Genealogy Chat

I'm trying to find my grandfathers birth certificate.

I applied for one but it turned out not to be the correct one when they did the cross reference with the parents names.

Is there anyway I can do it myself somewhere to save myself time and money?

Where would I go?

Gypsy Joe

It will depend where the birth was (or could have been) registered.

Ivy

It was for London area.

Yikes!

Some local reg offices are transcribing their indexes (eg you can check Lancs BMD index online by year, although the parent info isn't given). I think I've heard it said though that some local reg offices won't do searches for you (esp London) - but I'm not sure whether those would allow you to browse their indexes personally? Trouble is, there are a lot of local reg offices covering the London area....

The most straightforward way may be to identify as many of the family as you can - start from later births/marriage/death certificates etc and use all the names dates and addresses to find them on census/electoral roll etc so that you can pinpoint the locality more exactly?

For a list of London reg offices which do supply family history certs, complete with address, phone number, e-mail and website url listings see;


http://www.familytreeforum.com/wiki/index.php/London_And_Middlesex

Glen

Many thanks Glen, I was trying (and failing) to locate Bethnal Green - for a different thread - Tower Hamlets council's main home page and site map were not straightforward!

Using parents' names as checks can sometimes be misleading. For example, if you give them as Frederick and Mary Ann and the cert has them as Fred and Mary, they won't send the cert.

Ok Thanks guys,

Unless John was called anything but and the same for Ellen then I might be in trouble. I know that on all censuses' they were John and Ellen. On Patrick’s marriage cert John was listed as John. I guess I'll just have to risk trying a few others and hope I don't spend too much money in the meantime.

Gypsy joe

No problem Ivy.

I have a feeling the links given on the other site might soon need updating (for some reason the London councils seem to change url links every six months).

Now i have the section set up on the other site i can usually search and change the 30 odd offices listed in around a day or so when needed.

Mind you, it took three days to research and verify the details in the first version a year ago!!!

Glen

I didn't get my cert as it said mother was listed Fanny, not Frances as I put.

Ellen could be Helen, Nellie, Eleanor etc.

Good luck,

Selena

Thanks Selena

But if the census all have her a Ellen and so does the marriage certificate I'm hoping that it would be Ellen. I also did a search for John Foleys to Ellen’s in County Kerry Ireland and only came up with the one, so I'm sure that's her name.

Well I've tried another certificate we'll just have to keep the fingers crossed. :-)

Gypsyjoe