When Researching the Family

As you may know from my profile I am in the UK, so as my ancestors are from here I have to order any certificate from either the local records offices which have all changed what was the district for one places years ago when a BMD was registred may not be where the records are now held.
The other way is to do it online this method can be used from overseas people who need one you go to the  GRO  click on the word will take you there you do have to register but it easy just follow on screen instructions.
Now a problem first you do need to have the information which is where they are registred what year & qrt you can look at various sites for the BMD index to get this information or you can go to the   FreeBMD   where it free to check it out mostly from start of registration which was 1837 to the early 1900s
Anyway when I use to order certificates from the GRO sometime ago not only were they cheaper than the £9.25 they are now when asking for a certificate with the info you have you could put in saying father must be Harry or what ever or the mother must be Sarah ect now you can't.
You may be wondering what this is leading to well I have a Jesse Frederick Barnes who I know was married to DG Barnes on looking for marriages I found a Doris G Gillings So have sent for a Marriage certificate i also found a birth for a Son who mother's maiden name was Gillings & is a Barnes it was wrong area but who knows where you have or go to have your child anyway the certificate for the birth arrived today & it wrong people.
Now if like before you could put in only if the father's name was Jesse I would not have got the certificate & only had a fee charged & the rest refunded
Even with the introduction of having mother's maiden name on the entry you can still end up with wrong certificates & even more so now that you can't ask for these checks to be done.
To show on a family how hard it is to get the right one especially if you have a name like Smith
My grandfather was James Henry Smith (b 1876) I knew his father was also James Henry a shoe Maker mother Caroline so I looked on the 1881 census & would you believe there was 2 James Smiths shoemaker who wife was Caroline & both had sons James but 1 had also got another son Thomas.
So I found Thomas's birth entry & sent for the certificate stating it had to have James as father & Caroline as mother & it came back as the correct one & I found that the difference between the 2 census apart from the place James Sr was born was the place Caroline was born so I could get back as I know knew that the census with the 2 children was my one & it gave where the parents was born so I could get back another generation & futher.
Below is a photo of my Grandfather James Henry Smith he bottom left above his is his wife Emma nee Storey, next to her is Sarah my uncle's wife I had alway though he was uncle Jack but it turns out his real name was John, this was taken at Hastings at the top of the cliff they has 275 steps to go to get there I am not sure who the other 2 people are for sure