Hi Gary, If you use the checking facility on the GRO site and the checks don't match up, you do get told what checks were wrong. I recently ordered a birth cert for the daughter (I thought) of John Davies, shoemaker, married to Elizabeth, late Jones, formerly Cross (John was her 2nd hubby). The email I got back told me that the father was not John Davies, he wasn't a shoemaker and the mother was not Elizabeth, so if you wanted to eliminate just one mother you could do it this way for £3 as the GRO will refund the other £4. However, I recently ordered a marriage cert, giving the groom's age as one of the checks, and they issued the cert because other checks were right but the groom's age was slightly wrong. It was actually the right cert and Charles had fibbed a little, so if you made up a mother's name and it was a close match (or you accidentally hit on the right name!) they might issue the cert anyway. If you belong to GR you could see if anyone on the site has the same family and already knows the mother's name. Regards, Ellie ----- Original Message ----- From: "J hodge" <jhdl10848@blueyonder.co.uk> To: <eng-warks-birmingham@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, December 25, 2006 11:34 AM Subject: [B'ham] How obtain BMD > Hi List > > Being very short of readies (no job etc) Is it possibile to obtain > /prove a persons birth parents without having to actually part with > money , I relize you have to pay up front , but I am thinking that if I > list one of the parents wrong , but still proving that I am right in a > devious way and get my money back!!!!. > > Do they tell you on what parent it failed on , thus if I thought the > parents were really a william and emily ******, and just entered > williams name ,but with a false mothers name as well, what would I get > back from the GRO or whatever, if it failed on mothers name. > > And the search being made on a complete match of both. > > gary hodge > > > > >