Buying Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates
* Please note that the GRO will be increasing the cost of certificates with effect from 6th April 2010 to £9.25, and from local Register Offices to £9. For full details of the new charges please click here to read the GRO press release. These costs are supposed to cover administration costs as prices haven't been increased since 2003. Remember, if you know which parish your ancestors married in, then you can view the parish registers on film in many places, and make a print-out for a few pence (a list of holdings for north Warwickshire parishes is available from our bookshop and in the Members Only section of this website). This page will be updated with new prices soon.
Certificate ordering services are now offered by a number of online providers – in fact some are quick links from the main genealogy websites designed to offer you an “easy buy” but these services all include a heavy surcharge. One site is (at beginning of 2010) charging a basic £19.99 per certificate.
Before using these services please be aware that it is a very simple process to order certificates direct from register offices and you should only pay £7 for standard service*. NEVER pay more unless you need an express service, and even then, do it direct, not through a commercial genealogy website. Ordering direct keeps the money within the registration services, saves you money, and leaves you in control of your ordering.
If you have found a certificate you want to order using one of the local registrars’ websites, then most of these provide ordering details. The current price for Warwickshire's online service is £7.50 (£7.00 for the certificate plus 50p UK postage) and local registrars usually turn around orders more quickly than the national office. For the Warwickshire Registration Services search facility click here.
There is some useful information about registration to be found on the UKBMD website which is the main portal for all local registration services who have online indexing available.
To order certificates direct from GRO at Southport click here. For their help pages click here. If you have found an item you require in any of the national GRO lists (available on such as FreeBMD, or images on some pay-to-view sites), you should quote the quarter, the year, the volume and the page number along with the name of the person. The standard online ordering service (with a full GRO reference) is £7, or £10 without a reference. You can also order over the phone or by post which will cost £8.50 for a standard service with reference supplied or £11.50 without a reference. Using the standard service, the certificate will be sent within 4 working days with a reference or within 15 working days without a reference.
For more useful information about civil registration visit the Genuki website England & Wales. and the Genuki website Lincolnshire. (contains general information on civil registration)
Don’t spend money needlessly –
order direct from civil registration services for £7 per certificate.
FAQs about Buying BMD Certificates
What is a GRO index reference, and where can I find it?
The General Register Office allocates a reference to every event of birth, marriage or death registered in England and Wales. This relates to the year, quarter, and district that the entry was registered in. By giving the office this index reference it allows them to quickly identify the correct entry. This reference is only of use to the General Register Office and not to local registration offices who use their own referencing system.
What information will I see on a certificate?
The details contained on a full birth certificate include:
Name, date and place of birth.
Father's name (if given at time of registration), place of birth and occupation.
Mother's name, place of birth, maiden surname and, after 1984, occupation.
(Registrations made before 1969 do not include details of the parents' place of birth and mother's occupation.)
The details contained on a marriage certificate include:
Date and place of marriage.
Name, age and marital status of man and woman.
Occupation and usual address.
Name and occupation of each party's father.
Names of the witnesses.
Name of the person who solemnised the marriage.
The details contained on a death certificate include:
Name, date and place of death.
Date and place of birth (before 1969 a certificate only showed age of deceased).
Occupation and usual address.
Cause of death.
The person who gave information for the death registration.
Can I order a certificate that is not mine?
Under UK legislation, birth, marriage and death certificates are designated as 'public records', and as such anyone can request a duplicate certificate to be produced. The only caveat to this is that for births that occurred within the past 50 years, the full details are required to be provided (which includes full date of birth, and parents' names including the mother's maiden name). This is to protect against identity fraud.
