Passport problem

swingaloo

A friend is trying to get a passport which will be her first ever.

According to the form she needs to provide the date of birth of both parents and their marriage certificate date.

She has none of this information. She has looked on the ancestry site but as the name is quite common and she is not sure of the dates of either of their births or the towns it is proving impossible. They both died long since.

How is anyone supposed to be able to get a passport in this situation? If you cannot find this information where can you go from here?

Thanks for reading

NAR

She should write a note to this effect, that both parents are dead and she does not have their DOBs or other requested info, and include it with the passport.
They will contact her if they require further info.

Tropez

Contact the General Records Office and providing as much information about her parents as she can and they may be able to help.

Actually wouldn't most of this information be on her birth certificate?

swingaloo

Tropez wrote: »

Contact the General Records Office and providing as much information about her parents as she can and they may be able to help.

Actually wouldn't most of this information be on her birth certificate?

Thank you for the reply. The names are on her certificate but not the dates of her parents births which is what she is being asked for.

Tropez

swingaloo wrote: »

Thank you for the reply. The names are on her certificate but not the dates of her parents births which is what she is being asked for.

Okay but the parents place of birth will be on there. I take it she doesn't have any idea how old they would have been?

The GRO could probably help you with this but you'd likely have to call them rather than use their online form, unless she knows roughly how old her parents would have been in which case she can ask the GRO to search records within a 3 year period online.

RAS

Were her parents married to each other? Or ever to anyone else?

I am assuming that the friend is in England or Wales? If in Scotland details of the parent's marriage are on her birth certificate.

She may also know when and where they died? If so, then the date of birth may will be listed on the index of deaths, and can then be used to locate their birth certificates.

InsideInsurance

The death certificates will give their age and date of death which will give you the 3 year band for their birth that is sufficient for the GRO to search.

Alternatively, does all of her extended family have such little interest in the family? Anyone either know directly or have already done some family history research and so will know the details and may even already have copies of the certificates

mgdavid

can she remember their birthdays even if she doesn't know the actual year? that will narrow down a search in the appropriate registers.

egoode

Does she not have any other family members that know some details that might help her track down their birth and marriage certificates?

DUTR

egoode wrote: »

Does she not have any other family members that know some details that might help her track down their birth and marriage certificates?

It does seem odd doesn't it?
I thought nowadays new applicants have to be interviewed at a passport office.

RAS

On the last two occasions I have been in a Registrar's Office another member of the public has been querying why their own birth certificate was unobtainable. In one case it appears to be because the Forces had not forwarded the required documents from overseas.

In another instance I was helping someone relatively young who had no certificate; the person knew their own DOB and was raised by foster parents after being abandoned by their parents in that person's care.

Their birth parents had married locally and had a first child who died at a very early age. The searcher's birth was about 18 months after the first child's birth. Both children had the same name and as far as I could find out the second birth was never registered.

I located the one parent's own parents and siblings but do not know what happened next.