English and Welsh GRO adds recent deaths indexes

From the English and Welsh General Register Office (GRO) at www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/login.asp

Website Improvements

Welcome to the new look website for the General Register Office which was updated on 12th September 2019

We are currently adding to our online indexes which will help you identify and apply for copies of our records. We have now added online indexes for deaths registered between 1984 to 2019.

We will notify you here when more indexes are added online.

COMMENT: Fair play to the English GRO, it's about time! Here's hoping births and marriages follow soon.

Looking at you now Northern Ireland...

(With thanks to Karen Cummings and the Census Detectives via Twitter)

Chris

Order Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-Family-History-on-the-Internet-Paperback/p/16483. My next Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course starts 4 November 2019 - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

PDF option for English & Welsh GRO records now permanent

From the General Register Office for England and Wales (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp):

GRO News

GRO has been piloting a service providing PDF copies of historical birth and death records. From the 16th February 2019 PDF’s have become a permanent service.

Applications for PDF’s cost £7, must be made online and include a GRO index reference. England and Wales records which are available to order in PDF format include:

Births: 1837–1918
Deaths: 1837–1957

Note: A PDF is not a certificate and has no “evidential” value, therefore a paper certified copy [certificate] is required for official purposes, e.g. applying for a passport, driving licence or where required to give notice of marriage.

(With thanks to @CensusDetective via Twitter)


Chris

My next Scottish Research Online course starts March 11th 2019 - see www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Details of my genealogical research service are available at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. For my Scottish and Irish themed books, visit https://britishgenes.blogspot.com/p/my-books.html. Further news published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Don't always assume with database sites!

Whilst working on the second edition of my Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet book today (cooking along nicely!), I came across a timely reminder that what you think a genealogy website may have to offer you by way of resources has every means to surprise you, by throwing up something completely new.

Eddie's Extracts (www.eddiesextracts.com) is Eddie Connelly's go to website for many Northern Irish resources, most notably intimations extracts from many newspapers in the north of Ireland. But there are a few surprises in there also. For example, in Eddie's Mariner Extracts section, you will find entries from the Register of Deceased Seamen from 1911 to 1924/25 for the Scottish islands of Orkney and Shetland. In his Roll of Honour section, where the Presbyterian Church in Ireland Rolls of Honour for the two world wars are located, as well as many rolls for Northern Irish based congregations, you will also find the The Register of the War Dead (Dublin City and County), the Kilkenny Great War Memorial, and Roll of Honour for St. Nicholas Collegiate Church, Galway, amongst other southern Irish based collections.

You'll find the same thing on other sites. On ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk), for example, the Scottish Roman Catholic records collections also include material from the Aldershot based Bishopric of the Forces, for events featuring Roman Catholics from British bases worldwide - no Scottish connection required!

And on the English and Welsh General Register Office site (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp), you're not only able to order up records of English and Welsh birth, marriage and death records from 1837 onwards, but also many British overseas records, including various Army registers dating back to the 1760s. The records are separately indexed on Findmypast, FamilyRelatives (free) and TheGenealogist, but for a detailed overview of them, the best place to go is to a cached version of an article on FindmyPast's old help site, the 'Knowledge Base', located at http://tinyurl.com/overseasbmds, preserved by the Internet Archive a few years ago.

The moral of the story? Fully EXPLORE the sites you are using!

You'll never know quite what you might find if you don't... :)

Chris

For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

English and Welsh BMD certificate costs to soar

Brace yourselves...

From 16 February 2019, the price of English and Welsh civil birth, marriage and death certificates is to soar to £11 from the current £9.25. Priority orders are to dramaticially increase in cost further, from the current £23.40 to £35. Some additional new fees are also to be introduced, such as a charge of £3 if a full index reference is not supplied.

Full details of the rises are available at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/1268/pdfs/uksi_20181268_en.pdf, with the story initially broken to the genie community by Peter Calver of Lost Cousins at https://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters2/xmasday18.htm#BMD.

Best to get any remaining certs ordered up fast!

(With thanks to Peter Calver and @SoGGenealogist)

Chris

For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

English and Welsh marriage certificates to be updated

English and Welsh marriage certificates are to be changed so that the names of both parents to spouses will be recorded in future, rather than just the names of their fathers. This is already the case in Scotland and Northern Ireland - indeed, in Scotland, the names of mothers have been added since registration started there in January 1855.

For more on the story visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42919441

Chris

For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

FindmyPast adds Suffragette papers and Durham records

The latest releases from FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk)

Suffragette Collection
Search our new collection of over 3,000 records from The National Archives recording the details of the women and men who supported women's suffrage in the early 20th century. Discover your suffragette ancestor among the arrest records, parliamentary papers, watch list of over 1,300 suffragettes, personal statements, reports of force-feeding, and transcripts of speeches.

Suffragette Collection Browse
Over 50 volumes - Browse Home Office files and Police records pertaining to suffragettes spanning the years 1902 to 1919.

Durham Diocese Bishop's Transcripts 1639-1919 Image Browse
Browse through over 900 bishop's transcripts from the Durham diocese. The diocese's boundaries will have changed over time, and included in this collection are records from Cumberland, Durham, Northumberland, and Yorkshire counties.

Durham Diocese, Calendar Of Marriage Bonds & Allegations 1594-1815 Image Browse
This browse-only collection contains name indexes of prospective brides and grooms, place indexes, and marriage abstracts.

United States, Union Provost Marshal Files Of Individual Civilians, 1861-1866 Browse
Browse through 300 files from the Union Provost Marshal created during the Civil War. These records provide a wide array of information on topics such as deserters, civilians suspected of disloyalty, civilian passage through military zones, and Confederate spies.

United States, Union Provost Marshal Files, 1861-1866 Browse
Browse through 94 volumes of records of Confederate prisoners of war during the American Civil War spanning the years 1861 to 1865.

United States, Records Of Confederate Prisoners Of War, 1861-1865 Browse
Browse 149 registers from the War Department's Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners may include such details as name, rank, regiment, county and state, and where and when captured, as well as whether an individual was discharged, exchanged, or transferred.

PERiodical Source Index
In total, 73,516 new images and 10,386 new articles have been added to the index this month. The new additions have been added to the following six titles;
Search the PERiodical Source Index
• California Historical Society Quarterly
• Catholic Record Society Publications
• County Louth Archaeological Society Journal
• American Monthly Magazine
• Herts Genealogist and Antiquary
• The Index Library

For further details and relevant links, visit https://blog.findmypast.co.uk/findmypast-friday-february-2nd-2530713178.html

UPDATE: FindmyPast is offering free access to its Suffragette collection - further details at https://www.family-tree.co.uk/news-and-views/free-access-to-findmypasts-new-suffrage-collection-and-birth-marriage


Last week FindmyPast also offered the following new data of interest to those in England:

British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms
Over 92,000 records have been added to our collection of British overseas Births and Baptisms. This collection brings together records held by the General Register Office and The National Archives in one search and consists of birth records of children born to those working within the armed forces, merchant navy, and consular forces, as well as, civilian ship passengers.

British Armed Forces and Overseas Banns and Marriages
Did your ancestor get married while stationed abroad or at sea? Search through over 35,000 new additions and discover marriages pertaining to military personnel, British Consul staff, and other British nationals working overseas.

British Armed Forces and Overseas Deaths and Burials
Search over 193,000 records to uncover the details of members of the British armed forces who died while serving their country overseas, British civilians who died while travelling or working overseas, and individuals, including seamen, who died at sea.

British Armed Forces and Overseas Browse
The new additions above have also been added to our British Armed Forces and Overseas Browse.

Hertfordshire baptisms
Over 87,000 records have been added to our collection of Hertfordshire parish baptisms.

Hertfordshire Banns & Marriages
Nearly 62,000 records have been added to our collection of Hertfordshire parish marriages.

Hertfordshire burials
Over 66,000 records have been added to the collection. Dating as far back as the 1400s, these records will reveal your ancestors burial date, age at death and burial place.

Hertfordshire Parish Record Browse
Browse through over 16,000 additional images of baptism, marriage, and burial records from the English county of Hertfordshire.

Yorkshire Memorial Inscriptions
Over 8,000 new records have been added to our collection of Yorkshire Monumental Inscriptions. The new additions cover cemeteries in Rawmarsh, Thorpe Hesley and Treeton.

Northumberland & Durham Monumental Inscriptions
Over 30,000 records covering 26 burial sites have been added to our collection of Northumberland & Durham Monumental Inscriptions.

British Newspapers
Over 3 million new articles as well as 11 brand new titles have been added to our collection of historical British Newspapers.
The new titles include;
• West Middlesex Herald
• Bristol Daily Post
• Isle of Wight Times
• Clifton and Redland Free Press
• Leicester Herald
• Horfield and Bishopston Record and Montepelier & District Free Press
• Middlesex & Surrey Express
• Bristol Magpie
• Northampton Chronicle and Echo
• Tenbury Wells Advertiser
• Reading Observer

Further details on these are at https://blog.findmypast.co.uk/findmypast-friday-janueary-2-2528778516.html


Chris

For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

GRO England and Wales PDF record pilot continues

The General Register Office for England and Wales has extended its PDF pilot service for digitised birth and death certificates until July 11th 2018. The current pilot phase comenced in October 2017, and offers birth records from 1837-1916 and death records from 1837-1957 for £6 each, instead of the usual £9.25.

For further details visit https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/login.asp.

(With thanks to the Federation of Family History Societies via Facebook)

Chris

For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

English and Welsh GRO PDF certificate service trial returns

The GRO for England and Wales has launched another trial period from today for the ordering of PDF versions of English and Welsh birth and death certificates. Here is the announcement:

General Register Office (GRO) - PDF Extended Pilot

The GRO is piloting a service from 12 October 2017 to provide portable document format (PDF) copies of digitised historical birth and death records. The pilot will run for a minimum of 3 months to enable GRO to assess the demand for this service over a prolonged period.

Applications for each PDF cost £6, must be made online, and include a GRO index reference.

England and Wales records which are available as PDFs in this extended pilot include:

Births: 1837 –1916
Deaths: 1837 –1957

To order records visit https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp

(With thanks to Michelle Leonard via Twitter)

UPDATE: From the Rootschat website (http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=780525.0):

"There is a slight change to the previous trial - once produced, the pdf will be available to download from your account page on the GRO site for a period of time (in the same way that probate service wills are delivered) rather than sent as an email attachment."

(With thanks to AnthonyMMM on Rootschat)

Chris

My next 5 week long Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs course commences Nov 6th 2017 - details at https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. For my genealogy guide books, visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html, whilst details of my research service are at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk. Further content is also published daily on The GENES Blog Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES.

New English & Welsh GRO birth and death indexes

The General Register Office for England and Wales has launched a new searchable index system for births (1837-1915) and deaths (1837-1957).

After registering and signing in at https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/Login.asp you will be taken to the following home screen:

By selecting the Search GRO indexes link, you will be offered the following choices between Births and Deaths:

Clicking on the Birth option takes you to a search screen that allows for searches on the following options:

Surname at birth *
First forename
Second forename
Gender *
Mother's maiden name
Years (up to 2 years +/-) *
Quarters
District of birth (a link to a PDF document of registration districts is available)
Volume number
Page number

(* must be selected)

Name options can be searched exactly, phonetically similar, or similar sounding.

Once you click on search, results will appear below, with an option to order the document:

For Death searches, the following fields are available

Surname at death *
First forename
Second forename
Gender *
Age at death (enter 0 for less than 1)
Years (up to 2 years +/-) *
Quarters
District of death (a link to a PDF document of registration districts is available)
Volume number
Page number

(* must be selected)

For marriages, and other birth and death events, including overseas events, you need to use the second option on the original home screen marked Place an Order, which will take you to a separate application page. As before, certificates cost £9.25 each.

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Beginner's Guide to British and Irish Genealogy, A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

English and Welsh BMD deregulation bill only deals with GRO

It would seem that the deregulation bill recently passed to facilitate the eventual digitisation and upload of English and Welsh birth, marriage and death certificates (see http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/progress-towards-making-englishwelsh.html) will only apply to the records of the General Register Office at Southport, and not those from local registration offices in both countries (mirroring what has already happened in Scotland and Northern Ireland). Locally sourced certificates, however, whilst being a tad more expensive, can sometimes contain additional information not available in the GRO equivalents, which are derivative copies from the originals, and which can occasionally contain transcription errors or omissions.

Ian Hartas of the UKBMD project (www.ukbmd.org.uk) attended a meeting on Friday 18th December to hear about the plans, and has written up an account which can be read on Tony Proctor's Google + account at https://plus.google.com/u/0/+TonyProctor/posts/EfbLTzwEuJL. In this he outlines concerns that the availability of cheap GRO images could provide financial pressures on local registration services struggling to compete.

(With thanks to Ian and Tony)

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

FamilyRelatives.com and GRO overseas BMD records

Thanks to reader Keith Jones for informing me that the FamilyRelatives website at www.familyrelatives.com has been down for several months.

FamilyRelatives had several collections on its site beyond the English and Welsh GRO images and censuses. Whilst I personally rarely used it, it was still a favourite repository to visit for the GRO overseas indexes, which were freely available on the site. These record many events such as army chaplains and other military records and registers, various consular returns, Ionian Island registers, and more. Although administered by the English based GRO, they feature people from across the UK, including citizens from what is now the Republic of Ireland (which was previously in the UK). For example, the marriage of my 3 times great grandmother from Dublin, to a soldier who was born in India to an Irish father, took place in Corfu, and they went on to have kids in Gibraltar and Bermuda, before returning to Ireland - all events are recorded in the overseas indexes and certs.

The site was last cached on the Internet Archive on June 19th 2015 at https://web.archive.org/web/20150619095612/http://www.familyrelatives.com, and its dedicated blog at www.familyrelatives.blogspot.co.uk has not been updated since November of last year. I don't know if it has ceased to trade, or whether it has a technical fault, but if anybody has information on its current status, it would be gratefully received.

NB: I've not used other sites for access to the GRO overseas consular and military birth, marriage and death indexes for quite some time, but I've had a quick look and as far as I can see, they are on TheGenealogist (www.thegenealogist.co.uk) via its Overseas BMDs collection, and FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk), which seems to have the indexes gathered into datasets beginning with British Nationals in the UK part of the site - e.g. British Nationals Armed Forces Births 1761-2005.

Unfortunately, from what I can see, neither site allows searches in individual collections in the way that FamilyRelatives used to (indeed, as FindmyPast used to), so you cannot search for the GRO Ionian Islands Chaplains Returns, for example, as an individual dataset on its own. For an idea of what is included, cached description lists from Family Relatives are accessible at https://web.archive.org/web/20150510092737/http://www.familyrelatives.com/post_search.php?area_id=11.

* UPDATE: Thanks to Nick Thorne from TheGenealogist for flagging up that you can in fact select the individual collections there, via the Section drop down menu once you have accessed the Overseas BMDs item in the BMDs menu (see pic) - this would effectively seem to make TheGenealogist by far the best place online now to be able to control a search within these various GRO collections *

To order original entries from the GRO, obtain the index entry then visit the English based GRO at www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp. Note that for overseas certificates, you have to use a different search form on the site than those used to obtain English and Welsh BMD certs.

Note that some of the overseas entries for Scots are included on ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk), within the miscellaneous returns sections.

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) does not host the same indexes, but does carry various other miscellaneous overseas records, as sourced from the National Archives collections RG32 to RG36. These are available in a collection it calls UK, Foreign and Overseas Registers of British Subjects, 1628-1969, available at http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1993. The same records are also available via BMDRegisters at www.bmdregisters.co.uk and on TheGenealogist.

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including my recently released Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

Progress towards making English/Welsh BMD certs available online

There was a debate in the Westminster Parliament yesterday on the Deregulation Bill. The following has been recorded in the offical record, Hansard (www.parliament.uk/business/publications/hansard/):

"Very nearly finally, Lords amendments 47 and 48 will allow records to be available other than in the form of a certificate. Many family historians and genealogists do not need a certificate, but merely the information contained within it. Providing alternative formats will make it cheaper and quicker to obtain that information. The amendments would provide the power to lay regulations to define how a person may access birth, death, marriage and civil partnership records, the type of product that can be issued, and the fee payable. The regulations could also introduce a legal distinction regarding the age of birth, death, marriage and civil partnership records. That will follow the precedent set in Scotland and Northern Ireland where records are considered historical at 100, 75 and 50 years for births, marriages and deaths respectively. "

This is encouraging progress, and it would seem that the House of Commons is actively seeking to use the ScotlandsPeople service (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) and the GRONI's Geni service (https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk) as precedents for any future possible English and Welsh online service.

It is worth noting one key difference between these two services, however - although ScotlandsPeople provides records older than the closure periods stated, it does offer indexes online to (almost) the present day, something the Geni service does not. So if it wants to follow precedent, please follow the Scottish example - not least because the BMD indexes are already available online up to 2005, which could be easily extended and integrated into any possible service.

Digitised historic records, up to date indexes, so tantalisingly close you can almost taste it - you're so close GRO England and Wales, please don't screw this up!!!

(With thanks to Martin James via LinkedIn)

Chris

For details on my latest book Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, and my other genealogy guide books please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. To commission me for genealogical research, please visit my research site at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk.

Paving the way to a GRO based England's and Wales' People style service

The London based Society of Genealogists (www.sog.org.uk) is reporting that the Westminster Government has accepted an amendment to its Deregulation Bill which will allow for the publication of information from GRO issued vital registers for births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales, in a manner beyond the issue of a formally certified, and expensive, certificate.

At the moment genealogists in England and Wales are second class citizens within the United Kingdom when it comes to accessing historic records, which cost £10 each to purchase from local superintendent registrars' services, or £9.25 each from the English and Welsh GRO based at Southport (www.gro.gov.uk). By contrast, although official Scottish certificates are £12 each, and Northern Irish certificates are £15 each, there are alternative, and much cheaper means of access - for Scotland, via the ScotlandsPeople website (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) and the ScotlandsPeople Centre service (www.scotlandspeoplehub.gov.uk), and in Northern Ireland via the GENI service at www.geni.nidirect.gov.uk, the search room facility at the GRONI in Belfast (www.nidirect.gov.uk/gro), as well as a cheap photocopy extract service for pre-1922 BMD records provided by the GRO in the Republic of Ireland (www.welfare.ie/en/pages/general-register-office.aspx).

Commenting on the announcement, the SoG's genealogist Else Churchill said “Having worked for over 15 years to reform the GRO system and to gain better access to this vital information for family historians in non-certified form I am delighted that the Government has at last paved the way for a more efficient and cost effective service encompassing modern technology.” The full announcement, including discussion from the parliamentary proceedings via Hansard, is accessible at www.sog.org.uk/news/article/gro-information-on-births-marriages-and-death-doesnt-have-to-on-expensive-c.

Whilst this announcement does not in itself create an England's and Wales' People type service, it does remove the barrier to such a provision being made. For too long those seeking ancestral records from England and Wales have been ignored in seeking a solution, and should no longer be discriminated against on economic grounds simply because they wish to note who their ancestors were. It will be interesting to see how - and indeed, if - this develops further.

(With thanks to the SoG and the FFHS)

Chris

For details on my range of genealogy guide books please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. To commission me for genealogical research, please visit my research site at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk.

Recent UK death indexes released on Ancestry

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has released a couple of interesting, if not somewhat bewildering, death indexes on its site, as follows:

Scotland and Northern Ireland, Death Index, 1989-2013
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60631

England and Wales, Death Index, 2007-2013
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=60630

The source has simply been listed as 'Various sources', however, genealogist Karen Cummings (@CummingsPFH) has contacted Ancestry via Twitter to ask what the source is, to which they have responded "The source of this collection is GreyPower Deceased Data, compiled by Wilmington Millennium". Wilmington Millenium appears to be this company online at www.wilmingtonmillennium.co.uk, noted as offering "intelligent consumer data suppression and lead generation products created in conjunction with leading industry partners". There is no mention of a partnership with Ancestry on its site however.

A typical search yields the following info - name, gender, age, birth date (variously reported as a year or with the full date), death date, residential place at death, and a postal code district.

Without a decent provenance for the source, i.e. any understanding of what it is, I would suggest that any entries on this be treated simply as a finding aid that should be pursued via the usual sources through the three respective General Register Offices of the UK. These are as follows:

Scotland - records can be ordered via www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk (£12 each)
Northern Ireland - via www.nidirect.gov.uk/general-register-office-for-northern-ireland (£15 each)
England and Wales - via www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content (£9.25 each)

Scottish finds can be partially corroborated online via ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk), which does index death records within the last 50 years, but does not provide the digitised register images, as with earlier records. (All records, including up to the present day, can be accessed at the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh, or at other centres in Scotland providing access to the same database, for £15 unlimited access). No online GRO indexes are available for Northern Ireland in this period, nor for England and Wales.

I have read many reports from users saying that the databases are not complete. Scotland seems to be better covered than Northern Ireland, and my own mother's death, in Manchester, England, in November 2013, is not included. I have found my grandmother's death in Carrickfergus - her date of death is given as 22 JUL 2011, and her birth year as 1922, both correct. her name is simply given as Mrs Martha Graham though - her full name was in fact Martha Jane Elizabeth Watton Bill Smyth, so don't be expecting too much in the detail!

So it is an interesting resource, one that needs handling with caution, but potentially useful. But no substitute for the placing of indexes online by the English, Welsh and Northern Irish GROs, as has been done by Scotland via ScotlandsPeople.

Chris

For details on my range of genealogy guide books please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. To commission me for genealogical research, please visit my research site at www.scotlandsgreateststory.co.uk.

Home Office 'considering' adding mums names to English/Welsh marriage certs

The campaign to have mother's names added to English and Welsh marriage certificates - something that has been the case in Scotland since 1855 - has so far attracted 67,000 signatures. The campaign has now prompted a response from the Home Office, thanks to a written question by Caroline Lucas MP.

The response is as follows: "We are currently considering how the information contained in the marriage entry can be updated to include this, and to reflect changes since the coming into force of the Regulation of Marriages Regulations 1986, as well as the most suitable opportunity for doing so."

So, not a lot of progress as yet - but at least an acknowledgement so far from Westminster of the necessity to have it included. The full petition update is available at https://www.change.org/p/mothers-names-should-be-on-marriage-certificates/u/53b14b283519f622270070b8, where you can also add your name if you have yet to do so.

(With thanks to Ailsa Burkimsher Sadler via email)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Campaign to abolish sexism in English and Welsh marriage certificates

I've received this from the Change.org campaign being run by Ailsa Burkimsher Sadler, and thought it worth carrying on this blog. In England and Wales, mothers' names and occupations are still not carried on marriage certificates - yet mothers' names have been carried on Scottish certificates since 1855. Here's the message from Ailsa, providing an update on her campaign:

Thank you so much for adding your support to my campaign to get mothers' names and occupations on marriage certificates in England & Wales. We have built up huge momentum, stacks of media coverage and the Home Office has even been forced to respond and put certificates under review!

Read on for all the details...

News round-up:

You may have seen some of the recent media coverage or some of the discussions about this on Twitter.

To find out why I think this campaign is important have a look at my interview in The Telegraph or listen to me on Radio Solent (from 1 hour 7 minutes in).

Other newspaper coverage can be found here, here and here and I'm delighted that Telegraph Wonder Woman is backing me and has even coined a twitter hashtag #MothersOnMarriageCerts!

Find out why Caroline Criado-Perez (of women on banknote fame) is refusing to get married until we have equality on marriage certificates and hear her and family historian & records specialist Audrey Collins talking about this on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour. Look out for Caroline on The BBC Daily Politics show next Wednesday.

Taking direct action:

I am going to add information about my mother and mother-in-law to my original marriage certificate so that I can pass it on to my son for future generations to look at. I will be forking out £9.25 for a duplicate copy as I will invalidate the original by this correction! I will also be applying officially to the General Register Office to point out the "mistake" in my certificate.

Having your mother and mother-in-law as a witness (which is something the Deputy Registrar General was very keen to point out as an option) is a poor substitute from them being properly recorded but it is something to think about if you are going to be getting married before this campaign is won.

Next steps:

This week the Home Office told The Times that marriage certificates are under review. They said “replacing all certificates is logistically complex and costly but we are investigating how this change might be achieved.”

I am therefore now focussing the petition to the Home Secretary Theresa May since it has been confirmed this matter falls under her remit.

Despite repeated attempts I've not been able to find out whether Sajid Javid (the new Equalities minister) or the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby agree with my campaign. I will update you all if either of them decide to publicly back this campaign.

How you can help:

I am delighted to have the public support of the MPs Dr Sarah Wollaston and Caroline Lucas. I would love for you to email your MP (it is really easy using the www.writetothem.com website) to tell them that you are supporting this campaign and to ask them to support it and raise this matter with the Home Office.

Join the conversation on Twitter, using the hashtag #MothersOnMarriageCerts. You can find me @nameequality - if you are not on Twitter and don't know how then you can "learn twitter in ten minutes" with this book.

And please keep sharing the petition using the link www.change.org/nameequality.

Thank you all and a big thank to the team at change.org for making it possible to mobilise in this way.

Ailsa

COMMENT: What's to lose by agreeing to this? Scotland saw the wisdom in it over a century and a half ago!

(With thanks to Ailsa)

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And FindmyPast - please reinstate the original Scottish census citations on your new site.

Petition to open historic locally held BMD registers

Guy Etchells, who was responsible for securing early access to both the 1911 English and Welsh census and the 1939 National Identity Register, has launched an online petition asking for the right of public inspection to be restored for the viewing of locally held BMD registers at the superintendent registrar level (as opposed to the centralised GRO held copies). Here's the wording:

Petition to open historic registers

Responsible department: Home Office

We ask that historic birth marriage & death registers be open to public inspection at county record offices or the National Archives

Until 1973 registers of BMD held at superintendent registrar’s offices were open to public inspection

Today’s technology available allows the registers to be digitized and made available as facsimile copies protecting the original from damage

Commercial concerns are willing to scan the registers and make them available online under licence at no cost to the public purse

A new accurate index of BMDs could be compiled by volunteers thereby complying with the 1836 legislation for the first time in 177 years.

The benefits include taking pressure off Superintendent Registrars and the GRO enabling them to concentrate on the core task of recording & administering current registrations.

Revenue would be created for the County Record Offices or the National Archives swelling the government coffers.

All at no cost to the taxpayer or government.

The petition is available at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/62779.

Guy also further explores the subject of accessing local BMD registers, including costs, in a three page article carried within this month's Family Tree magazine (April 2014).

(With thanks to Guy Etchells)

Chris

Time to find your inner Irish...! All the best online Irish genealogy resources can be found through my book Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet - in print and ebook formats. "Very useful, makes me wish I was Irish!" - Saint Patrick, patron saint.

Campaign to secure free access to birth, marriage and death records

Guy Etchells of Anguline Research Archives has started a campaign to get Historic Birth, Marriage and Death registers open to the public without having to purchase certified copies. Guy certainly has form on such campaigns, in having previously gained early access to the 1911 Census, and the National Identity Register from 1939 for England and Wales.

Guy's reasoning can be found on the Anguline Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anguline-Research-Archives/94765005946 but includes the fact that prior to 1898 and 1974 there was open access to records held by the national GRO and local registration offices in England and Wales. He'll be developing his arguments on his Facebook page over the next few days - well worth a read.

(With thanks to Guy)

Chris

My latest genealogy books are Tracing Your Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, and Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet. My next Pharos course is Scottish Research Online, which commences Feb 27th 2014, 5 weeks, price £45.99.

Petition demands mothers' names be added to English and Welsh marriage certificates

A new petition is online demanding the addition of mothers' names to marriage certificates in England and Wales. here's the blurb:

In England & Wales mothers' names are not on marriage certificates.
This is not fair.
This is 2014.
Marriage should not be seen as a business transaction between the father of the bride and the father of the groom.
This seemingly small inequality is part of a much wider pattern of inequality.
Women are routinely silenced and written out of history.
There is space for the name of the Father of the Bride and the Father of the Groom and their occupations. On civil partnership certificates there is space for mothers, and on Scottish and Northern Irish marriage certificates.
Act now - sign the petition - share it with friends. Get this anachronism changed.

If you wish to sign the petition please visit www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/mothers-names-should-be-on-marriage-certificates

(With thanks to Kirsty Wilkinson @genealogygirl)

Chris

My latest genealogy books are Tracing Your Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, and Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet. My next Pharos course is Scottish Research Online, which commences Feb 27th 2014, 5 weeks, price £45.99.

Good news from the English and Welsh GRO in 2014?

Peter Calver's latest Lost Cousins newsletter is now available at http://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters/dec13news.htm.

Amongst this month's news is a small hint of some possible good news concerning the English and Welsh General Register Office, in response to a letter from Peter's local MP on the matter of access. The GRO in Southport is well behind its UK counterparts in Scotland and Northern Ireland in terms of online provision for its records, but "there may well be better news for us in 2014".

There has been a gap of a few weeks since Peter's last newsletter, as he is recovering from an illness contracted whilst on holiday, but despite the setback he's still pushing to get his Lost Cousins site's membership up to 100,000 from its current 94,000 - well worth a look at www.lostcousins.com.

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/.