds of parish registers? nell

The GRO records are transcribed from the original local records ( think about it, you don't register an event with GRO!). This is nothing new, you should always use district registrars FIRST, not LAST, if possible. The only advantage of GRO is its national coverage. There are probably thousands missing on GRO. The local records will always be more complete amd accurate. Bob

Over all the years of civil reg there will be literally hundreds of thousands of entries on the indexes (or not on the indexes!) with errors........mis-spellings............wrong district names.........wrong vol and/or page numbers............marriages where they have indexed the wrong people (indexed witnesses, rather than bride and groom......indexed fathers names instead of bride and groom etc) and (in this case) totally missing from the index!! 1837 also has whole pages missing.....when I looked for a marriage in the 1850's I realised they had ''mislaid'' all the pages for people with surname beginning with Y and the last page for people beginning with W in this particular quarter. They tried to tell me there were no Y marriages that quarter!!!!!!!! Merry

1837online is not complete even though they say they are.. I spent a lot of money trying to find the death of my Uncle when he was a baby. I knew he died in 1926 but on trawling through 1837online he wasn't there. Even enlisted the help of some kind souls on here to see if they could find him and they couldn't see him either. Then another kind soul offered to look up at Nottingham Registry Office and found him. I'm collecting his Death Certificate on Monday. Joy