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Abertillery Online site established 1997 by David Llewellyn; designed and maintained by Cybertyleri © All rights reserved 2009

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Permission for use of images on this site has been sought in all cases where possible and no copyright infringement is intended whatsoever. If you feel that an image does infringe an existing copyright, please contact abertilleryonline@yahoo.co.uk and we will be happy to withdraw the image(s) concerned. Copies of images shown on this site are available, where permission has been granted, by request to abertilleryonline@yahoo.co.uk

Please note that contents of the chat forum are not official views of members of Cybertyleri but those of the individual contributors who post them.

 

 

How to obtain copies of certificates for births, deaths and marriages:

 

There are a number of ways to do this.

 

The first (but not recommended) is to get them from the registry office that covers the area where the event(s) took place.

 

**TOP LOCAL TIP: - For Abertillery, Blaina and Nantyglo, the registration district was Bedwellty and prior to  late 1861, it was Abergavenny. For ancestors who lived or were born in Six Bells, Aberbeeg or Llanhilleth, it may be that the the registration district you require is Pontypool **

 

In the case of Abertillery, the registration district was Bedwellty (please note prior to late 1861, it was Abergavenny) and so you will need to contact the Registry Office at Tredegar (all dates from 1837 onwards). Like most registry offices, they are busy conducting present day affairs and so family history enquiries are low on their priority list. If you do wish to obtain certificate copies in this way, you will usually need to know the name of the person whose birth, death or marriage you are seeking, together with the exact/approximate date on which it happened, the place at which it occurred if possible (church, house etc) and, again if possible, in the case of births, the name of parent(s).

 

Once you have that information, you will need to write to the office with the details you have and a cheque for £7 for each certificate copy required made payable to the "Superintendent Registrar" at:

 

Registry Office

The Grove

Church Street

Tredegar

Blaenau Gwent

NP2 3DS

Wales

(01495 722305)

 

I have given their 'phone number above, but they are unlikely to accede to requests by phone, so it is better to write. Please note that General Register Office index references (see below) are of no use whatsoever when obtaining copies of certificates from registry offices.

 

In my experience, however, the best way to obtain certificates is by using the General Register Office indexes (or St Catherine's indexes as they are also known) and this will allow you of course to obtain copies of ancestors' certificates who were living elsewhere in Wales or England without having to visit that specific area's registry office.

 

In 1837, a system of official registration was introduced in England and Wales. The General Register Office holds records for all births, deaths and marriages registered in England or Wales from 1 July 1837, and adoptions and still-births from 1 July 1927, up to approximately 12 months ago, and certain events registered abroad. You can only obtain information from the entries by purchasing a certificate.

 

Luckily in recent years, a number of sites have become available to look for indexes including Free BMD.
 

This is free to view as the indexes are transcribed by volunteers. They are far from complete although some years are nearly all done and so you may not find the information you want there at present. I would look at this first before pay-for-view sites below and you may be lucky.

 

 

You can then go to www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/ and order the certificate you want using the details. The cost of a Full Certificate for birth marriage and death (standard service) is £7.00 each. You will require a credit or debit card and will have to register initially for the service.

 

If you are unlucky with Free BMD, then the best route is to use subscription sites such as Ancestry and findmypast.com.

 

These are pay-for-view sites. You can use the information to obtain the certificates as above

 

Alternatively, find out the index number for the event you are researching by looking up the indexes in person at the Family Record Centre in London or at libraries or record offices where copies (usually on microfiche or film) are held.

 

The index will look similar to this:

 

Births, September quarter 1900 (i.e. registered between September and December, 1900)

Jones, John Bedwellty 11a 135

 

Again, you can use the information to obtain the certificates you want from www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/ directly via the site itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RESEARCHING YOUR ABERTILLERY FAMILY HISTORY - part 2