Cross a sprout with a wife?

[erastes]

Sprouse's surname at the time of marriage

I was attempting to get a copy of my mother's first marriage, but I'm giving up because it's too damned expensive. Ten pounds just to SEARCH? What a bloody con. Why can't I just search for free and then pay for a certificate???  GRRRRR.

Comments

[angrboda]

It's probably something to do with a privacy issue. It's somewhat personal information after all, and for some it might be sensitive information too. So if everybody could just search for free it wouldn't be very private anymore.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It's not - it's the Census 1901 which is public record.

Very annoying.

[mzcalypso.livejournal.com]

because if you don't find anything, they'd be out the ten pounds...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes - grrrr! And If I don't - I am!

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Maybe you could offer to split the difference?

[zamaxfield.livejournal.com]

That's so odd. Why do you have to search. Don't they have those things on a database they could look up?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

it's all done online - yes, by database, but just to get the results of: for example - "Albert Rings who married between 1949-1952" will cost me £10 minimum even if the result isnt what I want.

It's a rip off.

[zamaxfield.livejournal.com]

I know this is probably something that has occurred to you and your problem is probably not something I understand because it's a different country and they have different ways of doing things, but the Mormon geneology databases are free and any person from that church could point you to a place where you could find your information on microfilm. Most of the people I know who do geneology find them an invaluable resource. Their website is www.familysearch.org.

thank you!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Its great that it's free - but it doesn't recognise either my mother or grandfather. It's very frustrating!!

Re: thank you!

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

I just looked up some info on my dad's family (I'm trying to trace the Cherokee line) and they have his father's first wife, but not his second (my grandma) and (unless he had a son by the first wife that he gave the same name, who died in childhood) they've got my dad born to the wrong mom. So even if your family was in there it might not be too accurate.

[iulia_linnea.livejournal.com]

Is that information part of the public record? It's ridiculous that they charge for searches if so—but is there a physical repository of the information? If so, is it close? It seems to me that you might not have to pay to search in its brick and mortar archive.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

London I think, but the thing with the online search is that it's only a search and if the results aren't what I need - then I'm out £10 !!

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Because most of the records are not actually computerised - at best they're on microfiche, or possibly scanned (often hand-written) documents that aren't easily searchable. The computer record is only an extract - it doesn't have all the information.

Which means that the people doing the search for you will actually have to do some work. And when people do work for you, they generally expect to be paid. Alternatively, you can visit the registry office yourself and search for free.

My Dad has literally spent weeks searching records looking for his relatives (a day a week for about a year).

[erastes.livejournal.com]

The census records are certainly scanned - they have little thumbnails next to the entries, but it costs more to access them. Annoyingly though, my grandfather didn't bother to fill the form in for his household!!

The sites I've been searching on provide the information instantly, so it must be computerised,people couldn't do it that fast.

[katiemorris.livejournal.com]

Jesus Christ, don't use this site! PLEASE don't use this site. It's not a competent site. They are fucking charlatans and I'm so furious with them I don't know whether to bomb the bastards offices or try to sue them. I ordered three copies of my mother's marriage certificate in March this year - my Dad had died and my sister and I needed copies of their marriage certificates to send off for insurance purposes to different companies. Nothing arrived after a month so I raised a ticket on their website, whereupon they did, actually, send me a copy of the certificate (which came from France, amazingly enough) together with an invoice for three copies and they took over SEVENTY pounds out of my bank account which was way more than they said on the website. The invoice said it included commission which isn't mentioned on the website. I have since raised tickets and sent emails complaining, insulting, threatening them with the small claims court, all to no avail. They simply send a standard "your ticket is being dealt with" email and NOTHING HAPPENS.

Sorry to rant, but I feel so frustrated over this thing; I have no idea how to get recompense - look, if you must get a copy of a certificate, use this website - much more professional -

http://www.ukdocuments.com/marriagecerts.php

And if you have any ideas on how I can either get my outstanding two certificates, OR my money back from these idiots, let me know.

Err, sorry to rant. The sight of their website did something to my brain!

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Complain to your local Trading Standards Department, or to Cunsumer Direct on 08454 040506.

[katiemorris.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I will.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I don't fancy using any of them, to be honest as I don't want to spend money on information that might not be any good to me. But thanks for the warning. I'll just have to do it when I'm back in work.

[katiemorris.livejournal.com]

Also, the site I gave in my comment above will refund your fee if the search yields no result, which might help you. Good luck. Kate

[fiona-glass.livejournal.com]

Have they recently changed the rules at the 1901 census site? I did quite a few searches a couple of years back when I was researching the history of our house, and back then you could do an initial search on a name for free, and get a brief listing of the results for that name - and you only had to pay if you wanted to see an actual tiff image of the entry.

{{hugs}} very frustrating for you!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

The census site couldn't help me, because my grandfather didn't fill in the form for his household - 51 in the road is there, and 53 - but not 52 which is where he lived - and doing a cross search on his name and any of his sons comes up blank too - BAD man. (I can't complain, I usually wriggle out of a Census, too..)