Family History Fridays – Focus on Certificates

An Airedale Family portrait –  A black and white photographic portrait of the McNally family from Airedale. Mother, Father and four children are pictured posed in a studio in their best clothes. From http://www.twixtaireandcalder.org.uk

For any of us certificates are an important part of our identity – be it birth, marriage or death certificates, we come across them at some part in our lives.

For a family historian a certificate can be the key to a minefield of information which could be otherwise lost in the myriad of details out there.

Up to June 1837 all records of births, marriages and deaths were held by individual parishes in their record books. From June 1837 a national Civil Registration Index made it a legal requirement to register births, marriages and deaths and it was at this point that certificates were first produced. The records of the Civil Registration Index are available on most genealogy sites such as Ancestry and Find My Past. It is worth noting that some of the parish marriage records from 1837 onwards on these sites are identical to the certificates. These indexes are beneficial to family historians as they allow them to apply for copies of birth, marriage and death certificates belonging to their relatives. The complete portfolio of the indexes is held by the General Register Office (GRO).

The date at which a certificate was issued may also mean the information you receive varies. However, the general information held on the certificates is as follows;

The wedding of Madie Simpson, 1933

Birth: Child’s name, date of birth, place of birth, mother’s name and maiden name (if the mother had previously been married a certificate may say “Jane Smith nee Doe, formerly Jones”), father’s name (if known or the situation permits) and the father’s occupation.

Marriage: Place of marriage, bride and grooms names and ages (in many cases this will say “full” which depending on the year means the party in question was at the legal minimum age to marry), status i.e. bachelor and/or spinster etc., occupations, residence, father’s names and occupations if known.

Death: Name of deceased, date of death, place of death, residence, occupation, cause of death, the name of the person registering the death and their relationship to the deceased.

There are several ways to apply for copy certificates and each comes with different requirements and costs.

The GRO offers a searchable database of the records (birth and death only) but this is not without fault. It is possible to search for a record you have an index number for from ancestry.co.uk and not find it on the GRO database. It is always worth checking more than one source i.e., directly with the parish or record office of the place you expect the event to have been recorded. The benefit of the GRO database is that for birth records, the mother’s maiden name is shown in the results. This can often aid family historians without needing to purchase a certificate. It also makes it possible to discover births and deaths of individuals during census periods, particularly children whose mortality rates were higher. The death records record the age at death which can often narrow down the results if there is a common name or area involved.

The General Register Office – paper copy from £11

An application for a paper copy of a birth, marriage or death certificate can be made directly to the GRO via their website. You do need to register or hold an account with them. You will need to be able to provide at least the surname, forename(s), quarter, volume, district and page number of the record you require. If you cannot provide all these details the cost rises to £14 per certificate.

The General Register Office – PDF Copy from £7

The GRO also provides a PDF certificate ordering service where they email you a copy of the certificate which you can then print off at home. You require the same details to order the certificate as for the paper copy, but you must remember to change the option to PDF when placing your order. Please note that this service is currently only available for birth and death certificates.

Local Register Office – prices may vary

All births, marriages and deaths are initially registered at a local register office and records are held by these individual register offices as well as centrally at the GRO. It is possible to order copy and/or replacement certificates from most of these offices. Some counties have a searchable online database or volunteer groups have uploaded details to a website – Yorkshire BMD for example, although as these are volunteer run, most are incomplete. The information required will be very similar to that required by the GRO, however their reference i.e. the page number and volume number will be different to that held by the GRO. Please contact the register office in question for exact details.

Armed Forces Births, Marriages and Deaths – paper copy from £11

Find My Past have birth marriage and death records for British nationals serving overseas. These records are an exception to the 1837 Civil Registration ruling. It is possible to search for an individual born pre- 1837 and access details about their parents – take for example Colin Campbell Murdoch born 1817. A certificate received for him reveals his date of birth, place of birth (France), his father’s rank (Captain in the 91^st Regiment of Foot) and his mother’s maiden name.