Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

I sent for a birth cert last night just giving the year so that they could do a search for me. On the email I got it said the Est. date of dispatch would be 5th March. Does it usually take so much longer when having to do a search. 3 weeks seems a bit much

Since they have got rid of the reference checking facility, I believe requests for the kind of search you have asked for have increased and I do believe they estimate a longer time period, it will after all take longer when they are going to do a more vague search, they won't just search that year, I believe it will be a three year search.

They are considerably quicker when you provide the GRO reference.

I had the same problem when I requested a birth certificate. I gave the year and all the info I had. I ordered on 23rd January and was told it wouldn't arrive until 18th Feb.

Aw Well. It looks as though its not just me then. I'll just have to be patient

Hi folks, I am always impressed with the GRO.
A certificate I ordered, I had all the essential details, took 9 days to get to me in Australia.
Postage free.
The charges from Canberra are nearly double plus postage!!

I agree with you Tina, I've always been very pleased with their speed and efficiency which is why I was so surprised that this certificate was taking so long.

I've always got them within about a week as well. Which was why I was wondering if it was because they had to do a search I went to the St. Helens Register office last week looking for a death cert. they used to give them to you straight away but now you have to wait 5 working days & they cost £10. So more expensive than the GRO plus you have to make another journey to pick them up. Don't think I'll be doing that again but I had a query about an age on it.

Barbara B wrote: I was so surprised that this certificate was taking so long.

LindaS wrote:I've always got them within about a week as well. Which was why I was wondering if it was because they had to do a search

As I advised in my previous post, you have hit the nail on the head there, they do a three year search based on the criteria you give so it certainly would take more time than those where you are able to specify year, quarter and reference when they can go straight to the entry and print it off immediately they find it.