Birth, marriage, death certificates

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Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Death Certificates

Where and how to get them

The site has been brought about in order to offer advice on how to go about getting certified copies of birth certificates, marriage certificates and death certificates.

Certificates are not available on the site, just lots of useful information and links on how to obtain them without getting "ripped off"

With the coming of age of the internet it has meant that more unscrupulous sites are offering certificates at hugely inflated prices.

This site is about rectifying that situation by offering free advice in order that you can obtain the certificates you are searching for directly from the sources and at reasonable cost.

Please do not get fooled into paying out large amounts of your hard earned money getting certificates that you can obtain quite easily and cheaply.

To clarify things straight away:

All births, marriages and deaths which have taken place in England and Wales are registered wthin the registration district in which they happened and the appropriate certificates issued from that office. Registration became a legal necessity in July 1837.

Register Offices throughout England and Wales have kept records since then and still have those records in their original Registers. From these original records they are able to produce the certified copy certificates which can be used for all legal purposes.

The price of these certificates is a statutory fee (i.e. at a price set by law) and that is currently 7.00 pounds sterling for all three certificates, Birth certificates, Marriage certificates and Death certificates. The other option available is a short birth certificate which is available for the statutory fee of 5.50 pounds sterling.

There may be differences in postage costs or extra charges for a fast delivery or personal collections etc, however the fee is always the same for the actual certificate.

So don't even think of having to pay more.

NOTE:

Each Register Office only hold their own records for what happened in their district so if you want a copy of a certificate for a birth, marriage or death that took place in Sheffield there is no point in going to the Register Office in Basingstoke or vice versa.
If however the birth, marriage or death that you require a certificate for took place in Dover then the place to contact is Dover Register Office who are certain to be able to supply a certified copy.

Each Register Office also then supplies the Head Office for Registration with a copy of the original registered record. This is known as the General Register Office and is located in Southport in the north west of England. They hold the copy records nationally for all the local Register Offices for England and Wales and so they can also issue certified copies to you.

Here is the link to the onsite database of all the local Register Offices for England and Wales.
Or you can use the onsite search engine at the top of the page.
Here is the link to the General Register Office certificates section.

In many instances the local Register Offices now offer an online facility for searching their indexes and ordering certificates online.

For those that do not you can usually just write in together with a cheque and a stamped addressed envelope back to yourself to get the certificate delivered in just a few days.