Getting Started

Birth, Marriage and Death certificates
Census
Wills from 1858 to the present date

Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates

The main way we trace our family history in England and Wales is through information on birth and marriage certificates. In most cases a birth certificate will tell you the fathers name and the mothers maiden name, this will enable you to search for the marriage certificate of the childs parents.

The marriage certificate will give you approximate ages for the couple and will also tell you their fathers names. With this information you can then search for the married couples birth certificates.

You then continue in this way alternating between birth certificate and marriage certificate until you reach 1837 which was when civil registration began in England and Wales.

However, using birth and marriage certificates alone to trace your family history will not give you the whole picture. You may wish to purchase death certificates because along with confirming when and how people died they may also give additional details about the people who registered the death such as addresses and their relationship to the deceased.

You can now view the General Register Office (GRO) indexes online by clicking on the 'FREE - Birth, Marriage & Death Records' link directly below. This will take you to the Ancestry.co.uk website. Once you are on the Ancestry website scroll down to the appropriate section. You may need to register but this is free!

If you require more modern records you will have to register for a free 14 Day Trial with Ancestry.

FREE - Birth, Marriage & Death Records (opens in new window)

Once you know the correct GRO index information ie. year, quarter, district, volume and page for the event that you are looking for you can then order a copy of the certificate from the GRO.

Census Data

Additionally you may want to look up the addresses given on birth, marriage and death certificates to see if any of your ancestors were present at the time of a census. To view census information from 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911 please see our census search pages.

Wills from 1858 to the present date

Wills proved after 1858 are available at the Principle Registry of the Family Division in London. All the Wills and Administrations which have been proved are indexed.