"Who Do You Think You Are" and online certificates?

Tempest · Post by **Tempest** » Fri Oct 23, 2020 10:27 am

I've had a subscription to FindMyPast Pro for a few months now. It has served me well, with the added newspaper searches very useful. Still I have to spend £11 a go for certificates when I feel I need them.
Last night while watching the latest episode of "How Do You Think You Are",the one about David Walliams family I noticed he was able to search and then see online a marriage certificate? Does anyone know what website he would have been using to get that? Could have saved me a fortune with the GRO.

Silver surfer · Post by **Silver surfer** » Fri Oct 23, 2020 4:27 pm

Hi, don't know if it's a regular thing but a few times my results have come up with an actual baptism, marriage and burial from the church registers. Perhaps that particular church etc needs to have been transcribed for online searches. Was the prog any good? Have watched all series but wasn't as keen to watch David W, seems a closet gay to me, hiding behind a marriage. Nothing wrong with that but not too keen on him. I enjoyed the research for the Whittaker girl the week before, but her accent annoyed me. Think it may be due to not going anywhere since March, except dullally. :roll:

Tempest · Post by **Tempest** » Fri Oct 23, 2020 7:35 pm

I'm not his greatest fan either, but it was a good episode. If you can I recommend you catch up with it. Both sides of his family very interesting dories, the WWI very sad. You may also see the bit I refer to, about him searching and finding a marriage cert online.

rockyfowler · Post by **rockyfowler** » Sat Oct 24, 2020 3:37 pm

Money no object to BBC they (we) pay for the privilege at all the venues and Archives that`s why they are met with real people who show the records :cry:

we have to make do finding things ourselves :idea:

SRD · Post by **SRD** » Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:18 am

Whilst it may well be true that the BBC pay for access, as they should, having worked in various places where broadcasting has taken place there is always a battle amongst staff as to who is going "to appear on the telly", it wasn't unusual to see management, who wouldn't normally be seen dead on the shop floor, showing up if there was a camera or microphone in sight.

Tempest · Post by **Tempest** » Sun Oct 25, 2020 1:57 pm

rockyfowler wrote:Money no object to BBC they (we) pay for the privilege at all the venues and Archives that`s why they are met with real people who show the records we have to make do finding things ourselves

Hi rockyfowler, just for a moment imagine money was no object to me (that's not the case by the way, but just for argument sake!) how would I, just like we saw Davis Walliams do, open up my laptop search for a marriage and then see online the actual marriage certificate? How is it possible? even if I was willing to pay for it (I'm not, but just say I was!) was it a BBC trick they played on us amateur geneologists?

gardener · Post by **gardener** » Sun Oct 25, 2020 2:37 pm

The programme is on youtube, and if you scroll to about 28 minutes he is looking at a marriage certificate online. Is that the one you mean? Some marriage certificates are available online. It is just a matter of the parish records having been scanned and made available. So he was lucky and it is not a BBC plot :-)

(Ancestry has this certificate online)

Tempest · Post by **Tempest** » Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:52 pm

Gardener, yes that’s it. I look forward to stumbling into online parish marriage certificates in the future.

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