Genealogy Chat

Hi,

I thought of an idea shortly after ordering a certificate from GRO. Should certificates be able to view online? Here is how it would work.....

.....You go on the GRO website and chose whether to get an actual copy or an image available to download, Of course the download would be cheaper.

......You enter all the details you normally would and then put your payment details in to then download the image.

Could this be a good idea? The record can also be printed off your own printer.

What's your thoughts? :-)

They do this with the Scottish certificates on Scotlandspeople. Works great!

Read the paragraph on Digitisation and Indexing (D&I) Project in:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Register_Office_for_England_and_Wales

Have a look at Slartibartfast's Rant No. 2

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/genealogy_chat/thread/1290036

Most people are probably with you on that!

The snag or "Fly in the ointment" with your proposal being that the records held by the England and Wales GRO have not been digitised.

Until they are, which following the demise of Project Dove and the current economic climate, is not likely to be soon, if ever, is that in order to supply an online copy GRO staff would have to locate the details of the original, make a copy and digitise that individually before you could download it. As you can see this would involve additional work for GRO staff and all that the GRO would save would be the cost of an envelope and a stamp. In theory a copy certificate supplied online would cost the GRO more to produce than a hard copy one supplied by post. Given those circumstances it is likely that the GRO would therefore charge more for it.

I suppose an option would be for the England and Wales GRO to allow a commercial company the right to digitise their records and then to sell online copies which is what I believe happens in the case of Scotlandspeople which is a partnership between General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon enabled by brightsolid.

There is also the small but crucial issue that such a proposal requires a change to the Law which at the present time would get neither the funding nor the required parliamentary time.

According to the wiki link I gave, about half the records have been digitised and are used when the GRO produce certificates.

Yes I saw that too but the fact remains that GR can only issue a certified copy of the register entry, by way of a certificate that is, under current legislation.