Genealogy Chat

Thanks a lot for your help everyone, this is really useful!

Kind regards,
Sam

Sam,

It can be done via public records office. In my case, I needed to trace relatives in Liverpool. I went to the PRO in the city centre (where the staff were most helpful).

I had an idea of when certain ancestors wed and because so many Victorian records had been committed to microfiche, it was possible to track down the parish records of the church in which they celebrated the union.

If you can ascertain the church (even though it might now have been demolished), you should be able to locate the microfiche. You could contact your PRO adn find out what they hold.

The seaching is down to you and might take time, but it is rewarding when you hit 'gold.'

As someone has already advised, you can actually photocopy the entry for as little as 10p (30p in Liverpool). The information is identical to a formal certificate and what a saving!

You can also get Baptism records from the same source.

Good hunting!

Marriages are great but unfortunately births and deaths aren't quite the same.

For births, you would need to look at baptism records. The major difference from an actual birth certificate is that you won't usually find the mothers maiden name. Also, people were sometimes baptised years after they were actually born and most don't give the date of birth, just the date of baptism.

For deaths, the best you can hope to find is a burial in the parish records or cemetery registers. You may find out the date of death but won't find the cause of death or the informant, like you would on a death cert.

As I said before, marriages are great as they are exactly the same!

I live 1/2 mile from Stoke Archives so have saved literally hundreds of pounds by looking up marriages in the parish records rarther than paying £7 per certificate.

Sam x

You won't get the same information for births and deaths without buying the certificates. The most you can get from parish records instead of a birth certificate is a baptism record (which may give the date of birth but not always). The nearest you will get to a death is a burial record but this won't give you a cause of death or addresses.

Kath. x

Thanks guys, i had an inkling this could be done but thought i would ask those in the know! Can the same be done for births and deaths too?
It would be much easier to live near where my ancestor's did!! Still, 10p is a great difference to £7!!
Thanks for your help
Sam

If you go to a Records Office most of the parish records have been copied onto microfiche. This means you need to book a time to go and ask for time on a microfiche reader. It's easy to use and the staff will be helpful.

Sometimes.....just occasionally you may find that when you look for a record the staff need to bring you the original parish register. I've looked through a few.
If you cannot find a marriage which you are sure ought to be there it is worth asking to view the original. I spent ages hunting for my 2x great grandparents' marriage. It wasn't where I thought. I began to wonder if they'd bothered to marry. When freeBMD came online I saw an entry in the town I had tried.
It turned out when I next went to the Records Office and looked at the original record that the page I wanted had been missed when the register was being photographed.

If you live near where your ancestors lived it is so much cheaper to look for the register entries and get copies there and then in the records office rather than wait for the certificate.

You can also go much further back using registers than certs though early ones may not give a lot of information.

Sue

The answer is actually yes - sort of.

If you are going to the Records Office, assuming you know (or have an idea of) when and which church they married at, you can look the entry up in the parish records. The information will be exactly the same as you would get on a marriage certificate.

This is assuming that the marriage you are looking for is after 1837 when civil registration began and not too recent otherwise the Records Office won't hold the parish records. The one near me has them upto c1930's.

I have obtained loads of photocopies for 10p each rather than pay £7 for a certificate.

Sam x

Sorry if this has been done a million times but is there any way i can view a marriage certificate apart from purchasing it? I am going to be in the vicinity of where one of my ancestors married at and I was wondering if it is possible just to look up the registration (at the records office or church??) or is it something that just has to be paid for?!

Please forgive me, i am a newbie!
Thanks,
Sam