This site provides 2787
links to websites that offer on-line transcriptions of UK births, marriages, deaths and censuses.
A wide range of other indexes and transcriptions are also available for most counties, these may
include parish records, wills, monumental inscriptions etc.
Use the Menu on the left to view the various lists of links.
There are two sets of Birth, Marriage and Death indexes in the UK;
the original indexes held by the local register offices and a secondary index created by the
General Register Office. The menu buttons on the left provide sets of links to websites
that contain both primary and secondary indexes. As always, you are recommended to look
through the primary sources first, before looking through secondary records.
Since 1837 all births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales have had to be registered
at the register office in the district where the event took place. In Scotland such registration
became compulsory for all in 1855 and for Ireland it was 1864 for births & deaths and 1845 for marriages.
Genealogists and Family Historians can make use of these registrations to help create their family tree,
working backwards from the present day to the start of civil registration.
The original indexes to these registers are held by the local register offices and many of these indexes are
now being transcribed by the local authorities in conjunction with Family History Societies, and the data
placed on-line in a variety of websites. Information about the registration districts and register office
addresses can be found on the Registration Districts in England and Wales pages.
The websites with indexes based on the original registers can be seen when you click on the Local BMD button in the menu to the left.
Quarterly, the original entries were retranscribed and then reindexed by the
central government and these indexes have been made available as the
GRO
indexes,
many of which are available for viewing at websites listed under the National
button. (e.g. FreeBMD)
However, the many stages involved in making this secondary
GRO
copy have introduced many
errors and omissions in the national indexes - so the recommendation is, as always, to
look for original data first, i.e. the local indexes.
The book shown to the left is an excellent guide to all aspects of tracing birth, marriages and
deaths in the UK, covering parish registers, civil registration, non-conformist registers,
overseas events and much more.
Audrey Collins is co-author of this book. There is an excellent article by Audrey on early civil registration.
Prior to 1837
parish registers need to be consulted to look for baptism,
marriage and burial records. Many websites have on-line transcribed parish
register data and these can be found by selecting a county name from the list
in the menu and then clicking on the County button.
Census records are the other main source of information for family historians.
Many of the censuses have now been made available on-line, and these can be found
by clicking on the Census button.
What's on this site ?
From the menu buttons on the top left you can access:
Local BMD - these are the indexes created from the original registration entries
held by the local registrars. Civil registration from its start is covered.
More and more counties are putting their indexes on-line, so
it is advisable to start looking here first. The Local BMD sites using the UKBMD software can be searched
in one go, using the multi-region UKBMD-Search.
GRO BMD - these indexes are the General Register Office's secondary indexes.
County - To list all the known BMD websites for a particular county (or country), use this option, remembering
to first select a county from the drop-down list. Sites listed cover parish register, burial records
and other transcripts. Note: the counties refer to the pre-1974 UK counties. For information about the
county boundary changes see the Local
Government Changes page within GENUKI.
Census - Sites offering on-line transcriptions for various UK censuses, throughout the years.
Parish Register - Sites with parish register and Bishops' Transcripts data on-line.
ONS - One Name Study sites that have BMD indexes, census and/or parish records on-line.
OPC - Online Parish Clerks. A growing useful resource for help.
OPS - One Place Study sites that have BMD indexes, census and/or parish records on-line.
DNA - Information about the growing use of DNA within genealogy and links to relevant websites.
British Abroad - Many people who considered themselves to be British have BMD events
registered abroad. The links on this page will help you find these sites.
National - Sites offering data covering the whole of the country.
Certificates - Links to various websites where you can buy copy certificates online.
Tutorials - A series of online tutorials detailing how to get the best from the Local BMD websites.
FAQ - Answers to Frequently Asked Questions. If you have a question this page may already have the answer.
Statistics - Counts and updates dates for the Local BMD sites. Updated daily.
Contact - information about how to contact us and provide feedback - especially if you can
provide information about sites not listed here.
About Us - brief history about who we are and how we came to be here.
Register - subscribe to the UKBMD Mailing list for BMD updates announcements.
Misc - Miscellaneous general interest items to help genealogists in their research.
Site Map - a complete listing of all the pages within this site
What's not on this site ?
Every relevant link from within GENUKI.
The GENUKI site is the premiere site for
research for UK genealogy. As such there are hundreds of pages within this site that
either list transcribed data, or tell you where to find it. So, rather than fill this
site up with many links to GENUKI,
you will find one link at the end of each county page to the relevant county page within
GENUKI.
The Local BMD projects are supported by the
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