Delighted to discover that there have been some really useful changes to the GRO’s certificate ordering service.

It now has its own searchable birth and death indexes (you need to be logged in with your usual certificate-ordering details). What’s got me really excited is that you can specify mother’s maiden name for births and the age at death for deaths, right back to 1837! I’ve already found a birth for a Dear-Perrow child who I otherwise wouldn’t have known anything about. (And when I clicked the button to order, all the details were handily already filled in for me.)

Also, I’ve always grumbled that I don’t need a legal document, so I was thrilled to be able to order a PDF version, which they describe as having ‘no “evidential” value’, for a reduced price. (I’m now waiting for my order to arrive to see what the result actually looks like.)