General Chat

Is it possible to visit an office and view certificates before buying them? I am coming across instances in the registers where more than one indivdual could be who I am looking for.
Thanks.

No, however you can specifiy reference checking pts when ordering certs from the GRO e.g. if you know your person's father was John, you can ask that father's first name John is checked. If the name isn't John then you will only be charged £3 not £7. You could try the bmdshare website to see if anyone has posted the information you want. Or search trees on this site to see if someone else is researching the same family and can give you more info. You can also look at parish registers for baptisms, marriages and burials, these are available in local records offices or some online on familysearch or Ancestry.

I remember 40 odd years ago when a certain registry office had a wonderful registrar. We were just in our 20´s and had no money to buy certs. This kind man used to look up the records for us then put the open book on the counter and with a meaningful glance at the book he would say, "would you excuse me for a moment" and slip into the back room. We became expert in reading entries upside down! Bless him, he was our champion!