Finding English Certificates

[Meridas]

I'm struggling to find English birth/death/marriage certificates online - is there a certain website that holds them all? I have an Ancestry subscription that has some information, and is good for census data, but I can't find straightforward certificates.

In Scotland we have Scotland's People (run by the National Records of Scotland), which holds everything and you buy credits to pay for downloads. Is there an English government equivalent that is also easy to search?

Apologies if it's obvious and I have missed everything in my Google searches!

There are several paces that hold the indices, but I think only the National Archives has the actual certificates.

Cerificates are only available from the GRO. You need to use an online resource like FreeBmd.Org to get the reference number then you can order the cerificate. https://www.gov.uk/order-copy-birth-death-marriage-certificate#:~:text=You%20need%20to%20register%20on,the%20GRO%20index%20reference%20number.

Sorry, yes, brain glitch - GRO, not National Archives (the latter is for wills - and lots of other stuff).

If you go on to FREBMD website you will get various search options (birth, marriage, death and also by country or region if you know it) and if the search returns the result you are looking for, it will also show you the GRO reference on the scan picture, that you can then use to order a copy of the actual certificate from the GRO.

You can also order direct from most local registration services, and they are usually quicker to arrive than the GRO ones. If you look at the Council website covering the area you’re researching there will be a link to the Registration Service pages.

Thank you, so can I download the Certificates from this website? I don't want to order physical copies. With the Scottish system all records (birth etc, wills, census, old parish records), are all digitally available to download from one website which makes cross referencing great.

I was hoping there was the same system in England whereby I could search a person then all their records would come up and I could download them all (for a fee, of course).

Sorry to add, I am trying to track down marriage records from 100+ years ago, when I only have details of one half of the couple and that they married in England - so very little to go by!

You can’t, no. You do need to order a copy of the certificate currently AFAIK, they aren’t digital, unlike other records. If you’re on Ancestry, look at other people researching the same person, they may have certificates either uploaded already or that they can share a photo of.

Thank you, that's a pain!

Yes Ancestry is quite good but I often find myself really invested - in a completely unconnected person!

Free BMD, Ancestry etc only get you the index. They have scans of full versions of other docs, likes cesus returns, but not BMD certificates. Once you have the index details you have to order the actual certificate elsewhere

The GRO has 3 options for ordering the certificate itself. Most expensive, printed physical copy on the proper offical paper.

Next, a PDF copy that looks the same as the printed version - individually created for your order. Includes everything you'd get with a printed copy except the actual printing.

Cheapest, a digital scan. This is from all the records having been autoscanned as a batch, so it's a section of what's in the record book rather than a personal certificate. This will have all the personal details but won't have the column headings etc. And some of these scans are smudged or wonky - you might get a bit of the record above but miss part of the one you want. If the one they send is bad you can claim a refund but I don't think they do a rescan. You can then only get a PDF or printed one.

"I'm struggling to find English birth/death/marriage certificates online - is there a certain website that holds them all?"

As others have said, the GRO is the place to go (you will need to make a free account with them):

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/login.asp

As @ProfessorBinturong said, there are three levels at different prices. But it is only birth and death certificates (births between 1837-1934 and deaths between 1837-1957) that you can get a digital scan. For marriage certificates you have to pay the extra for either a pdf or paper copy.

As she said about digital scans, "If the one they send is bad you can claim a refund but I don't think they do a rescan. You can then only get a PDF or printed one." This happened to me once, I got a refund and was told that they cannot be rescanned.

A paper certificate is £12.50, a PDF (if it is available) is £8 and a digital image is £3.

When it comes to searching for births or deaths (not necessarily looking for a certificate, but just wanting to confirm a birth or death) then I've found the GRO search function to be very useful as, for example, when it comes to births it will show the mother's maiden name where that is different from the birth surname.

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexessearch.asp

But if you are looking for a marriage certificate then you do need the GRO Index Reference (although you can pay £16 to get somebody at the GRO to search for you)

The GRO Index is what is shown on Ancestry from the England & Wales Civil Registration Marriage Index (up until 1915 it doesn't link the names of those marrying, but from 1916 it will also give the surname of the person that they married), when you do a search for a marriage.

A typical example that you will see on Ancestry might be:

Name Walter Loynd

Registration Year 1881

Registration Quarter Jul-Aug-Sep

Registration District Bolton

Volume 8c

Page 484

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/8913/records/18315955

This is the information you need to supply to the GRO to request a marriage certificate from them.

Just a tip, if you are tempted to shell out for a particularly important one you can do it through Ancestry - but don’t! They bang a big fee on top. Always order directly from the GRO.

Does anyone know why there are such huge chronological gaps on the GRO indexes for ordering certificates? I am interested in a birth in 1942 and a death in 1977 and neither period seems to be covered.

They used to only provide old birth records up until 1919 and then they increased that to 1926 and they are now up to 1934.

They also have birth records from 1984 onwards.

As I understand it, they are in the process of digitising old records and they update the years gradually.

If you have a look on FreeBMD then they will usually have these missing records - but not always. For example, my father was born in 1936 and the records for that area on FreeBMD only start in 1937!

However, the records are on Ancestry. I was able to find my father's 1936 GRO record on Ancestry and from there could order his birth certificate directly from the GRO.

If you have no luck with FreeBMD and don't have an Ancestry subscription then just send me a DM and I'll have a quick look.

Thanks @Another2Cats. That's what's puzzling me, I can't find it on Ancestry (have subscription). I was going to check GRO just on the off-chance that a page had been missed or something. He was definitely born then, so it's either an adoption, or a birth in Northern Ireland or abroad. Will check Free BMD too. Unusual surname too. His parents lived in London so his mother may have been evacuated or gone elsewhere for safety, there were family in Ireland. NI is impossible to check. The death in 1977 I could order up the cert for, I suppose.

Thanks for all the advice. It does seem the Scottish records are much better catalogued and more accessible than elsewhere! But all the pointers are super useful.

FreeBMD has details of almost all entries in the GRO index up to the mid 1990's. Whilst it is generally correct and you can check against the scans of the index, there are errors in the GRO index itself. The most common is a name being mis-transcribed, I've also come across one where the volume number given doesn't include the place where the marriage took place. Likewise there are errors in the census records and I have found a whole families listed in 1891, not in 1901 but present again in 1911.

FreeBMD is definitely the place to find the event. Their record has the GRO reference number. You can then order the certificate from the GRO website itself. Never order certificates from anywhere else, as they often charge an additional fee.

The other option is to order the certificate directly from the actual register office concerned, but again, do it direct with them, not via an intermediary.

Marriage certificate can be found in the parish registers, some are available on ancestry - but not alL. As marriages took place in churches or register offices from 1837 the certificate is the same. The books of marriage registers were kept in the church and the other books where sent to the local register office ( well they were supposed to have been) then the register office sent them to Somerset house where they were indexed.

if you don’t know where in England the marriage might have taken place it’s better to use the gro index and have a search there

do you have the couple on the 1921 census ?