(UK) New Way to Search Birth and Death Records in England and Wales for Free

[Jan Meisels Allen janmallen@att.net]

X-No-archive: yes
The UK General Register Office (GRO) has a new way of searching birth (at
least 100 years old) and death records (up to 1957) in England and Wales for
free. Marriages are not included.

To search the indexes it is necessary to register with the GRO website and
then log-into the site. To register/log-in go to:
https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/Login.asp

[The required information is name, email and snail mail address, telephone
number and password that you create following the requirements of number of
characters, numbers, etc. You will receive an email confirming your
registration and requiring a verified email address and will send you an
activation link. Follow the directions in the email.
Once logged-in there is a page with the GRO services listed such as birth or
death. click on the one you wish to search. A "form" appears where you fill
in the information requested: surname at birth, gender and year of birth
registration are required. Other optional information requested are:
forename, mother's maiden name, district where birth was registered and if
you have it include the GRO reference number. For the sur- and forenames you
have the option for exact matches, phonetically spelled, or similarly
sounding variations. The search only brings up the index resulted-not the
full certificate data.]

The big breakthrough for the birth indexes is that the mother's maiden name
is included in the result for all births going back to the beginning in
1837. Until this index came along, you could only get mother's maiden names
from September 1911 onwards.

Also age at death is given for those who died before 1865, which again
wasn't available before.

These enhancements will help people in narrowing down their search for
relevant certificates, avoiding having to buy certificates that obviously
aren't for the correct family. By making the indexes more readily available
for searching than the microfiche currently made available to the 7 public
libraries/records offices across England and Wales. This service is not a
replacement but an addition to the current service.

The indexes have been created using GRO records which have already been
digitized.

The online index provides enhancements to the microfiche showing the
mother's maiden name for births prior to 1911 ( where possible), and age at
death for those records prior to 1865.

While the new search method is an index, on the website there is the
possibility to also purchase the certificate. The index is accessible for
free on the gov.uk website mentioned above and next to the name found in the
search is a button "order" where one can order the record. The cost of the
record varies due to the postage and where it is being sent-within or
outside the UK.

The information was shared with us by Mark Nicholls, IAJGS Secretary and JGS
Great Britain Portfolio Holder and webmaster.

On behalf of the JGS of Great Britain, thank you to Ian Hartas, UKBMD UK BMD
site which shared the announcement about this new way to search. There is a
link to the relevant page within the GRO's website on the GRO BMD page
within UKBMD at:
http://www.UKBMD.org.uk/gro_bmd/

Jan Meisels Allen
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
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