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 2nd 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…