ENGLAND AND WALES
From 1 July 1837 Births, Marriages and Deaths were recorded by a local District Registrar. It was not until 1875 that these returns were nearly 100% complete. Returns were made to Somerset House, St Catherine`s House and The Family Record Centre, but now to the General Register Office in Southport and the indexes (only) are available for the public to consult free on microfilm at the Public Record Office, Kew or on other microform media in local libraries. A fee is payable should you want the indexes to be searched by a member of staff. An alternative would be to employ a researcher to do this for you (cheaper) if you cannot get to a local copy of the Index. For a fee indexes can also be consulted on line at http://www.1837online.com/Trace2web/
The Indexes show the surname, forename, quarter of the year and local registrars office where the event was recorded. There is also a book and page number reference (eg., 9d 567) where the record can be found in the General Register Office index.
To order a certificate from GRO Southport it is necessary to provide all these details. The year is divided into quarters which take their name from their last month ie., March, June, September and December. 42 Days might have elapsed before the event was registered. Not all BMD events are covered in the main indexes. The General Register Office also has other Indexes which cover Death`s abroad, Commonwealth marriages, War Deaths and numerous others.
A new development has been the Free BMD website. Although not complete yet it looks to be already making a major contribution to research in the 19th Century for England and Wales. For example if you know that a John Green had married a women called Lois you can get evidence from the index as to who Lois was. If a first child was born in 1873 (they might have been born before marriage then try a later date) then search 1865-1873 for John Green's marriage, and then click on the page number for a list of usually four people, who will usually list Lois under her pre-marriage name (either Maiden name or widowed name). For a correct result you really need to buy the certificate. You can also use it to find Births and Deaths.
Try also the http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/ UKBMD is the online list of transcriptions of UK births, marriages, deaths and censuses. Its not complete yet but it is developing. Cheshire started this project and it is complete for BMD events.
Additional information is available in the indexes for the following:
Taking the information from the Family Record Centre/BMD Index, ie., name, quarter, year it might be possible to obtain the Certificate from a local Registrar. This is not their primary function and due courtesy does pay off with these people. They will charge you only the basic cost of the Certificate. A copy of a Marriage Certificate might present a considerable problem as they are filed under churches, so try and see if there is any other way of finding out which church was actually used. Try newspaper indexes for example.
There are some websites which contain the BMD indexes at various costs for access. Some
libraries give free access in the UK to these indexes:
Examples include:
The Genealogist
Ancestry
familyrelatives.com
Civil Registration in Scotland began on the 1st January 1855 and the returns are kept at New Register House, in Edinburgh, EH1 3YT, +44 (0) 131 334 0380. Here it is possible to see the originals, but a fee is payable to enter the building. So it is possible to make considerable notes without paying a certificate copying fee. Scottish certificates have much more information than the English ones. Other Indexes and Parish Records are available in New Register House.
Nowadays people researching Scottish ancestors will go to the website called Scotlands People. Recently in 2009 the public search area of the New Register House were replaced by the new ScotlandsPeople Centre. The facilities available here for a fee include access to the records of the New Register House, National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon.
Civil Registration 1864 - 1922. The records that survive including non-Roman Catholic marriages after 1 April 1845 and all records for Southern Ireland from 1922 onwards are with the Office of the Registrar General, General Register Office, Government Offices, Convent Road, Roscommon.
Northern Irish Records are held at the Register Office, Oxford House, 49-55 Chichester Street, Belfast, BT1 4HL.
IRISH NOTE - A good tip is to read as much as possible about Irish research before carrying out any research in Ireland, North or South.
Civil Registration Births and Deaths 1878 onwards and Marriages 1884 onwards are with the The Douglas Civil Registry Office, Deemsters Walk, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 3AR, telephone 01624 687039. Before those dates they will provide copies of church records that they hold, but not all denominations are available. The website and follow up e-mails might supply information on your exact requirements.
Civil Registration - from 1840 - the records are available to the public, by appointment and by payment of an admission fee with the H M Greffier, Royal Court House, St Peter Port, Guernsey, GY1 2PB, Channel Islands, Telephone number: +44 (0) 14 8172 5277.
Civil Registration - from August 1842 - They are available from the Superintendent Registrar, States Office, 10 Royal Square, St Helier, Jersey, JE2 4WA, Channel Islands, Telephone number: +44 (0) 1534 441 335. The records before are with the relevant Parish Vicars.
Superintendent Registrars (Local) See Telephone books in your local Reference Library, or the The Family and Local History Handbook in the Reading List
This page is compiled by
Timothy J. Owston of York, England,
March 2009.
Please contact me with any comments or information. Please don't contact me to do research.
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