Hello Keith, The Entry Number (and Volume Number) on your Original Certificate will not be the same as that in the GRO Index - for the reference given there relates solely to the National Registers. A number of Local Offices now refuse to issue Certificates if you quote the GRO Reference Number to them - on the grounds that if you've got that from National, then let National Office have the trouble and expense of processing it, rather than it coming out of hard-pressed Local Funding :-) Gus ----- Original Message ----- From: Keith N Houghton <houghtons@dodo.net.au> To: <ENG-WORCESTER-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 11:01 AM Subject: [WOR] Birth Certificates > I have read the correspondence by John Tysoe and Lin Watterson with some > interest. Thankfully, no-one has had to sort through my effects yet, but > I do have a birth certificate such as they describe. Mine is a flimsy, > 140mm x 110mm "Form of Certificate of Registry of Birth or Stillbirth" > issued in Bromsgrove in 1938 (did they specialise in these, I wonder, > Lin?). It simply certifies "that the Birth of a male/female child > (still)/born on the (date) has been registered...". It gives the entry > number and Registry book number (not the same, incidentally, as the GRO > reference), the name of the informant and their "qualifications" (i.e. > mother, in my case). It nowhere gives the name of the child!! > > I believe cost was a factor in my mother obtaining this form of > certificate, and it sufficed for my purposes until 1959 when, for some > reason which now escapes me, I obtained from the Bromsgrove Registry > Office a slightly more robust note measuring 160mm x 160mm, which gives > my full name, sex and birth date and a statement "that the above > particulars have been compiled from an entry in a register in my > custody". I do not recall why I was not given a full copy of the entry > itself. However, this got me through life until earlier this year when, > at the age of 67, I was finally required to obtain a certificate showing > the names of both my parents in connection with my application for > Australian citizenship. And this answers Lin Watterson: ("I guess if we > sent for copies today we would get the full details") -- yes, you would. > > Best regards, > > Keith Houghton, in Sydney (Oz). > > > > ==== ENG-WORCESTER Mailing List ==== > FreeREG Project: parish register database > http://freereg.rootsweb.com > > UK Census on-line > http://freecen.rootsweb.com/ > http://www.worcestershiresurnames.co.uk/ > >