From: "Celia Renshaw" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]>, <eng-hertfordshire- [email protected]> Date sent: Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:46:57 +0100 Subject: Re: [HRT] HRT Heir Hunters Send reply to: [email protected] > In the UK, it is still [for the time being] possible to get BMD > certificates for anyone, at least up to & incl. 2005, maybe right up > to the present, I'm not an expert. Even just using the GRO indexes in > the 20th/21st centuries can yield good results. After mid-1912ish, > the birth indexes include mother's maiden name which is usually a big > help. And the death indexes from some date before 1984 [when things > went computerised], include the deceased's date of birth too [though > its accuracy depends on how well the informant knew the deceased!]. I > understand there's an official project underway to include mother's > maiden name and possibly other additional info in the online GRO > indexes pre-1912, but that is running very much later than planned and > not yet available - I'm sure there are people here know more about > that than me. > > I know our system differs from other countries, Australia as an > example, where there's a 100 year 'gag rule' on BMD certs unless you > can prove it's for yourself or immediate family -am I right? < Could someone in Australia please explain how professional genealogists there (and I know Australia has them) manage to operate under these absurd restrictions? Professionals like myself are obtaining certificates for people who are nothing to do with them all the time - in my case when I am working on other people's family trees solving their brick walls and doing celebrities ancestries, and in the case of most professionals when they are undertaking commissioned research for others. Do Oz professional genealogists have to be licensed - like 007 - and given special permission to access these otherwise forbidden certificates? God forbid (I am using it strictly as a catch-phrase, you understand, since I am a non-believer) the UK should ever go down that route! I am surprised the Australian genealogical community hasn't kicked up an almight fuss about the restrictions - perhaps they have but have been ignored by the bureaucrats. -- Roy Stockdill Professional genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE