Hello Pat To the individual historian in each family, I ask you to think about this... 'Uncertified' Copies of Certificates??? I agree that the cost of Certificates for Research is very high and costly, but are we losing sight here that we have to VALIDATE our research, and be able to PROVE that the person we have found through research is who we think they are!!! Edwina -----Original Message----- From: Pat Stanistreet [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 21 June 2012 10:26 To: [email protected] Subject: [ENG-LIV] Petition re cost of BMD certificates (England & Wales) If you haven't come across this already you may be interested in the following which is on the excellent British Genes blog, concerning a petition to reduce the cost of BMD certificates from the GRO England and Wales. “The idea is to have uncertified copies of certificates for family history research, which have no legal authority, similar to what they do in the Republic of Ireland. These could be obtained at a much lower fee, the price of £2 per certificate is suggested.” The link is < http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1792 Should also be worth posting on other message boards you subscribe to. Pat

Edwina "uncertified certificates" when they are available, are very commonly issued from Registry Offices - most will send you a photocopy of the actual register page instead, which has to be actually more accurate than a "certified copy" which is really just a transcription typed up on a piece of paper and errors are made. The advantage of the photocopy is that it is open for you to interpret. In one of our States we have transcription agents who go in and transcribe the entry from the register for a cheaper price than a Certified certificate. They are virtually the same thing but do not have the official seal on them, plus the transcribers have a matching service so if anyone else asks for the same certificate they put you in touch and they will make comments where they see something that might be useful to know that you wouldn't get on a "Certified Copy". In Victoria I was sent a photocopy of the complete page from the book - this was very useful to me because I saw that the Registrar was actually my Great Great Grandfather and that he delivered most of the babies on the page as well - he was a surgeon. IMHO Certified Copies are certainly not the be all and end all. Regards Lyn In Oz. > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Edwina Dorset > Sent: Friday, 22 June 2012 3:46 PM > To: 'Pat Stanistreet'; [email protected] > Subject: Re: [ENG-LIV] Petition re cost of BMD certificates > (England & Wales) > > Hello Pat > > To the individual historian in each family, I ask you to > think about this... 'Uncertified' Copies of Certificates??? I > agree that the cost of Certificates for Research is very high > and costly, but are we losing sight here that we have to > VALIDATE our research, and be able to PROVE that the person > we have found through research is who we think they are!!! > > Edwina >