Certificates

Civil Registration The present system we have in England & Wales of registering births, marriages and deaths (called civil registration) started on 1 July 1837. It is possible to purchase copies of certificates for people whose birth, marriage and death was registered after this date. How to get a copy of a Certificate

What information is included on certificates ?

Birth Certificates

A full/standard birth certificate gives much more information than a short certificate. On a standard certificate the following information may be recorded:

The name of the child.
Date and place of birth.
Name and occupation of father.
Name and maiden surname of mother.
Name and address of the person
informing the registrar of the birth.

Births could be registered within 42 days at no charge. After this there was a charge, which meant that it was not unusual for informants to state that a birth had occurred later than it did in order to avoid payment of the fee. It's not uncommon to obtain a birth certificate and then find a that the child was baptised before the birth date given on the birth certificate!

Illegitimacy is implied by the omission of the father's name, although some unmarried mothers did register this. After 1875 the father, if not married to the mother, had to be present at the registration to consent to his name being entered on the certificate or, if unable to attend, had to make a legal declaration acknowledging paternity.

Although all births in England and Wales from 1 July 1837 should have been registered, many were not recorded, particularly during the early years of the system. Until 1875, when procedures were revised, it has been estimated that 5%-10% of births were not registered.

Marriage Certificates

Marriage certificates record the following information:

Name and age of bride and groom.
Marital condition.
Occupation.
Address at the time of the marriage.
Father's name and occupation.

Always treat ages with a certain amount of caution as they may not be completely accurate. Many certificates from the mid-nineteenth state only 'of full age', that is, 21 or over.

Death Certificates

Death certificates give the following details:

Name.
Date and place of death.
Age.
Occupation.
Cause of death.
Name and address of the person informing
the registrar of the death.

From 1969, extra information is given:

Date of birth, instead of age.
Maiden surname of married woman.
Usual address (in addition to place of death)
Place of birth.

Always bear in mind that the information on death certificates may not be completely accurate, particularly the age and date/place of birth. The informant may not know all of the details and it is not uncommon, for example, for the day and the month of the birth to be correct but the year to be wrongly stated.

The death certificate should indicate if an inquest was held and give details of the Coroner. It may be possible to locate the inquest files

Can I get a copy of a certificate?

Each register office keeps the certificates for its own area from 1837 to the present day, whilst the Office for National Statistics has certificates for the whole of England and Wales. If you know when and where someone was born, married or died, it should be possible to obtain a copy of the certificate by contacting either the
Office for National Statistics or the register office for the area where the event was registered and paying the appropriate fee. Certificates for births, marriages and deaths registered in Wolverhampton are available from Wolverhampton Register Office.

It is not possible to view the certificates rather than purchase a copy, except in the case of marriages if you can find out where the
church registers are held. Birth or death certificates must be purchased in order to find out any information from them.

If you do not know enough information to write off for a copy of a certificate, then you can check entries in the
General Register Office indexes.

Adoptions

There are separate arrangements for obtaining copies of certificates if an adoption has taken place. Click here