Birth, Marriage & Death Records

Births, marriages, deaths mark the milestones of our lives, and are the foundation of family history research.

Chronicling the personal moments of our lives through the objective perspective of the public record, these records offer details often found through no other genealogical resource. They can be useful in proving or disproving other sources, give you a more complete picture of your ancestor, help you distinguish between two people with the same name, and help you find clues to earlier life events. A good starting point is www.ancestry.co.uk where you can access the full Birth Marriage and Death Index records from the introduction of civil registration in 1837 through to 2004.

With this tool, you can gain access to information regarding your ancestor's lives, such as the locations and causes of their deaths, the names of children or parents, their wedding dates and locations, and the many other details that help us record and remember the important moments in the lives of our families.

Record Types

Birth

Birth records usually show the name of the child, gender, date and place born, parents' names, and sometimes other data, such as parents' birthplaces.

Marriage

Marriage records usually show names of the bride and groom, date and place married, and sometimes other information, such as ages.

Death

In addition to the name of the person, death records usually provide marital status (single, married, widowed, or divorced), cause of death, date and place of death and burial, and sometimes the occupation, date and place of birth, age, parents' names and their birthplaces (usually county or country), and other useful information. The more recent the death record, the more information you will find.

Parish Records

Parish records are essentially the birth, marriage and death record equivalents before civil registration began in 1837. 

Christening records generally list the date of the baptism, the name of the child being christened, and the name of the father.  Marriage records often include the date of the marriage and the names of the bride and groom, whilst burial records list burial date and the name of the deceased.

Occasionally burial records will include other pieces of information, such as where the individual was from or if he/she was a widow(er). Ancestry.co.uk has over 15 million names ranging from the early 1500s to the mid-to-late1800s covering the UK and Ireland.

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