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Archiver > GENBRIT > 2009-11 > 1258213399


From: Guy Etchells <>
Subject: Re: GRO certificates - a survey
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:43:19 +0000
References: <mailman.87.1258199638.2037.genbrit@rootsweb.com>
In-Reply-To: <mailman.87.1258199638.2037.genbrit@rootsweb.com>


wrote:

> Hi
>
> The Misnomer St. Catherine's Index is entirely a genealogist reference.
> There is no thing called St. Catherine's Index.
>
> The name arose because the records were held in a building called St.
> Catherine's House just by Aldwych in London. If you wanted to look up a BMD
> you could go there, risking life and limb, lifting heavy books from high
> shelves. When that closed and the records were moved the name of the
> building was used to identify the records people were referring to, but they were
> not named that, so any reference to 'St. Catherine's Index' was purely to
> say that you were referring to the same records that had been held there.
> Most Record Offices now hold these records on fiche and of colurse the
> General Record Office at Southport is now the key office for obtaining
> certificates.
>
> JUDY ELKINGTON
> [N. Derbyshire, England]
>
> www.elkingtonfamily.com
>
> www.one-name.org/profiles/elkington.html
>

No Judy, I am afraid you are wrong it is not "entirely a genealogist
reference".

As other's have said when the index was microfilmed the tile on the film
and microfiche (reproduced across the top of the microfiche) was St
Catherines's Index or St Catherines House Index (I am not certain off
the top of my head).
Because of this many LDS family history centers refer to the index (the
GRO Index) as the St Catherine's Index.

For the FHC to have called it anything else would have been rather
foolish as it would have caused much confusion.
In the same way as if a book carries a title to avoid confusion that is
what the book is called in any index.
Cheers
Guy


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