Has anybody ordered British/Welsh marriage certificates?

[csziggy]

I've found the marriage record that I am 99.9% sure is for my great-great-grandparents in Wales in 1838, but all Ancestry has online is an image of the index pages. Apparently for $8 I can order a scan of the original license emailed to me, but unless it has information on their parents, I am not sure it is worth it.

The information on the Ancestry page is not clear what the records from that place and time might cover. I'd hate to order a copy then find out that all it has is the bride and groom's names and little else.

[csziggy]

1. I got a series of very informative replies from a DU member who does not have access

To this forum, iverglas. They gave permission to repost here for the benefit of others.

From iverglas:

I can't post in the Genealogy group because I'm not paid up, but I saw your post and hoped to head you off before you get ripped off!

Never ever order a certificate from Ancestry or any other private outfit. Order directly from the GRO itself.

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates /

Unfortunately, their price did just go way up recently, but it's still half what you'll pay the corporations that do it for you.

To Canada, it usually takes about 2 weeks (I've ordered 30 or 40 in the last few years). It depends on whether there's a series of Who Do You Think You Are showing in the UK, and thousands of people are suddenly deciding to trace their ancestors. ;)

You do also know about FreeBMD, where you can search the GRO index up to the mid-20th century so far (volunteer transcribers are beavering away at it) -- this is actually where Ancestry's pre-1916 index comes from anyway:

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl

Another possibility for finding more info about a baptism, marriage or burial, in addition to the IGI at familysearch.org, is the newer version:

http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html

and also FreeBMD's companion project:

http://www.freereg.org.uk/cgi/Search.pl

which is transcribing parish records both before and after 1837 (registration start date) and will have whatever info is in the parish record, e.g. father's name and mother's given name, for baptisms, sometimes father's name for marriages.

Feel free to copy this info into your thread on the board!

And now I see that you said Ancestry offers a scan of a cert, for *less* than the cost of the certificate.

Well, I think I should say "never mind". If the scan will serve your purposes, it sounds like a good deal!

Do add the GRO link and other info to your thread if you like, though; it may be useful for others.

UK marriage certificates, in principle, give:

party's age and occupation (occupation mainly for groom)
party's father's name and occupation (no info about mothers, even now)
location of marriage (i.e. not just registration district)
addresses at marriage
witnesses' names
previous surname of a widowed woman

Not all certs have all info. For age, especially in early years after 1837, some say only "full". If a person didn't know their father's name, it will be blank. It might say "deceased" rather than occupation, for father. And then there are the people who just lied. The father stated could be a maternal grandfather or brother, or a stepfather, or the stepfather's given name and birth father's surname ... or just an outright lie, e.g. my gr-grfather who had adopted a fake surname and made up a father to match. He did keep the real father's given name, though, which helped to confirm my theory! ;)