Genealogy Chat

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I've just received the marriage certificate of William Wyer and Sarah Quible. The marriage took place on 18th March 1839 in Winkbourne (now spelt Winkburn), Nottinghamshire, which is in the Southwell RD. The GRO index references for the pair on the images (as well as in the transcribed index) are: Mar 1839, William Wyer, Southwell 15 761 Mar 1839, Sarah Quible, Southmolton 15 761 When I ordered the certificate, I used William Wyer's ref which was a calculated gamble and it paid off. Has anyone ever tried to get an incorrect GRO index reference corrected? Is it possible? Is it worth the effort? :-) Chris

I tried to tell them they had spelt a name wrong and they wouldn't have any of it. Danny

Hi Danny, You'd think they'd want to get it right though, wouldn't you? I can understand, with so many copies in circulation, that it would be very difficult implementing a correction at the moment, but when the Dove project is deployed it would be nice if they could have some sort of correction submitting process in place. Perhaps they will, but proof will no doubt be required. Chris

Christine I would certainly try! However, the GRO indexes in many libraries etc, would not pick up any corrections of course. I don't know if any such corrections would be passed on to Ancestry etc - does anyone know??? OC

Hi all, I have had a name changed on free bmd, Pietro Fillippo Scrimaglia 1909, it now reads under name correction, and i also recived a email of thanks, and Fillippo Scrimaglia is now on Ancestry. So its worth a try, it paid of for me. Loren.

Loren, I'm not sure if this is quite the same thing - do you mean that the freeBMD (and Ancestry) transcription was wrong but the image was correct? In my case, both are wrong! OC, I'm going to try it with reference to the Dove project, and see what they say. Chris

Christine One of the really annoying things about the DOVE project (apart from the fact that it is taking so long) is that they did not use this opportunity to go back to the LOCAL Registrars records, and thus pick up the estimated ONE MILLION missing, or incorrect, entries. Yours would have been picked up automatically if they had done that. I have six certificates, all for events registered in Manchester in the 1860s, which never made it to the GRO. I also have three marriage certs for the same couple - one copy from the church register, one from the local registrar and one from the GRO. All three are different! Fathers have been muddled up, addresses transposed and the name incorrectly spelled on the GRO copy. It is a wonder we ever find anyone. OC

PS. Having a correction made at the GRO itself is not the same as correcting a transcription error on Ancestry or Free BMD.

Yes, you can.....! I have had my own marriage index corrected as both our names were indexed incorrectly. I was able to do it by email, in my case to the Marriages and Civil Partnerships office at the GRO. It took about three months and this was the final reply, which also answers the question about updating external copies such as Ancestry. Presumably if a new index is ever copied from the corrected GRO page then it will be picked up. ''Re: Correction to marriage entry in the Indexes. Our investigations are now complete and I can confirm that the error with your marriage entry is just in our Indexes and not on the actual marriage entry. I have informed our Receipt & Indexing Department of the error with the indexes and they will amend our records accordingly in due course. Unfortunately the amendment will be to our indexes only and will not be replicated on any web sites owned by private companies.''

I had an entry that was on the GRO index as Rotherham 1d, correct district for Rotherham is 9c. Correct entry was Rotherhithe 1d, caused me great problems when ordering the cert too. However, GRO didn't care when i told them it was incorrect. Free BMD has put a note next to the entry explaining the mistake. To explain this search for Coulby born in district 1d. You can see the error staight away. Even Freebmd had highlighted it. But as the transcribe what they see.....and what they see is Rotherham 1d , they can't actually change it. But you cna see my feeble attempt to explain the error, LOL well i was still a newbie. Peter do you think they maybe changed yours as it was recent. By recent I mean in your lifetime. My change was in 1860.

Hi After a 4 year search for the marriage in 1843 of my 2x Great Grandparents, Sylvia Cresswell and Joseph Careless I finally found it. The GRO index shows them as Sylon Cresel and Joseph Hales!! The actual certificate clearly shows her name as Sylva, not Sylon. I had to print the page from the indexes and send it with a copy of the certificate and the GRO agreed to change that name only in the indexes. Although the other names were incorrect they could not be changed as the couple are deceased. Ann

Thanks everybody for your replies (first time I've been on here since last night). It looks like the response from the GRO might be a bit random, but I will try. I'll also put one of those postem notes to the entry in freeBMD as it has already been flagged up by them as being the wrong district for the volume number. I bet nobody else will want to order the same certifcate after all this fuss, lol !! Chris

Hi I also corected find my past on an age that was out by abt 40years and they gave me some free credits Danny

I,ve watched with interest as I have a marriage with a/the wrong gro numbers to it I,ve spent £weeks speaking to the GRO ofice and its taken me that long to get the right certifcate because of the mix up back in 1909!!!! but the lady said if they check them all it would be a never ending job!! Good luck

Let us remember there is a sharp difference between correcting a mistake on the INDEX, and correcting a mistake on a certificate. Correcting the GRO INDEX is largely down to the affability of whoever receives your request. Correcting a mistake on a certificate is a matter for the Registrar and he has to obey strict legal rules before he can do this. Most of these corrections can only be instigated by the person concerned, or by a relative who has legal proof that something is wrong on the cert. OC