The registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales started in 1837 and legal adoptions have been registered since 1927.
Each local register office holds records of every birth and death which has taken place within their district and every marriage which has taken place at the Register Office or at any premise, within the district, which is approved for civil marriage.
The Register Office can provide copies of entries, in the form of a certificate, on request. Records of marriages which take place in churches or other religious buildings are usually held at the church or other religious building in which the marriage has taken place. Alternatively, because we hold a central index at the GRO in Southport, you can also obtain copies of these entries from us.
We now offer the facility to order certificates online, this can be used to place orders using the GRO index reference and for certificates dating from 1900 up to 18 months before the present date where the exact details are known. See Ways to apply for a range of other options.
If the event for which you require a certificate has taken place in the last 18 months, you should contact the register office at which the details were recorded, or, in the case of a marriage, the register office, church or other religious building at which the details were recorded, as our central records may not have been updated. To find details of your local or other register office, visit the appropriate county council (or London or Metropolitan borough) website. Please put the town or postcode into the search box on the right hand side of this page to return a link to the website you need. Alternatively, addresses and phone numbers for local register offices can be found in the local area phone book.
For costs, see Certificate fees
