Help with replacing Fathers lost Scottish Birth Certificate

[ryandonz]

Thank you Currie, Trish, Andy and especially Montrose Budie for taking the time out of your day to actually call the GROS on my behalf.

I re-visited the post office today equipped with my new arsenal of knowledge from this thread to counter anything they could possibly say to knock me back again....

To my success =D> I was able to finally meet 'their' criteria on paperwork needed along with my fathers extract to apply for my UK passport. Happy days as us Aussies would say

As mentioned in a recent post, the documents are now being sent to Auckland, New Zealand instead of the British High Commission in Canberra, then off to the UK where the passport is created then back home to Australia to be received.

The people mentioned above and everyone else have been so helpful and generous with their time, helping me obtain my passport. I thought it's only fair for me to spend some of my time to tell you of the plans for my new UK passport!

It has always been a goal of mine to travel the globe and experience things outside of the usual daily grind. I'm currently employed as a derivatives and forex broker at the ripe age of 23, and already the office and corporate life is feeling too small and too boring! I've always had big ambitions to travel and see the world, see its people and mainly experience cultures outside of the Westernized world. Ride a motorbike along a ocean road in Thailand, see a lion in Africa, have a beer at Octoberfest in Germany, run with the bulls in Spain, watch an EPL game in London and let my hair down at a party in the islands of Mykonos in Greece.

It's been a long time in the making, saving up the finances to quit my job (boss doesn't know yet), sell the car and pack the bags for 1 full year of solo adventures of a life-time. I'll be sure write to you all once I receive my passport in the mail (fingers crossed!!!) and I also have a plan to create a blog or website where I can share the photos of my gradual progress around the world, showcasing the crazy destinations I visit and the colorful and wonderful people I meet along the way. I'll be sure to share the link in this thread.

Thank you all again for helping me make this dream come true, with my UK passport in my pocket, i'll be able to live and work anywhere in the European Union if the cash runs dry prematurely because of too many of these

Cheers,
Ryan

[WilmaM]

Great news Ryan,
just one glaring omission on your itinery - you NEED to come to Scotland!
we'll have the kettle on for you

[Tracey]

Well, this thread gripped me like a good novel only to be confused at the end EPL if you had said Football Match i'd have known what you meant

Enjoy your travels

[Elwyn 1]

I agree with mb. I used to be involved with the issue of British Passports some years ago and can confirm that recently issued “replacement” birth certificates were perfectly acceptable. What else are you supposed to do if one issued at the time of the birth is lost? I would challenge your Post Office and ask to see a supervisor and insist they refer for advice, as I am sure they have misunderstood what is required.

(If I recall correctly, you should also be required to produce your own birth cert and your parents marriage cert to show you are legitimately descended from your father. But I assume you have already got those docs.)

If you don't get a satisfactory outcome, I would complain to the British High Commission in Canberra (or to the Passport issuing section at the BHC in Wellington NZ where the work seems to have been regionalised now, as they are ultimately responsible for the process).

[trish1]

Hi Ryan

Have fun - don't forget to visit Scotland - the ancestral home

Trish

[Montrose Budie]

If you follow the links in this page http://ukinaustralia.fco.gov.uk/en/help ... /passports you’ll end up in New Zealand and eventually find a pdf document clearly showing the acceptable UK birth certificates, and perhaps I’m going blind, but I can’t see anything Scottish. Maybe the Post Office or the High Commission isn't aware that Scotland has its own registration system.

“The relevant checklist will tell you what documents you need to submit and here is a guide to show what the supporting documents look like.[PDF 512KB, opens in new window]” http://ukinnewzealand.fco.gov.uk/resour ... -documents

Alan

Ah-hah.

Methinks I see the problem here.

Scottish births extracts used to look exactly like the English example shown in the NZ link, i.e. all the info typed.

For some time now, however, as long as the original handwriting is clear, the typed area has been replaced by a copy of the section of the digital image from the original Scottish Register Book of Births, - likely to that bit more accurate, you'ld have thought than a clerk's transcription, - I've seen quiute a few errors over the years. In other words such an extract looks quite different.

Another case where a typed version is supplied is if the original uses the dreaded non-PC word 'illegitimate'. In such a case an image based version can be specially requested.

It used to be the case at GROS that a typed version could be requested, but I'm no longer sure if this is possible. In any case, such a request would have to be made direct to GROS, not via http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk .

mb