England BMD Birth Marriage and Death Certificates
Seriously folks you need to purchase BMD certificates.
In England Civil Registration commenced in 1837 from then you can find BMD certificates - so its from July 1837 that certificates apply. Prior to 1837 you may be able to obtain a copy of a parish register entry see Ron's Intro to Parish Registers (PRs) - and Starting Research - Newbies Help etc for further explanation. Of course there are parish registers after 1837 - for marriages the data should be the same as a GRO marriage certificate.
Civil Registration - timelines and also http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/civreg/
Ordering Certificates
The Government place is at http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/
which is the place to order - if you have the full reference the cost as May 2006 is 7 GBPTo order certificates at 7 GBP you need the full reference - the persons names and registrations district and year and quarter and page and volume - example Margaret LANKSHEAR Deaths June 1860 Bermondsey 1 d 7
Sometimes confusion regarding data needed - for historic certificates for example marriages you only need one spouse and the year quarter and reference (- page volume and district) - you do not need the other spouse and you may not even know anyway.
Finding the Reference - Free searches
The GRO index (sometimes called St Cath's a building the GRO once inhabited )
The index gives you a reference from which you can then order a certificate from the Government http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/GRO is available on fiche at many places such as LDS offices and places like libraries. In Sydney it is at State Library and SAG and LDS FHC offices. Please note these are an index by Quarter within a year. You have to open each quarter to see if your ancestor is there. Easy if you are looking for Ron Lankshear but John Smith - how will you know it is your person. You need an idea of year and area.
Help is at hand. The GRO index is being transcribed and can be searched for Free by name at FreeBMD http://www.freebmd.org.uk
FreeBMD is basically updated every month with new transcriptions - check the coverage charts for years of interest http://www.freebmd.org.uk/progress.shtml
August 2008 they are into the 1920s
100% may not mean complete - read FreeBMD comments - then back to look at images as appropriate.
FreeBMD servers are often busy - it may be faster to search the copy at Ancestry http://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/rectype/vital/freebmd/bmd.aspx
It is the same data perhaps a week or so behind but a different search engine and is better for searching for middle forenames.FreeBMD has images of Index available - basically the documents are those they use for transcription. If you are searching for specific dates and your people do not appear with name search - then it is a good idea to check the applicable image - also if record shown in FreeBMD name search looks difficult - perhaps check the Image to confirm the transcription. Check the information pages for coverage by year charts. However the Ancestry images are I think faster and appear to be better quality.
And there is a new FHS project which covers several counties - York Lancs Cheshire Staff Camb Kent etc http://www.UKBMD.org.uk or http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/ and Free also
For sake of avoiding confusion there is also http://www.ukbdm.org.uk/ (which translates to http://ukbdm.corpex.com/ ) this was free and was used for details of wanted and "unwanted" certificates. As of 2004 it now has an annual charge. As of 2009 it seems to have disappeared altogether - just leaving due name conflict.
Finding marriage partners at FreeBMD and Ancestry
FreeBMD puts all the people in one quarter under one reference for one registration district together. See a name of an ancestor on a search result and click the page number alongside and you will see some potential spouses. Could be up to eight names depending on year etc. So if you looking for John Smith marriage to Mary Bloggs you may find it this way.
FreeBMD allows a search including potential spouse. In Ancestry you can only search for spouse surnames after 1911.
When you have a list of potential spouses you could use the next census to sort of check who married who.
exampleMarriages Mar 1882 (>99%) Islington 1b 439
BRYETT Frederick Nicholls
Orrow Eleanor
Orrow William Henry
RUSSELL HarrietThis must be the ORROW couple in 1891
Eleanor Orrow William H abt 1844 Clerkenwell, London, England Wife Chelsea, London
presumably a cousins marriage.which means Harriet married Fred but I cannot find Fred and Harriet Bryett after their marriage
REGISTRATION DISTRICTS IN ENGLAND AND WALES and other Data
The index shows a district which may not be clear as to area covered. InFreeBMD click the district to read more. Otherwise perhaps a web search or visit http://www.fhsc.org.uk/genuki/REG/ and Register Offices - http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/RegOffice/
Simon Fisher has an very good and detailed page on London and Surrey registers
<http://www.sjfisher.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Def-London(Surrey)-Registration-Districts.htm#RANGE!A445>Barbara has some good Help on BMD http://www.dixons.clara.co.uk/Certificates/indexbd.htm includes what is on certificates
When you want to order certificates then perhaps consult Mark Howells has www.oz.net/~markhow/ukbirths.htm Mark was writing before GRO - put ordering online.
Fee charging Sites and GRO Images
If you do not find your folks at the Free sites there are chargeable site but they do not have indexes by name - a search will bring up an image like a fiche search. Most of the images are excellent and more readable than the fiche or images at FreeBMD.
If you have a simple lookup it may help - using a lot could be costly - make sure you understand the method before paying.
Of course FreeBMD is only up to 1920s (August 2008) so anything after then will require a look at images.
http://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/rectype/vital/freebmd/bmd.aspx
Ancestry call it BMD but it is the GRO index. Their index may not always bring up a page which it should. Browsing the images by year may find what you want. As of 2008 the 4th quarter 1925 it seems is lost within the 3ed quarter.http://www.findmypast.co.uk/ or http://www.findmypast.com used to be 1837online has images of the fiche. These images are very good - sometimes readable whereas the fiche is vague.
http://familyrelatives.com/ which I have not used but someone else said the search was good - I gather you can register and try a search before paying to view which may be good for 20th century in particular.
http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk which has a variety of subsrciption offers - I find their plans confusing - also have census and parish registers.http://www.bmdindex.co.uk/info.htm
But difficult to see why you would use Fee when GRO seems to be Free on FreeBMD and UKBMD - well for 19th century anyway
DoVe Project
the GRO certificates are being digitalised and this will provide a much better search as well as certificates on line - sometime like 2009 - marriages etc missing from GRO index may appear in the DOVE index and death age for years prior to 1866.
2008 sounds like DoVe has failed
Commercial Supply of Certificates
Some people still pay extra and order certificates from professionals but that is probably because the professional provides a total service but please be satisfied that the extra you pay is worth the service -
Examples of people I would not recommend due high prices
1. http://www.ukfamilyhistory.co.uk/pricing.php
2 http://www.bmd-certificates.co.uk/price.html - also known as St Caths.com this was discussed on London List in May 2006Ancestry have a service to order certificates - a shopping cart tick - I would advise DO NOT USE. Someone got to completion stage and then saw price was GBP 19.99 where as GRO is only 7 including postage anywhere.
Some people in Australia use a professional as they also order transcriptions of Australian BDM through the same professionals.
Order certificates from http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificate/
Example order - 22 Jan 2009 - 7 certs - they said would ship 28 Jan and arrived 3 Feb and I am in Australia - very good service