Births, deaths and marriages in England and Wales

• Civil registration for England and Wales started 1 July, 1837.
  
• Compulsory registration 1874.
  
• These are known as the General Register Indexes (GRO) Formerly known as the St Catherines House Indexes, because they were housed in St Catherines House.
  
• Auckland Research Centre has the Civil Registration indexes from July 1837- 2001 in either microfiche or microfilm.
  
• It is necessary to check quarterly indexes from 1837-1983.
  
• Indexing is based on the date of registration and not on the date of the actual event. For example, someone could be born in December 1890 but not be registered until January 1891. Therefore the reference will not occur until the 1st quarter (January - March) of 1891.
  
• Annual indexes from 1984.
  
• The information given on the indexes is very limited:
  Name, Registration District, Volume, page number.
  
• The volume number is a geographic code.
  
• Age at death is included in the index from 1866.
  
• Name of spouse is included in marriage indexes from 1912

Other indexes held

GRO consular and military births deaths and marriages overseas.

How to obtain a certificate

It is possible to get a certificate from the General Registry office or Local Registry Office in England, or from a New Zealand based certificate service.

New Zealand based certificate services

• New Zealand Society of Genealogists (members only)
• Tony Fitzgerald
• GenBritz down-under. Contact:

Vivienne Parker

PO Box 87220

Meadowbank

Auckland 1130

ph. (09) 578 2525

or email vivparker@xtra.co.nz 

Pre-civil registration

• Before July 1837, and even after to some extent, it is necessary to search parish registers.  We have some parish registers available on the shelf in either book or microfiche format at 4 ENG BDM (followed by the county abbreviation) or 4 WLS BDM (followed by the county abbreviation).

• Some parish registers are on CD ROM, for example Phillimores Marriage Registers for some counties.

• International Genealogical Index - from about 1500 - end of the 19th Century

• Vital Records Index British Isles (CD Rom) contains 5 million births, christenings and marriages taken from a partial collection of records in the British Isles dating from 1538-1888.

Recommended reading

4 GBR BDM

The Official List for 2003. On top of  GRO cabinets.

McLauglin, Eve - St Catherines House

Mossong, Verna - St Catherines Indexes. On top of GRO cabinets

Wood, Tom - British civil registration

Wiggins, Ray - Registration Districts