GRO CERTIFICATE INDEX PROJECT

About the Project & How to Submit your Data

The GRO Certificate Project

One of the difficulties faced by family history researchers is the very limited information which is included in the indexes to Births, Marriages and Deaths in England & Wales which has been recorded by the General Registration Office from 1 July 1837 onwards. One can be faced with several possible events involving the correct name and registration district and it is quite possible to buy several certificates before getting the one you really want. At £6.50 each, this can result in a lot of wasted money. I have therefore established a project to collect the information from certificates which Marsden researchers have already purchased and to produce more detailed indexes from the information on the certificates.

Everyone with Marsden ancestors in England & Wales is encouraged to contribute to the project. Three volunteers have stepped forward to handle the data entry. They are:

• Brian Saville (Births)
• Fiona Hedges (Marriages)
• Stuart & Gill Marsden (Deaths)

They will receive copies of all certificates submitted by researchers and enter the FULL details from each onto a database. At intervals they will submit their databases to me for publication. This will probably initially be as pages on this web site but publication on fiche or CDROM may be considered once a large enough quantity of data has been collected.

Even with enthusiastic support, the index will only contain a small part of the total number of Births, marriages & Deaths registered but even this will provide valuable help to future researchers even if only to eliminate possible events from their research.

How to Submit your Data

The success of the project depends on YOU! If you have been researching your Marsdens in England & Wales you probably have already collected several certificates. This is the data we need! Please submit either:

• Photocopies of the certificates (please write in any words which are unclear on the copy) - This is the preferred option
• Transcripts of the certificates set out as in the original (some family history databases, e.g. Custodian, can do this)
• Transcription of the information on the certificate in list or tabular form

Please note the following requirements:

• Submit details only for events which relate to a MARSDEN (including variants)
• Include details for all certificates, even if they are not related to your Marsden family.
• If any person could not sign their name, please show this in transcripts as "John SMITH (mark)" or similar.
• If submitting transcripts, include all of the information on the certificates including the registration district/sub-district details on the top of the certificate.
• Include the certificate number which appears in the first column of the certificate.
• You do not need to include the name and details of the registrar.
• Do not add any information which is not on the original certificate.
• If submitting transcripts do not mix births, marriages and deaths on the same page - they have to be sent to different addresses
• Do not send original certificates unless you do not wish them to be returned.

Submit your information to:

John Marsden, 3 Hesketh Road, Sale, Cheshire, M33 5AA, England

I will mail them on to the volunteers. This minimises your postage costs and allows me to keep an eye on the quantity of work which they are taking on. Submissions will not be acknowledged to minimise the cost and work overheads.