Genealogy Chat

I have just been reading Jill's thread about her problems with the Oxford Register office and I just thought that it might be worth pointing something out. It is always a good idea to ring a Register Office that you haven't used before to check, not only if they supply certificates but how much information they need. They do seem to vary a lot. For instance, one area of Nottingham came under Basford until about 1900, then Nottingham. If you want a certificate from Nottingham you only need the quarter and year, in fact they will look for about three years if you give them clues like parents names etc. On the other hand, Basford need to know the actual area of Nottingham that the event took place as they have all the parishes listed seperately. Chrissie

Good idea, Chrissie. Unfortunately with Oxford they don't answer the 'phone either. They give you 9 options when you ring (you can listen to the loop as many times as you like). Then when you select an option - 5 in the case of certificate order -you get a recorded message asking you to leave your name and number. In my case, it took 5 working days for them to return my call and when they did I was out..... Life's too short! Jill