Buying marriage certificate

ceewash

I have just tried to get a copy of a marriage certificate to help with tracing family tree and the cost was £20. Does anyone know how I can do this cheaper as I need to get afew?

Pee

Where are you trying to buy it from? You can get a copy from the registrar of birth deaths and marriages. I would have thought the charge was less than £20... it is £7 for a death certificate once it is archived i.e. a couple of months after the death is registered.

hermanmunster_3

I've only ever paid about 6 or 7 pounds -

oops just found the reference - it's £7 now
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/

You'll need the GRO reference - have you got that?

mishkanorman

alternatively, if we are talking family history from a while back, I use the parish records, which hold the banns aswell in some areas. There is no charge in my area (norfolk) to use ancestry at the library, its a bigger version than standard and includes the parish records for free. (my family are all from london so i cant access the actual records locally)


there is then no need to get the certificate as you can print the record for around 10p or just take the names down for free,

hth

mishka

RAS

Hi

If you find out where the event (BMD) took place and write to the local Regsitrar in the area the cost is much lower - £7 last time I did it.

If you know where the marriage took place and there is a church, you can see if they married in church and find out where the local family history library is, or check out the county archives.

For event a hundred years or more ago, there is a good chance that the baptism, marriage and burial records will be in the local archive or family history library.

Provision is very varied; some counties only have one archive, others have distributed copies of the relevant registers to all the main local libary in each area. A lot of family history libraries also have censuses and copies of the national BMD index (which I personally still call St Catherine's Index).

You can copy baptisms and burial records fat archives and libraries but should not print marriage records. You can however, copy the information out long-hand.

Grumpelstiltskin

The charge of £20 sounds like you have looked at what Ancestry charge.
If you have Ancestry then you can easily find the reference you need to get the certificate from the GRO for £7.
If you are gong down the route of ordering from the actual register office then I suggest ringing them first as some charge extra for postage etc. so if you contact them first you will know exactly what their procedures are.

Mojisola

If you subscribe to Ancestry and your relatives lived in London, you may be able to find their birth, marriage and death certificates online. It's amazing to search and pull up the actual certificates online!

ceewash

Thanks. I've sorted it out now. I was using Ancestry. I have now ordered it through GRO for £7.