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 section titled 'Partial FreeBMD Indexes & Images 1837 - 1983' - there you will find transcribed birth, marriage and death records from 1837 to around 1910. This will give you the information required to order a certificate. You will need to register but this is free!
If you require more modern records you will have to use the section on the Ancestry website titled 'Complete BMD Index ranges & Images 1837-1983'. To view these records you will need to register for a free 14 day trial.
FREE - Birth, Marriage & Death Records
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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;
If you are unable to find the correct index information then you can still use the online ordering service above. However, you will need to know the approximate date of the event you are looking for, we will then search one year either side of the date specified. When you visit the online ordering page and have clicked on the country that you want the certificate shipped/posted to, look for the 'Known Date' links for birth, marriage and death certificates.
If you are unable to find the information in the indexes and are unsure of the exact date of the event that you are looking for then simply tell us what you know and we will perform a search for you. Please complete the form on the appropriate page:- Birth, Marriage or Death.
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 and 1901 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. If you would like me to search these indexes and obtain a will for you then please use this link.