Is it better to buy certificates locally?

[maidofkent]

I've always bought my certificates from the GRO and never questioned the process, but today I realise that I don't really understand how the process of getting the information from the local to the general register office, then to people like me, really works.

I suppose I assumed that the registers are forwarded to the GRO, copied, and then returned. But now I think about it, I don't think that's the case.

I have around 30 certificates - birth, death and marriages - from 1843 right through to 1972, and I've just realised that not one of them is actually a copy certificate, which is what I thought I was getting. Each document is written entirely in one hand, and none has actually been signed by the informant. Even the witness signatures in the marriage certificates are written by the same person.

It's been such a long time since I had to register an event myself that I can't remember if I signed the original certificate, or a box in a book, or what I may have done.

In my ignorance, I've always blindly assumed that what I was getting was a copy of an original certificate, but what it appears to be is a document produced after the event, from information recorded earlier in time, perhaps passed on in more than one format.

If I get my certificates from a local register office, would I get genuine copy certificates, and therefore, would they be more accurate, and maybe have more information on them? I'm guessing that the more hands this information goes through, the more mistakes and omissions could occur.

MoK

[Coromandel]

Each quarter, local registrars were supposed to send in copies of all BMDs they had registered, and clergymen were supposed to do likewise for marriages, to the General Register Office, where the national quarterly indexes were compiled. Here's an early explanation of the system, from an article on 'Registration, General' in the 1842 Encyclopaedia Britannica:

'One of the most important features of the new measures is the provision that certified copies shall be deposited quarterly in the General Register Office in London, there to be arranged and indexed for facility of reference; a provision by means of which henceforth a copy of an entry of any registered birth, death, or marriage, in any part of England or Wales, may be obtained by application at a single office, at the trifling cost of 3s.6d., which includes the fee for the search.

The certified copies thus transmitted from the clergy, registrars, registering officers, and secretaries (amounting together to more than 15,000 persons), are all made on separate leaves of durable paper, of an uniform size and peculiar texture, having a distinguishing water-mark for the prevention of forgery, and furnished by the Registrar-General to every one of the foregoing persons, on whom the duty of registration devolves. They are sent by the superintendent registrars by the general post, each class of return (i.e. birth, death, and marriage) being sent separate, and in a cover denoting by a mark the nature of the contents, and bearing the name of the district in which it belongs. Thus, on their reception at the General Register Office, the confusion which would otherwise ensue is avoided, by its being rendered possible to classify the certified copies to a considerable extent before they are taken out of their covers.

They are then arranged and examined seriatim, and all defects are noted, and letters on the subject of such defects as are of any importance are addressed to the persons from whom the defective copies come, and who are required to furnish either other copies, or such explanations as may remove doubt. The copies are then paged, and inserted in books for reference.

Means of immediate reference to any one of the entries of births, deaths, and marriages deposited in the General Register Office, which will amount yearly to almost 1,000,000, are provided in the alphabetical indexes which are made there. This vast work, far exceeding in magnitude anything of a similar kind ever before attempted in this country, is performed in the following manner. The few particulars requisite for the index are copied from each entry seriatim, on forms prepared for that purpose, containing space for as many entries as there are in one page of a certified copy. These, after having been checked, are cut into separate slips, each containing the reference to one entry; and the slips are then taken off one by one by the indexing clerks, and the contents of each copied into the index. In this manner nearly a million names will be indexed alphabetically in the course of each year, the processes of transcribing, sorting, and indexing being performed by between thirty and forty persons....'

As you can see there is a lot of scope for error, from returns not getting sent in at all, getting lost in the post, being miscopied, being misread at the GRO, etc., etc. Since all the records at the GRO are copies, you will never get original signatures etc. on certificates supplied by the GRO.

While you can order certificates from many local registrars, such certificates are usually copied out by hand, so you still don't get to see the original handwriting, and there's still the chance that mis-copying will occur. Also, local registrars can often only supply copies of marriage certificates if you can tell them where the marriage took place. If you are looking for a marriage and can track down the original marriage register from the church in question, often in a county record office, you will be able to see the original signatures/marks.

[maidofkent]

Thank you Coromandel,

That was really interesting, and explains a lot. I'll need to re-read it a couple of times, but yes, it's cleared up much.

MoK

[Mona]

While you can order certificates from many local registrars, such certificates are usually copied out by hand, so you still don't get to see the original handwriting, and there's still the chance that mis-copying will occur.

It is worth enquiring at local registrars what they provide. The Manchester office does send a copy of the original entry, so any original signatures are present. I was only once sent a written transcription as they said the original register was too fragile to handle (one in the first years of registration).
Thinking it was the same everywhere, I ordered a copy of a birth registration from the Tameside office, but received a handwritten copy. I was hoping to compare a signature!!
M.