This is a brief guide to help you with your research. Records of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales are kept in various places, but not usually at The National Archives. This guide will help you to find out where else you can look.
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What do I need to know before I start?
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Try to find out:
- the person's name (and name of their parents, spouse or next of kin, where applicable)
- the approximate date of the birth, marriage or death
- the districtparishes grouped together for administrative purposes where the event is likely to have taken place
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What records can I see online?
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Birth, marriage and death certificates (1837 to present)
There are no birth or death certificates available to view online. Some church marriage registers from 1837 up to the 1920s can be viewed on Ancestry and Findmypast.
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Indexes to birth, marriage and death registrations (1837 to present)
Search birth, marriage and death indexes on freebmd.org.uk. Some commercial websites (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.) also have the indexes. For more information see the General Register Office family history page on GOV.UK.
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Non-conformist registers (primarily before 1837)
Search BMDregisters (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.) for records of:
- non-conformistnon-conformist records - records kept by various religious denominations independently of the parish registers kept by the Church of England and the Catholic church and other non-parochialnot related to a Church of England parish births and baptisms, deaths and burials, and some marriages for the 17th-19th centuries
- clandestine (irregular) marriages up to 1754
- Quaker births, marriages and deaths up to 1837 (RG 4-RG 8)
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What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?
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The National Archives does not hold birth, marriage or death certificates or any parish baptism, marriage or burial records.
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What records can I find in other archives and organisations?
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Birth, marriage and death certificates (1837 to present)
Order birth, marriage or death certificates either from the General Register Office (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.), or from the relevant local register office (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.).
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Indexes to birth, marriage and death registrations (1837 to present)
Use the Gov.uk website to find out which libraries, archives and record offices keep birth, marriage and death indexes on microfiche.
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Parish registers (before 1837)
Find the parish registera register of baptisms, marriages, and burials kept by a local parish church in a local archive to locate baptism, marriage and burial records before 1837. Look up the parish using English jurisdications 1851 or in The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers, 3rd edition, edited by Cecil R. Humphery-Smith (Phillimore, 2003).
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What other resources will help me find information?
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Websites
Search for birth, baptism, marriage and some burial records on the FamilySearch website. Geographical coverage is patchy but the index provides a useful pointer to relevant parish registers.
Search for birth, baptism, marriage and burial records on Ancestry (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.) findmypast (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.) and Deceased Online (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.).
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Books
Read Birth, marriage and death records: a guide for family historians by David Annal and Audrey Collins (Pen & Sword 2012)
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Births, marriages and deaths in Scotland and Ireland
Births, marriages and deaths at sea or abroad
Census
Divorce