Newsletter – 6th
July 2023
GRO offer instant online access to historic
birth and death records BREAKING NEWS
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GRO offer instant online access to historic birth and
death records BREAKING NEWS
For
almost 2 years I have been taking part in a secret trial of a new service from
the General Register Office for England & Wales which offers instant online
viewing of historic birth and death entries. Today the service went live for
all customers of the GRO – you’ll see the new home page when you follow this link and
log-in (or register).
In
once sense it’s the natural successor to the PDF service – although that will
continue, and currently covers a wider range of death entries). However the PDF service requires human intervention, hence
the turnaround time of several days.
By
contrast the Online View service is completely automatic, and the only delay is
the time it takes to pay. I order one entry at a time because what I order next
often depends on what I discover.
But
it’s not just the instant access that will transform research for those of us
with ancestors from England & Wales – it’s the low price of the images,
just £2.50 – compared to the £7 charged for PDF copies of birth and death entries.
Suddenly it becomes feasible to research the branches of our tree in more
detail, or to follow up hunches.
In
the following articles I’ll explain how to make the most of this fantastic new
feature!
When
you select an entry from the search results you’ll be
offered up to three options – a certificate, a PDF, or digital image:
Digital
images are only available for:
- Births from 1837 until 100 years
ago
- Deaths from 1837-1887
Some
entries within this range may not be available as digital images – I came
across a couple during the trial. This may have been because the image quality
was inadequate – the reason wasn’t given. In such a case you’ll have the option
of ordering a PDF, but I’m afraid you’ll have to pay £7 – and wait for up to
week. Such is life….
The
GRO use WorldPay, the same payment processor that I chose for LostCousins – but
unlike LostCousins, the GRO don’t offer the option of PayPal or bank transfers,
nor can you pay for a digital image with a cheque.
If
you have a credit card which is affiliated with Visa or Mastercard you shouldn’t
have a problem paying. But unlike LostCousins, the GRO don’t accept payments by
American Express, whilst WorldPay will only accept debit cards issued in the UK.
If you have a prepaid card denominated in a currency other than pounds sterling
that probably won’t work either.
I’m
warning you now so that you won’t be surprised and/or disappointed later. Hopefully
you’ll find a solution, because this new service is
too good to miss!
On
the face of it, access to £2.50 digital images, rather than £7 PDFs or £11
certificates is going to mean that you spend less. But it hasn’t worked out
like that for me – in fact, I’ve spent far more with the GRO over the
past two years than I was spending previously.
Though
on the other hand, when I look at how much I’ve achieved, how many mysteries
have been solved, and how many new leads I have – it’s obvious that my research
has benefited enormously.
So
DON’T expect to save money, but DO expect to make discoveries
that you wouldn’t have made otherwise.
I’m
not sure why the digital image service doesn’t offer deaths after 1887, so that
could be the next improvement. As for marriages – sadly the marriage registered
weren’t scanned in the 2000s as part of the abortive DoVE
(“digitisation of Vital Events) project, so the cost of providing Online View
access might be prohibitive.
On
the other hand, if every LostCousins member spent as much with the GRO over the
next 2 years as I have during the past 2 years, the GRO might have to find some
way of spending their surplus funds!
This is where any major updates and corrections will be
highlighted - if you think you've spotted an error first reload the newsletter
(press Ctrl-F5) then
check again before writing to me, in case someone else has beaten you to
it......
This might be one of the shortest newsletters I’ve ever written,
but I’ve been waiting to bring you this news for longer than I care to remember!
Peter Calver
Founder, LostCousins
© Copyright 2023 Peter Calver
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