Need B & M cert mid 1900's help.....

justevi · Post by **justevi** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 10:29 pm

Please can someone tell me if the only way to find a Scottish birth and marriage for mid 1900's is to actually visit Edinburgh?
I have been doing my English family tree and now my 16yr old foster daughter would like to do her Scottish one. She does have dates and places of parents births and also maternal grandparents names - how can she move on from there? I really would like to help her with this. We live in England.

Thanks

Post by **AndrewP** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 10:50 pm

Hi justevi,

Welcome to TalkingScot.

Online birth, marriage and death certificates are covered by closure periods of 100, 75 and 50 years respectively. Hence www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk can only offer you births up to 1904, marriages to 1929 and deaths 1954. The more recent certificates (up to 2003) are available at New Register House in Edinburgh. So you need to visit Edinburgh, or have someone do research on your behalf.

All the best,

Andrew Paterson

justevi · Post by **justevi** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 10:55 pm

Thanks Andrew, I had a feeling that might be the case

I doubt that will be possible but if it were do you just search thro the indexes yourself as you do in England and then order the cert?

Joan

Post by **AndrewP** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 11:03 pm

Hi Joan,

In New Register House (NRH) you have a computer and a microfiche reader in front of you. The computer has the indexes, and digital images of most of the 1855 onwards certificates. I've not done my English research yet, but my understanding is that the Scottish system is far more user friendly.

You pay for your day in NRH (currently 17 pounds). You can view as many certificates as you can within the day for no more cost. Extra costs are if you choose to print the certificates. If you are happy writing down the details, then that cost can disappear. Most of the print-outs are collected on the day. The more recent ones are posted out to you - "official copies".

Have a read at the General Register Office for Scotland's (GROS) website for more information.

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/index.html

All the best,

Andrew Paterson

justevi · Post by **justevi** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 11:09 pm

Thats great Andrew, at least I know what I am up against now. Many thanks for the help!

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:19 am

Joan

While you will need to visit Edinburgh to carry out searches, or engage a professional to do that on your behalf, for the years concerned, GROS will also carry out lookups for a 5 year period if you supply them with the info by email or fax, .... for a cost, - see http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/famrec/h ... flet2.html

The problem can be if you can't define a nice tight 5 year period, and need to search over a longer range of years...............

David

justevi · Post by **justevi** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:58 am

Gees Scotland makes it difficult (and expensive!) for people LOL From reading GRO site looks like although we have D.O.B. etc we would still have to pay £5 search + £8 for a BC? All we really need is a transcription. In England I can get a cert for £7, saying that Scotland is well ahead with scotlandspeople once u get to early 1900's.
Another question: Are records say for 1960 for whole of Scotland on one fiche as in England or would you have to know reg district? We have Orkney but dont know where in Orkney. Would that be a problem?
A professional researcher is out of the question, I just couldnt afford it. Pity there isnt a bank of people doing their own research there who would be willing to search for others for a share of the daily fee. Makes sense to me, spend morning researching for others at say £5 an hour, have the afternoon free of charge to do own research.

WilmaM · Post by **WilmaM** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 11:26 am

Of course you could always hop on a train to Edinburgh and enjoy the experience yourself

NRH is just beside the main railway station and it's a beautiful city too.

justevi · Post by **justevi** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 11:39 am

Oh that it were that easy LOL I love Edinburgh (actually my mother was from W Lothian) but also have a special needs foster child to consider.

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 11:40 am

justevi wrote:Gees Scotland makes it difficult (and expensive!) for people LOL From reading GRO site looks like although we have D.O.B. etc we would still have to pay £5 search + £8 for a BC? All we really need is a transcription. In England I can get a cert for £7, saying that Scotland is well ahead with scotlandspeople once u get to early 1900's.

Hi justevi

Isn't it the case that you can only get the certificate in England if you provide the exact reference? OK that costs £8 in Scotland, - the "extra" £5 in Scotland is for a search by GROS over a period of 5 years in all districts for a matching record, - I wasn't aware that GRO provided such a service?. Doesn't sound a bad deal to me if you can't provide the exact reference in the first instance, as is required for England and Wales

BTW, the standard AGRA professional research rate in England is £15/hour, and the standard ASRGA rate in Scotland is £12/hour. Depending on the information that you have, then it could well take only 15 mins to find the record of interest..............

David