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Archiver > GSV > 2000-07 > 0963282625


From: "Lee Robinson" <>
Subject: Early Vic Birth Certificate Experience
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 19:30:25 PDT


Hi Listers,

Some time ago I received information from the list that indicated that an
early marriage in Melbourne (1853) had two entries in the indexes. A normal
one and one with an Early Church Record (ECR) entry.

I asked a couple of people which one I should request and had some kind
replies but I eventually rang the BD&M people and was told that where there
were two entries they would send both. I was rather pleased about this but
thought that I would wait until they arrived before I spread the word. This
normally only take two days using Maxi on the net.

After two weeks had elapsed I rang up to enquire and found that because of
some glitch in the system my request was not being processed. The BD&M man
promptly investigated it and even though I told him about the two
certificate story I eventually only received the normal copy roughly 3 weeks
after the request. Oh well, genealogy is never completely plain sailing.

I suggest if you are faced the the same situation to at least try for two
certificates for the price of one. Because it was an unusual request I
didn't order it off the web (Maxi) as I felt their nicely controlled form
might limit me (I had two registration numbers to put in) so I used a paper
form (remember those) and faxed it in which should have been almost as good
but allowed me the opportunity of adding a comment - not that it helped.

I suspect the price we are paying for the extremely efficient service for
the standard requests off the net is that any "odd" requests now put their
system in a spin.

The really, really bad news is that the certificate has all the details
filled in but I can hardly read it - the copy almost looks like a fax, even
the printed parts of the form and the lines look rather ordinary.

Just thought I would share this with you - I do feel better now <g>

Lee Robinson

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