Genealogy Chat

I know it's frustrating to wait because you want the details to hopefully progress your tree further back in time. However, the majority of us are searching for dead rellies, so I don't think they are going anywhere in the space of a few days lol Patience is a virtue so they say - I'm still waiting for certs I ordered mid Dec. In the meantime, I've followed up other lines of research and made contact with a 4th cousin on my hubbie's side (through GR) as also a lady who shares the same 4th great grandparents as my hubbie. Might not have done that if my certs had come quicker. Every cloud has a silver lining I think. Have a good day all. Pauline

I live in Southport and the local paper has had loads of ads in for extra staff for the GRO. They now work 24 hours but demand continues to rise. I have found that this hobby requires plenty of patience but plenty of rewards!

To be fair to the folk at GRO, I know the waits have got longer and are frustrating, but they did not close down for two weeks. I received certicates yesterday which had been despatched on the 31st.Judith

Peter My 17 year old has been desperately looking for a part time job for nearly 6 months now. He's applied to all the local supermarkets, warehouses etc and nothing. He'd have willingly worked over Xmas and New Year putting certs into envelopes for some extra cash! Lou

The point I was trying to make is this: If I had a company with a product that was in demand (and these certificates must be a nice little money earner), then I would be employing more staff, even on a temporary basis, to meet that demand. I would most certainly not shut down for two weeks with the inevitable backlog. Aren't there any students in England who need holiday jobs? Peter

That must be a nightmare. We complain enough about wanting to get our hands on that precious cert once you've located it but to add all that air mail time on to it as well must be SO frustrating Lou

I sympathise with Peter being overseas and having to order online.Gro seems to be the only option.My last certs took 5 weeks.Im also in NZ probably the xmas mail added to the delay

This is the first Christmas and New Year I've not worked or been on call, including Christmas Day, in 10 years (other than last year when I'd just had a baby and spent Christmas in hospital!) and that's only because I'm still on extended maternity leave due my son's illness and subsequent ops! Must admit that I enjoyed it though, it was certainly different! Lou

Peter Just think - without 1837online you would have had to save your airfare and fly over to this country to look in the indexed and THEN wait 3 weeks to get your certificates. I do know how frustrating it is waiting, but I am just glad that we are able to get the certs at all! nell

well I had to work all over christmas and so did my mother. She's a nurse and if all the nurses and doctors decided to just take 2 weeks off over christmas there would be uproar lol. I found this thread rather amusing though I must admit. I do think that if you're paying for something the service should be good though :)

Sorry if I snapped at you Peter. I went back to work yesterday and in the fortnight the department was closed, we had 51 unique queries on the answermachine. I didn't even start on the email queries. Some people had sent multiple copies and so as soon as I cleared a space I got lots of irate people who hadn't been able to get through because our systems were full. I can empathise with the poor, harrassed GRO staff!

Hi Peter, Always use the local register offices where you can. I ordered a batch of 7 certs online from a local office at 10am this morning. I received an e-mail at 4.30 this afternoon, saying my ordered had been processed. Unless there is a problem with the post, I know they will be here in the morning! Less than 24 hours later!!! Sometimes there is no choice, but use the GRO, my last lot took 3 weeks, the wait was agonising. Debbie

Sorry if I upset you, twinkle, I have just worked right through the holidays so that those with young children could have a break. Unfortunately I work in an industry that goes 24/7, even on weekends I have a mobile phone turned on all the time. It amazes me that some companies/government departments completely close in these days when everyone preaches customer service - haven't they heard of keeping a skeleton staff on to keep the wheels turning? Suggest that this line on the thread closes now, as it is off topic, my original point was that the response time is far from what it was, and is actually twice as long as the GRO state on their site. Peter

Less than 2 months ago, it only took 4 days to dispatch BMD's, since the BBC series has been show, it now takes 8 - 11 days without a Xmas interuption. It will start to calm down again soon. I last ordered on the 17 DEC 04, I recon it should arrive by the 13 JAN 05. And grass grows, grows.....

Isn't it awful how some people take time off over the Christmas and New Year? Imagine the selfishness in wanting to spend time with their relatives rather than issuing certificates for ours! Did you know some of them even have school-age children who have been on the Christmas holidays? There are plenty of decent childminders out there, but no, they have to take responsibility for their own offspring. Absolutely disgraceful.

Hi Peter, It's the Office of national statistics who are responsible for sending the certificates and, like most government agencies, they closed down over the Christmas period, so 1837 can't be blamed for that. I've been waiting for some since early December. A TV programme recently shown here has fired up interest and they can't cope with the demand. What 1837 can be blamed for is my being unable to access the site for 5 days and doing nothing to put it right. I know I'm not the only one. Moan, complain, Gwynne

Peter I think what you have to understand is that most of these places are going back to work today for the first time in 2 weeks. That, coupled with a surge in interest in family history due to a television series recently shown over here, is bound to cause delays. Still frustrating though! Jeanette x

Have just ordered some certificates. Estimated despatch date is 19 Jan. !!!!! To that I need to add a week for them to get here. Peter New Zealand