LONDON-L Archives

Archiver > LONDON > 2004-12 > 1102896675


From: Eve McLaughlin <>
Subject: Re: [Lon] Gardner & Bethnal Green
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 00:11:15 +0000
In-Reply-To: <MPEPLHLLDHDLMJLBCCJKMECAFDAA.jack.earnshaw@ntlworld.com>


In message <>,
Jack Earnshaw <> writes
>Iain,
>
>I beg to differ. I have telephoned a registrar on more than one occasion and
>they have been very helpful. They may not be obliged to do it, but if you
>ask nicely, they may well help.
London registrars would normally be too busy to do much, unless you
catch them at an unsuaully slow time. Country registrars have more
flexibility.
> For one query I wanted to know the name of
>the informant on a death certificate and they phoned back within 10 minutes
>with the answer.

This was presumably a verification of an illegible name on an existing
certificate, with known date, place and details - simple enough.

> Another time I had a name of a child and the mother's name
>but no date of birth - just that it was between about 1920 and 1935. The
>only thing the registrar wanted was that if she found the entry would I buy
>the birth certificate. I had the correct certificate in my hands within 2
>hours.
This is fairly normal - they were being helpful beyond the call of duty,
as you say, in searching over a long period, but they issued the
information on purchase of the certificate. They are not supposed to
hand out information without the pourchase of a certificate.

This, i think, is what Nida meant. Nothing is for nothing in the world
of official certificates.
--
Eve McLaughlin

Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians
Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society

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