BMD Certificates

BMD certificates are birth, marriage or death certificates. They were issued in England and Wales after 1 July 1837 – click on the links to find out more. The government has registers of these BMD certificates. However, the registers are not open to the public. You must order a copy of the certificate from the government’s General Register Office (GRO). They cost £7 each, as long as you have a reference number (or £23 if you want next day dispatch).

Death Certificate for Margaret Gawler

A birth certificate for Leila Watkins. This is an example of a certificate you will receive from the GRO.

Reference Number

To order, you need a reference number. You find this by consulting the indexes to BMD certificates. These are available in various places, including online. The information contained in the index depends on the year.

Note
You can order a certificate without knowing the reference number. If the event took place on or after 1 January 1900, and you know the date, you can apply online. If it took place before, or do not have the exact date, you must phone, write or fax. For more information, see the GRO’s site. It is worth taking time to look up the reference number yourself.

Ordering

When you have the number, then order your certificate. You can order the certificate directly from the GRO using a credit card. You do not need to order through a third party. Watch out! There are companies that advertise on the web, offering to provide a BMD certificate, but at a hefty price. There is no need to use these companies. Just to mislead you, they often have official-sounding web addresses. However, the only web address you need is the official government site, www.gro.gov.uk.

Tip
It’s not just the GRO that you can order certificates from. You can also order from the office where the event was originally registered. This can work out cheaper. For more information, click here.

Which Is Your Ancestor?

Sometimes you may search the GRO indexes and find more than one reference that might be your ancestor. If you are unsure, the GRO provides a reference checking service online. You provide extra information with your order, such as the exact date of an event. The GRO only issues a certificate if all the facts match. It charges £7 for the first entry, which includes the certificate, and £3 for checking each subsequent reference.

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