Hi Hilary, Thanks for your email and your comments. I 've bitten the bullet and ordered a marriage certificate for one of the 5 daughters of Joseph Holland. I got the GRO details from FreeBDM. According to them, in 4 days time, I will should the certificate from England. If its the correct one, I 'll get some useful information from it which will help me find certificates for the other 4 sisters and 5 brothers. Thanks. Patrick. HILARY BLANFORD wrote: > Hallo Patrick > No, you do not need to have the 'correct' order of first names before ordering certificates. If you order from the www.gro.gov.uk, and there are direct links to this site from FreeBMD and TNA sites, you will find when you get to about page 3 or 4 of the ordering process that there are 'checking options'. Here you can specify parents' names, either one or both parents, and you can include other criteria. If you have a choice of references then you have to pay £4.00 to look at the second ref if the first does not meet your requirement, and so on. In your case I believe you have a single reference per child. If the checking points on the certificate do not match your criteria you will be charged £4.00 and will not receive a certificate. > > Why not try out the process? You have to register on the site before using it, but this is free. You can always cancel the order before submitting it if you decide you are not happy with what you have done. > > The GRO site is the cheapest and quickest way of ordering certificates -£7.50 for standard UK postage. Megabucks if you are so impatient you want it emailed to you!! > > Changing the order of children's names was common. However, sometimes it indicates that child number one died, and the parents used the same names in reverse order for child number two. > > Hilary > >