Civil registration for births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales began in 1837. Entries are stored at the General Registry Office (GRO), from where certificates can be purchased. Currently, a full certificate costs £12.50 and usually takes around 7 to 10 working days to arrive by 2^nd Class Royal Mail postage. For many birth and death entries, a pdf certificate can be ordered for £8.00, or a digital copy of the entry (not a certificate) for £3.00. However, not all entries have been digitised.

Background to digitisation

The GRO initially began digitisation in 2005, under a project named DoVE (Digitisation of Vital Events), which was outsourced to Siemens IT Solutions and Services. When the project ended in 2008, only around half the entries had been digitised. A new in-house project began, this one named D&I (Digitisation & Indexing Project), with the aim of digitising the remaining entries. Unfortunately, D&I was suspended in 2010 under a UK Government spending review, and in 2012 the project was placed indefinitely on hold.

Although the project ended before all the work had been completed, there are still many birth and death certificates (though no marriage certificates) available for digital download.

What is available?

Birth certificates:

• By post – 1837 to 2023 – £12.50 – 4 day dispatch, sent by Royal Mail 2^nd Class post.
• PDF – 1837 to 1923 – £8.00 – 4 day dispatch, the GRO will email when they are available for download.
• Digital – 1837 to 1923 – £3.00 – available immediately after payment.

Marriage certificates:

• By post – 1837 to 2023 – £12.50 – 4 day dispatch, sent by Royal Mail 2^nd Class post.

Death Certificates:

• By post – 1837 to 2023 – £12.50 – 4 day dispatch, sent by Royal Mail 2^nd Class post.
• PDF – 1837 to 1957 – £8.00 – 4 day dispatch, the GRO will email when they are available for download.
• Digital – 1837 to 1957 – £3.00 – available immediately after payment.

What information is contained on the certificates?

Birth certificates:

• Date & place of birth (time of birth if a twin)
• Name (if known)
• Sex assigned at birth
• Father’s name (if known). Note that if the parents were married the father’s name is usually included, if they parents were not married then the father will only be listed if he was present at the registration
• Mother’s name and her maiden name
• Father’s occupation (if he’s listed)
• Informant’s name and address (usually this will be one of the parents)
• Date of registration
• Registrar’s name
• Name entered after registration. Used to record any names given to the child up to 12 months after registration.

Marriage certificates:

• Registration district
• Year of marriage
• Place of marriage
• Date of marriage
• Names of the groom and bride
• Ages
• Condition – whether the couple were single, divorced, widowed
• Occupations
• Residence
• Fathers’ names & occupations
• Who performed the ceremony
• Names of the witnesses

Death certificates:

• Date & place of death
• Name of deceased (on more recent certificates, a married woman’s maiden name will also be recorded)
• Sex
• Age at death
• Occupation (for married women this will often include ‘wife/widow of…’)
• Cause of death
• Informants name and address
• Date registered
• Name of registrar

Differences between full, pdf & digital certificates

Full certificate:
Certificates sent through the post are the same as would have been received when the original certificate was issued.

PDF certificate:
These include all the necessary information but are much plainer than the more expensive ones.

Digital images:
Digital images are a copy of the registry entry. They include all the information a genealogist requires, but they are simply a scan of the entry from the GRO’s files with no column headers and are not certificates.

Where to order from

Although some genealogy websites offer the ability to purchase certificates, it’s usually cheaper and quicker to order then directly from the GRO website.