Birth Cert Reference?

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Before I order a cert, I just want to be sure that I'm ordering with the correct reference. This snippet is from an 1851 Census transcription:

Robert 11 Errand Boy West Buckland, Som.
Sarah 10 Nurse Maid Culmstock.Som.

I know that Culmstock comes under the Reg. District of Wellington, the same as West Buckland and at this stage, I want to order Sarah's birth cert to find out the name of their Mother, plus a possible address.

I looked and found both of them on 1837.com (1839 Dec Qtr and 1841 Mar Qtr) and both say Wellington. As Sarah's page number wasn't too clear ...... I thought I'd have a look at FreeBMD just to see if it had been entered.

Their ref confirms my page number and everything else for her, but the other entries on there say Wellington S. or Wellington Som. (As they've recently updated, I searched HONNIBALL 1839-1849)

I always thought that you had to order EXACTLY what the GRO Indexes say, if this is correct, why are FreeBMD using S. or Som?

[Peter Goodey]

"I always thought that you had to order EXACTLY what the GRO Indexes say"

Ah. But what they tell you to do and what you can get away with are two different things.

"why are FreeBMD using S. or Som?"

AIUI, FreeBMD aims to be an exact transcription of the GRO indexes - not an interpretation. If an entry in FreeBMD doesn't conform exactly to the GRO index, the site invites you to send in an error report.

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your reply, maybe I ought to write Somerset on the page where you can give extra info?

Sarah's entry on FreeBMD is correct as I said, unfortunately, all the others listed with the S. or Som. are possibly not my families, but I'll keep my eyes open for when they get around to entering Robert's in 1839 ..... as that one says just Wellington.

If by any chance it appears with the S. or Som. I'll write and tell them.

[Peter Goodey]

There's also a Wellington Registration District in Shropshire...

[Peter Goodey]

"If anyone at Southport has to scratch their head as a result of you putting exactly what it says, that's their problem, isn't it "

Some people get too hung up on getting the GRO reference absolutely correct. The acid test for GRO is whether what you've put is unambiguous. If it isn't they'll reject it.

In very, very many cases a partial reference will be unambiguous. Am I the only one who receives certificates with a corrected GRO reference shown on the covering slip?

This only reflects my experience. Your mileage may vary, as they say

[Mark]

It's usually best to not add any additional information when ordering certificates. Like "Mythology" I don't have too many "John Smith"'s, if I did then some additional info might be necessary, but I'd try and keep that to the minimum necessary to try and attain uniqueness. If you try and supply too much Additonal Information, then you run the risk of something not matching what's on the certificate, and then they'll reject it and ask for guidance. If nothing else, this adds time.

Mark

[Peter Goodey]

"It's usually best to not add any additional information when ordering certificates"

This is also an important point. If one puts "Mother = Sarah Smith", one shouldn't necessarily expect to get a certificate if the mother's name is shown as "Sarah Emily Smith".

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Thankyou everyone for your replies. In the past, I've never given any extra info to the required refs ...... so I won't this time either.

Thanks for the explanation about FreeBMD and the GRO Indexes ..... I didn't know that Reg Districts were written differently on the original indexes .... the S. and Som. bits.

All the ones I've purchased so far have been completely straight forward with the name e.g. Wakefield, so I suppose some indexers of the GRO ones wanted to clarify the situation with Wellington.

That being the case, it doesn't help just writing the S. does it, as that could be Somerset or Shropshire!