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GRO (General Register Office) Certificates

These certificates are vital to family historians because of the genealogical information that they contain.

Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths was introduced in England and Wales on 1st July 1837. This system was effectives for marriages and deaths although not necessarily for births. Marriages, because both parties were present at the time and deaths, because burial was only permitted on the production of a death certificate.

However, in some parts of the country, up to 15 percent of births were not registered, either because people were ignorant of the law or they assumed that an entry of a child's baptism in the church register was a legal alternative to civil registration.

In 1874 this situation improved. An act of parliament imposed a duty on those present at a birth or death to inform the registrar of the event. Fines for non-registration and penalties for late registration were introduced.




Birth Certificate
Birth certificates
usually contain the following information


  • the date and place of birth (in some cases, usually multiple births, the time of birth)
  • the name and sex of the child
  • the name and occupation of the father
  • the name and maiden name (or previous married name) of the mother
  • the signature (or mark) , name and address of the informant



Marriage Certificate
Marriage certificates usually contain the following information

  • when and where the marriage took place
  • the names and ages of the spouses
  • their places of residence
  • the spouses' occupations
  • the spouses' conditions (bachelor or widower, spinster or widow)
  • the names and occupations of their fathers
  • whether the marriage took place after banns or by a marriage licence
  • the signatures (or marks) of the spouses and two witnesses



Death Certificate
    Death certificates usually contain the following information

  • the name of the deceased
  • the date and place of death
  • the cause of death
  • whether a coroner's inquest took place
  • the age or (from June 1969) the date of birth of the deceased
  • the signature (or mark), name and address of the informant




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