Birth Certificates

[scoobydoo2]

This may be a silly question but if an ancestor was born in the district of Belper where could I get a copy of his birth certificate from locally? I know I can order them online but Ancestry are more expensive and GRO take too long - I think I'm onto something and can't wait! Also on a birth certificate what does 'the mask of' mean?
Any help appreciated

[dot.haukes]

Belper used to be a whole district but the registers have now been split up and the one you want could be in a number of modern register offices and so you should try them all http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/REG/districts/b elper.html.

[dot.haukes]

lol and it's not the masl of it's the mark off, the person could not write their name, there will be a squiggle or cross on the original entry which the registrar does not copy onto the copt birth certificate

[scoobydoo2]

Thanks dot.haukes - knew I could rely on you.

[dot.haukes]

sorry for typos above!
A copy certificate from a local register office is �7 and only takes a few days to come back, you can ring the register office and they can take a payment by card over the phone in some offices.
do you need the addresses for the 3 offices that hold the divided Belper registers?

[dot.haukes]

try here first,
Belper Register Office
Church Street
Kilburn
BELPER
DE56 0LU
01332 781816

[scoobydoo2]

Yes please if you have them handy. I must admit I'm a bit impatient on this - need it to prove if I'm right before I get confused with other members of the family. Unfortunately I can't leave my tree alone!! So while I'm stuck I move onto someone else and it's getting very interesting.

Thanks again

[dot.haukes]

That is the right way to do your research scooby, because whichever line you work on, all the time you are becoming more familiar with the sources and learning about the ways they were complied and about how we can access them now, so what happens is you may come across a problem with one line, but in another line you may suddenly realise why your first line has hit a brick wall.

I do think the biggest hurdle is getting the right name transcribed from the original source, alot oif the workforce used for the transcribing in the 1980s and 90s were YTS with no knowledge of local surnames and place names, which meant they just did thweir best guess at reading the 19c handwriting.

[sigma]

If its not at Belper try

Amber Valley Registry Office
Market Place
Ripley
Derbyshire
DE5 3BT

The Family Tree Detective by Colin D Rogers is worth getting as it lists all the registry offices.

[sigma]

If you're paying by cheque, make the cheque payable to the superintendent registrar. If you have the wrong registry office you may be lucky in as much as they may forward your request to the appropriate registry office. This would only happen if there is a possibility of the place being covered by two or more registry offices.
The book I mentioned is available from Amazon.