Citing GRO Certificate Service PDFs

By History-Hunter on Thu, 02/27/2020 - 12:16

Forums

Dear Editor;

I've just received 2 PDFs from the new GRO Certificate Service. I've never dealt with digitally delivered GRO certificates before. Each appears to be an image of pre-printed page from a register in which all entries other than the one ordered have been "cut" and removed. The PDFs delivered by the GRO contain metadata that shows, "Created by the General Register Office" and the PDF creation date and time. The web-delivery system also allows one to download the application detail sheet, which shows the GRO Index details for each image ordered. The sheet content is similar to what I am used to receiving when ordering via the post.

Given the above, I would like to know which EE "model" would be the best one on which to base a citation of these PDFs and which would permit the inclusion of the associated GRO reference information.

While I've read other posts on this subject, if possible, I'd prefer to develop my own citation. In that way, I understand the principles and can apply them elsewhere.

Submitted byEEon Thu, 02/27/2020 - 17:10

History-Hunter, will these images be "permanently" and publicly online, or are they simply submitted to you and then will be deleted after a short wait period?

If the former, then they would be cited as with any documents that are publicly available online. If the latter, then why would it matter if the document is snail=mailed to you, emailed to you, or put in a temporary "drop box" for a quick delivery? All essential elements are the same, no?

Dear Editor;

What I received online is only posted there for 30 days, just to allow me to download it.

The format of the document is quite different from what I received from the GRO by the post and it is just in electronic format. If once I have it downloaded, and whether or not I print a copy, it just becomes another loose certificate in my files... then, yes, I do know how to handle those. I thought I'd best check, since this situation is not explicitly addressed in the version of the EE book that I currently have.

Thank you for the response.

 

Submitted byjmjburtonon Wed, 02/14/2024 - 04:57

EE and History-Hunter, 

I used the GRO's digital image service today for the first time and I also then questioned if my citation should differ from how I would normally cite a "Certified Copy" from the GRO, which in the past was presented as a certificate and a physical copy mailed. The new digital image service provides only the following:  

Bunton, Edith Elizabeth Jane-1899-Birth

If I had ordered a physical copy of the "Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth" I would cite it like this:

England, birth certificate (certified copy) for Edith Elizabeth Jane Bunton, born 13 September 1899; registered 19 October 1899, Edmonton District 3a/478, Edmonton Sub-district, Middlesex; General Register Office, Southport.

Is this citation an accurate description of the source? The digital image does not appear to be a certified copy and isn't referred to that way either in the image itself or in the GRO Order Application Summary Details, which lists the item type as "E/W Birth Digital Image". 

My proposed citation is:

England, birth registration (digital image) for Edith Elizabeth Jane Bunton, born 13 September 1899; registered 19 October 1899, Edmonton District 3a/478, Edmonton Sub-district, Middlesex; General Register Office, Southport.

 

Submitted byEEon Thu, 02/22/2024 - 08:30

jmjburton. My apologies for not seeing your addition to this older thread when it came in. Let me answer your question with a couple of questions:

  • What difference(s) would it make a difference whether a record provider sends it to you by snail mail, by overnight courier service, by instant email, or by posting it temporarily at some digital site that will disappear after you download the document?
  • Does the difference affect how the record is relocatable by someone else? Does it affect your (or someone else's) assessment of the reliability of the record?

EE, no apologies necessary. Let me try to answer your questions. 

I don't think it necessarily makes any difference in what way the record provider sends the document, if it were the case that the document provided by snail mail were exactly the same as the document provided digitally for download.

The way that the record is relocatable is not changed in this case and the reliability is also not affected. 

That being said, the GRO previously only offered the option to order a paper certificate via snail mail. The certificate can be used for identification or official purposes and shows clearly that it was issued by the GRO and is a certified copy. This is what the example first reference note citation on p. 475 of the revised third edition of EE is modelled on. 

Where I'm getting tripped up is on the words "certificate" and "certified copy" in that example citation. Neither the PDF version nor the digital imagine version are "certified copies" as is made clear on the GRO website. To make it clear that I was looking at a digital image rather than a certificate, in my suggested citation, I refer to the "birth registration" and that it's a "(digital image"). Perhaps this is unnecessary since ultimately it doesn't affect how a researcher would relocate it or assess its reliability.