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Civil registration — the government recording of births, marriages, and deaths—began in England and Wales on 1 July 1837. Local registration districts had jurisdiction for recording civil events, but were required to send copies of their records each quarter to the General Register Office (GRO) in London. The GRO created indexes to these records which are organized by event, year, and quarter, and thereunder alphabetically by surname. The index provides the name of the bride or groom, registration district, and reference information (volume and page numbers). Brides and grooms are both included in the index, but are listed separately under their own individual entries.Information provided in the index can be used to order a copy of the person’s marriage certificate for a fee from the GRO through their Certificate Ordering Service. Depending on the year, full marriage certificates may provide: marriage date and place, names of the bride and groom, their ages, marital status, professions, and residences. Information about the bride’s and groom’s fathers — names, occupations, and whether deceased—may also be listed. A marriage record typically indicates whether the marriage ceremony took place in a church and if so, the denomination.Note: For years where images of the index are available, be sure to consult the image to verify the information presented to you. Sometimes errors happen during the transcription process. For example, a "5" may have inadvertently been transcribed as a "3". Since there is a fee for ordering certificate copies from the GRO, it is especially important to make sure all reference numbers are correct before placing an order.Search tip: If an individual had multiple given names, sometimes only one or two of these names was recorded in the index. In addition, some of the given names may have been recorded by initials only. If you’re having trouble locating someone in the index, try searching by any of the individual’s known given names, initials, or nicknames. |
