I agree with the other Liz. Don't go through Ancestry or any other secondary source - they all charge extra fees (often rather outrageous ones, in my humble opinion) on top of what the UK government charges directly. The UK government has put out some notices recently warning people about this because so few people seem to realize it. You can also order certificates directly from the county records office of the county where the person's event was registered. They may or may not be cheaper, but you do get the original rather than the copy that was sent in to the government and is now held at the General Records Office (GRO). The original will have the signatures if the people were able to sign their names, whereas the GRO copy won't. I have also occasionally found a mistake on the GRO copy that wasn't on the original, so whomever transcribed it presumably made the error. In my case, sometimes I order from the GRO, sometimes direct from the records office. Liz Loveland USA

Years ago - Before Ancesty ? I did order from the GRO - service was surprisingly fast - [compared to the wait I had for information here in some Provinces in Canada ] I was amazed at the beauty of the handwriting - on the Certificate - the signatures of the family members - [big smile ] so precise - and amazing - on all the certificates that arrived - the handwriting - and signatures - were so similar - A friend who had been researching for a much longer time - suggested that next time I order from the local registry office - if I wanted authenticity - copy of original. Dollars were scarce at the time - so never followed through. Just happy to have some information. Cheers, Stella At 05:04 PM 24/02/2012, you wrote: >I agree with the other Liz. Don't go through Ancestry or any other >secondary source - they all charge extra fees (often rather >outrageous ones, in my humble opinion) on top of what the UK >government charges directly. The UK government has put out some >notices recently warning people about this because so few people >seem to realize it. > >You can also order certificates directly from the county records >office of the county where the person's event was registered. They >may or may not be cheaper, but you do get the original rather than >the copy that was sent in to the government and is now held at the >General Records Office (GRO). The original will have the signatures >if the people were able to sign their names, whereas the GRO copy >won't. I have also occasionally found a mistake on the GRO copy >that wasn't on the original, so whomever transcribed it presumably >made the error. In my case, sometimes I order from the GRO, >sometimes direct from the records office. > >Liz Loveland >USA > >*********** >Ten People All Genealogists Should Follow On Twitter: >http://www.geneabloggers.com/ten-people-genealogists-follow-twitter/ > >Search Ontario Genealogy & Resources at http://olivetreegenealogy.com/can/ont/ >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >ONTARIO-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >quotes in the subject and the body of the message