Have you been ordering birth and death certificates online from England and Wales via the General Register Office (GRO)? It has just been confirmed that the latest pilot scheme to deliver PDF copies of birth and death records has been a success and will be extended.
Over 79,600 PDF applications had been processed in the three months from the introduction of the pilot on 12 October 2017. The GRO previously conducted a three-phase PDF pilot between November
2016 and April 2017, but has yet to establish a permanent PDF scheme. As a result of this popularity and positive feedback, the pilot scheme has now been extended past the minimum three month period. The scheme applies to births from 1837 to 1916 and deaths from 1837 to 1957, but (sadly) excludes marriage records.
By allowing family historians to order digital copies of records at £6 each with a 5-working day delivery period, it provides a cheaper and quicker alternative to ordering print copies, which cost £9.25 each or £23.40 for priority deliveries.
Personally, I have been taking advantage of this new service quite a bit over the past several months and have had a very positive experience. All certificates have arrive quickly, and all but one have been correct. For the one that wasn't right, I simply emailed the GRO pointing out the error (they had supplied the wrong certificate) and the correct certificate arrived within a few days, at no extra cost. I'll be ordering a few more certificates shortly, and am hoping they will extend the pilot to include marriage certificates soon.
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