General Chat

Hi Peeps.
Am totally brand new at this, just signed up, and not one to run before can walk...
Have started populating a tree from scratch, documents I / we have access to and obviously relatives etc etc

Have tried for example to trace me... found me of course, but am I correct in thinking the best I can get is the Quarter of year I was born in in the respective city / town / council... I assume I would have to buy a copy of a birth certificate to get any more information like date of birth, parents and the like

Or am I missing something

Yes you need to buy the certificate from the GRO (I think it costs £9.95 unless somebody knows different). That is the only way to find actual date and parents etc.

edit: I knew somebody would know the exact amount, ages since I bought one.

Sorry, manners, I should have said welcome to the GR boards. The best places on the boards for genealogy advice is on the genealogical chat board, or the find ancestors board.

Hello Kevin, and welcome to the boards.

Yes, your right about BC's - the information you can get on line only gives the quarter that the birth was registered, and the District which may cover many villages. After Sep 1911, the mother's maiden name is shown on theindex which can be quite helpful.
You sometimes have to bear in mind that a birth may not be registered until the following quarter eg birth towards the end of Dec might be registered in Jan the folowing year.

To obtain full details, you'd have to buy the certificate from the GRO
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/

which will cost £9.25 inc p&p. You can also purchase from the relevant reg office, but they might charge slightly more.

Even though the gro was started Sepish 1837, It wasn't compulsary to register a birth until about 1873.

Many thanks for the insight...

Better start saving up the pennies then for the oldies in the family...
Assume makes sense to upgrade to the premium site as the standard is going to limit me on views??

Kevin, you might also want to look at alternative sites and do a price comparison. You will get a lot of free advice and help on this site though so don't rush in and pay more before you really need to. The free advice comes from other members. :-)

Not many people use GR for research, so see how you get on with other free sites

For BMD, try http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ which is free.

Also
https://www.familysearch.org/ - Bap, M and burials + 1881 census
http://www.freereg.org.uk/ - Bap, M and burials

Try taking out a 14 day trial on either Findmypast which is GR's sister site, or Ancestry.co.uk. Remember to cancel before the 14 day trial ends unless you want your CC or DC charged.

The GR community are more than willing to point you in the right direction - post specific requests on Find Ancestors or Find Living Relatives as appropriate.

Kevin I would look around at what can be found on other sites also before deciding what subscription will suit you best.

for example

Freebmd.org.uk ( which is free) will give you birth marriage and death references, it is possible, if you are not researching too common a name ,that , for example, you might find a grandparent's birth and be able to match it with a marriage the year before, finding those people on a census after the marriage 'may' reduce the number of certs you need to buy , if you have some idea to go on.

If you have London ancestors, the baptisms can be found on another site ( Ancestry) , and many of those show actual date of birth, parents etc. There are also other records there which are not on here.

if you look on Genealogy Chat board you will find lots of helpful advice threads. :-)

Cheers people, somewhere to start at least, see how we go hahahahaha :-D