GRO England and Wales petition

From Beryl Evans at the Federation of Family History Societies (www.ffhs.org.uk):

With thanks to Rob White for bringing to our attention the following e-petition -
< http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1792

The idea is to have uncertified copies of certificates for family history research, which have no legal authority, similar to they do in the Republic of Ireland. These could be obtained at a much lower fee, the price of £2 per certificate is suggested.

COMMENT: I signed this some time back and would encourage all who use English and Welsh certs to do the same. The example of the Republic of Ireland is cited, but its GRO charges 4 Euros per photocopy (and an additional 2 Euros if a search is needed). On that basis the £2 suggested here may seem fanciful - but when you consider that ScotlandsPeople is actually providing digitised access for records at approximately £1.30 a record, it seems a more than reasonable enough suggestion.

The only thing preventing this being adopted is goodwill from the UK government towards those with English and Welsh ancestry - Scotland and the Republic of Ireland have clearly shown it can be done. If years down the line the English GRO at Southport is still shamefully incapable of creating an online viewing system, then fine. Instead, how about doing what the GRO in Roscommon does? Have someone at the end of a phone or an email address to take orders and process photocopies. Rocket science it most certainly is not, and where there's a will, there is most certainly a way.

Please retweet the link to Rob's petition, or spread the word in any way that you can!

Chris

Check out my Scotland's Greatest Story research service www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)