Lost Cousins newsletter

I'd not been aware of the informative Lost Cousins newsletter until it was mentioned as a source by Chris Paton. The first item in the most recent, 20 March, issue is General Records Office blunders on.

"First family historians were hit by a 32% rise in certificate prices effective from April 6th - then the GRO announced that the checking service is to be discontinued:

We have been advised that there is no clear remit in statute for charging for a service to check additional index references, or to retain partial fees. In order to ensure full legal compliance, and in view of the fact that we cannot afford to offer this service free of charge, we are regretfully withdrawing our reference checking service from 6 April. This will include the withdrawal of the "checking points".

So, not only will we be paying more for certificates in future, we'll also end up with more incorrect certificates!"

There's lots more good information in the Lost Cousins newsletter. Items in the most recent one include:

New Zealand BDM - members' tips

How civil registration began
Certificates and signatures

Find this issue of the newsletter at http://lostcousins.com/newsletters/latemar10news.htm and the most recent issue at http://lostcousins.com/newsletters/latest.htm