Grandma’s story at a discount ........ down at the GRO with £6

Now anyone who has gone searching for a birth, marriage or death certificate for England and Wales will know that it doesn’t come cheap.

Cecilia Anderson, 1818-1869, gravestone 1975

Well, if you are only after the one it comes in at £9.25 which is not too bad especially as a large glass of wine can knock you back almost all of that money.

But of course most of us seldom are content with the one certificate, which makes the news that the GRO is running a three month scheme reducing the cost of such certificates to £6 each.

For three months, starting from October 12, 2017 birth certificates for 1837-1916 and death records from 1837-1957 will be available by email for £6 from the GRO web site.*

The GRO said that it would use the scheme to assess the demand of the service, and builds on an earlier pilot which ran from November 2016 to April 2017.

At which point I am mystified as to why after that first pilot scheme finished the practice didn’t become permanent but the GRO maintain that a longer period of analysis is needed.

Cecilia Anderson, extract of death certificate

Still the good news is that not only will it cost less but will arrive down the line in 5 days instead of a week, which if you live in Canada is a major consideration.

The National Records of Scotland and the GRO for Northern Ireland both allow researchers to view records immediately online.

There will be those who already know this but some who won’t.

So there you are job done.

Pictures; gravestone and extract of death certificate of Cecilia Anderson, 1869 from the Simpson family collection

*General Register Office, www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp