Thanks once again for the very informative reply. Disappointing to hear that some register offices have taken it upon themselves to refuse to issue the "historical" certs. Why would they do this ? Yes, the LDS film would seem to be the way to go. Mind you, one person's "X" might look the same as another's ! Just joking. The ones who could sign would be worth having a look at. I have navy and army records which have two g-g-grandfathers' sigs. One signs "Payne" whereas all the previous parish and census records had him and his family as "Pain". So, something of a landmark. Francis ----- Original Message ----- From: "Firebird" <sparrer@gmail.com> To: <Essex-UK@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2008 10:05 PM Subject: Re: [Ess] REGISTER ENTRIES & CERTIFICATES [wasRe: Birth BaptismMarriage William Hyde KNAPP] > Francis Payne wrote: >> Do you know which offices do the same as GRO, >> so you do get to see the actual signatures ? > > All the register offices can produce copies of the marriage certs with > the actual signatures, although there are some register offices now > which are refusing to issue "historical" certificates, ie those before > 1900. > > You can also get copies of the marriage entries from the church > registers which would be (or should be) held at the record office but > that would cost considerably more usually than getting a copy from the > GRO. (Note: a register office is not the same thing as a record office.) > > If you are near an LDS FHC, then you can hire the parish films through > them and see the signatures for yourself that way. That would be > cheaper (transport costs excluded) than getting a GRO cert :)) You > can usually make a photocopy, digital copy or download the image from > the film. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Any problems, please contact the List Admin: Essex-UK-admin@rootsweb.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ESSEX-UK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message