Births, Marriages and Deaths Index

What are BMDs?

'BMD' stands for Births, Marriages & Deaths records kept by the General Register Office (GRO) of England & Wales, part of the National Office of Statistics (ONS). These records have been kept by law since 1837, detailing every birth, marriage and death recorded in England & Wales since that date. These records are used to issue birth, marriage and death certificates. The GRO also hold an index to the records, which can be used to find individual records.

What's available?

On this site we have the complete range of births, marriages and deaths records from 1837 onwards as published by the GRO. For 1984 onwards they are easily searched with our Smart Search facility and allow surnames to be mapped. Earlier indexes are held in image format. These are indexed by Surname, and Forename, where required, to enable you to quickly find which entries you require and use very few credits in the process.

Prices

We currently offer two pay-as-you-go subscriptions: 3 months for only £5 or a whole year for only £14.95.
Each subscription comes with a certain number of viewing credits — debited each time a full record is viewed or an image is loaded. Don't worry — it is possible to search and view record summaries using very few credits!

Map it - BMD mapping facility

This mapping facility will enable you to display your search results as a colour coded printable map. For more information, click here.

Ordering certificates

Certificates for births, marriages or deaths in England or Wales can be ordered online through the GRO. To order a certificate, simply follow the instructions on the GRO website, supplying the necessary data and a GRO Index reference. The full reference is usually a volume and page reference or an 'entry number' for later records, given with the year, quarter and district. This can be found by viewing the full record detail when searching BMD records online. Events from the last 50 years will require you to supply more information at application stage.

Information in a Full Birth Certificate

This will give you date and place of birth, full name and maiden surname of the mother, forename(s) and sex of the child the informant's name, address and relationship to the child, full name and occupation of the father if married to the mother (or if he attended with the mother and signed the registration entry) from 1969, the place of birth of both parents.

Information in a Marriage Certificate

This will give you date and place of marriage, marital status of the bride and groom whether by banns, licence or certificate, current address and occupation of the bride and groom, names and ages of the bride and groom names and occupations of their fathers ('full age' indicates that the person was over 21) names of witnesses.

Information in a Death Certificate

This will give you name of the deceased occupation, or the name and occupation of the husband, if a married or widowed woman date and place of death name, address and family relationship if any of the informant, given age date and place of birth, usual address and maiden name if a married or widowed woman (but only from 1 April 1969) cause(s) of death.