UK Ancestry - Obtaining Documents

[Fleasundlice]

Hello,
I was hoping someone can point me in the right direction...

I am planning to move to London, England from Canada by this september, and I'm trying to get the paperwork together for a UK Ancestry visa. My Grandmother was born in Liverpool, and married my grandfather from Canada during the war. Both are now deceased, and my mother does not recall seeing their birth certificates, nor the marriage certificate. She only remembers having my grandmother's military record. Is there a way I can get valid copies of these documents?

[ppron747]

The General Register Office website should help your quest.

[Anastasia]

I don’t know if this helps you, but surely there are offices that store records of ‘Deaths’ as well as ‘Births’ and ‘Marriages’.

Maybe try contacting some of those?

This is one of them. [Deleted by Moderator (John) : Whilst it is true that there are agencies that will obtain certificates for you, all they do is obtain them from the Government office ... and they charge much more!]

Hope it helps

Best regards

………………….

Anastasia

[bbdivo]

I don’t know if this helps you, but surely there are offices that store records of ‘Deaths’ as well as ‘Births’ and ‘Marriages’.

Maybe try contacting some of those?

This is one of them. [Deleted]

Hope it helps

Best regards

………………….

Anastasia

That is what the General Register office will have, it is the government department in the UK that keeps these sorts of records. They should be able give you a copy of the birth certificate (after paying a fee ofcourse) If your grandparents got married in the UK then they should be able to give you a copy of the marriage certificate too (for a fee offcourse!) I know a lot of people who got such certificates fromthe General Register offfice for their ancestry applications.

[Anastasia]

Well if the government has the certificates I don’t see why they wont send it to you.

Thank you for deleting my link, John.


.......................

Anastasia.

[babyfeet]

Sometimes it can pay to use a researcher to obtain birth/marriage certificates. It can save you a headache and hassle, especially if you are out of the country. Four years ago I was charged only £20.00 for the service and the certificate
If you don't have ALL the neccessary infromation at hand, supply what you do have; surname at birth, name of at least one parent, and anything else that could be useful (a lot of the necessary info could be found on your own parents birth certificate,( some birth certificates showed the date and place of the parents marriage. It is only a matter of tracing the links back
I used genresource.

[ppron747]

I agree that researchers have their place, but never as a first port of call - these days, at least. I don't think the GRO had fully developed their online ordering system four years ago, when you used a research company. It is now up and running, and I understand it works well.
The company to which a link was posted earlier - and deleted - charged "only" £25 for a service for which GRO charges £7, which I think speaks for itself.

[Fleasundlice]

Thank you everyone for their input. My mom pulled through for me and found the original documents of my grandparents. I did notice however that they state on the Brittish High Commision Website that they will not accept "Certificates of Registration of Birth"... the certificate we have is of "Entry of Birth." Not really clear as to whether or not this is the same thing. I called the Brittish High Commission, but they won't help me, rather they refer me to a 1-900 number which will charge $2.80/minute... What a business.

[John]

My mom pulled through for me and found the original documents of my grandparents.

British birth certificates come in two forms ... Short and Full. The website you linked to says they will only accept the full form.

So what have you got? Those birth certificates, do they have details of the person's parents? Mother's name? Father's name? If so, that is the full version.

If lacking those details and basically saying the name of the person and the date they were born, and not much else, those would be the short form of certificate.

[ppron747]

The "Certificate of Registration of Birth" referred to by the High Commission was a very flimsy piece of paper - probably the size of a postcard - that was given to the parent by the Registrar of Births, simply to confirm that the parent had followed the law and registered his/her child's birth. It's a long time since I've seen one, but AFAICR, they weren't secure documents - no watermarks, no fancy printing - and they weren't intended to be used as birth certificates.

The document referred to by Fleasundlice sounds to me like a pukka birth certificate - a properly certified copy of the entry that appears in the Register of Births.