Birth certificates

[extern76]

 How do I go about obtaing Birth Certificates for long deceased members of my family ?

[loobylou]

If you know where they were born, the cheapest way is to write to the Superintendent Registrar for the area where the birth was registered, give as much detail as you can, mother's name, maiden name, father's name etc which will narrow down the search. State it is for family history purposes. Enclose your cheque for �7.00 ( It may have gone up - it is a long time since I obtained one). The Registrar usually will do a search 5 years either way if you are unsure of the year and if they don't find it they return your cheque.  There are other ways, such as getting a certificate from London ( I haven't used this way, so can't give full details). I must have obtained about 100 certificates this way over the last 30 years or so.  If you don't have any information, then I am afraid it is a long drawn out job going through the Public Record Office registers looking for the quarter they were registered.

[SteveD]

Have a look here:

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/research/obtainingcertificates/certificatefees.asp#0

[Peter Pedant]

You have to know who they are and where they were born basically.

the census for 1901 and 1881 are all over the internet but you have to pay. The latterday saint site - 1881-  is free but not as good as some pay sites (of course!)

Microfiches for 1881 are at all the large libraries in the UK. God you can get bored going through the damn things.

Life is easier if your relatives had names like Scruntney and not John Smith.

Most counties have BMD (birth deaths marriages) sites. Log onto them and once you have got the name Louis-Phillipe Scrot-Fuddock 1851 press print and hey presto out of your printer comes a ready printed form WITH the address to send it to. Include cheque

Victorians being tidy souls often kept the original returns for censuses, 1841 1851 which lurk in corners of the county offices and are incomplete. They often turn out to be just lists of names and addresses. Once you get to 1841 - it is time for the parish records, and tehy are also in the country records. Cheshire for example is good n small and well run - in Chester by the way -and others are not.

If your surname is Smith or brown give up now. Good Luck

[Corkyb]

If you not sure of the exact details try using

http://www.1837online.com/Trace2web/

It is a pay-per-view site where you can trace individuals from 1837-2002. You obviously need to know the name, rough date, and area the record would have been made in.

Another sites I've found useful for family reserch are http://www.ancestry.com/search/ Gives the page and volumn numbers for certificates

Latter-day-saints

http://www.familyhistoryonline.net/login/login.html

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl This site also gives the page and volumn references for certificates

All the best in your searches