Genealogy Chat

Could anyone please tell me where/how to find a birth certificate? I have my Great-Grandfather's date of birth and birth place but can't seem to find him in the register! p.s I am a member of 1837 online .com so that is where i've searched Alison

What year are looking for? maybe another set of eyes will help Shirley

Ancestry has a beta/test version of the GRO index available free for now, so you're better off saving 1837 credits until you know just what you want (the djvu images are much smaller for eth quality than teh pdfs from Ancestry). If you are willing to share names/dates, someone here might be able to spot him for you. On the other hand it was only in 1875 that people were fined for not registering a birth - before that they were fined only for registering late. Not surprisingly, anyone who was a bit late (and probably a number of others who wanted to avoid the costs anyway) didn't register the births at all. Christine PS - and some records didn'ty make the transcription jump from local to GRO records; and some got lost when some of the GRO indexes were converted from script to type.

Hi Shirley, from the 1906 census I worked out that he was born in 1867 in Chester-Le- Street Co. Durham but there is nothing in the births register!!! Any help is welcome Alison

Alison, - there wasn't a 1906 census, BUT give us his name an the details you have and we can have a look for you. Dea x

Give us a name so we can try. Shirley

By the way... Did any of your Ashpool ancestors come from Edlesborough, Bucks? I have a marriage record where the bride is recorded by the vicar as ASHPOLE - and, therefore, by GRO, likewise - but her elegant signature is clearly ASHPOOL. Has this - or something similar - happened for your g-g-father? Christine

Hi Christine My great-grandads name was James Cockburn Born 1867?? in durham. He was in So. Church Auckland (Bishop?) when the 1901 census was carried out. His wife was mary and he had Jane, John, William and Ann at that time. He was a coal miner! Any help appreciated regards Alison

If you're working out a DoB by deducting age from year of event, don't forget that you probably need to look in the year before the arithmetic-calculated one. e.g. age 10 in 1901 census: 1901-10=1891 BUT it really means born April 1890 to March 1891 so most of the possible records would be in 1890 not 1891. Christine

Hi again Christine, My husband has traced his ancestors back to the 1600's and the name changed from Ashbolt to Ashpole to Ashpool! Alison

I went via ukbmd.org.uk to the local Durham site and had a look. I didn't check the coverage, so there may be some critical gaps. This was the only one I found: You searched for: Birth certificates for the period 1861-1870: Surname = 'cockburn' and forename(s) = 'james', any district. Surname Forename(s) Year District COCKBURN James 1863 Durham Northern View results for James COCKBURN Number of records retrieved: 1 Christine

Here he is :- June 1867 James Cockburn Chester le Street 10a 480 Well hope its him!! Shirley

I was just intrigued by the way the vicar took no account of the bride's own writing of her name. As I said, her handwriting was clear and elegant - no excuse for the vicar at all. (It's not a GRO cert - it's a photocopy of the register page; it happened to be on the same page as a record for my ancestors' wedding.) Christine

Well at least you dont have any Horseheads in your line (Horstead).