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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.
Information included in the death index changed over the years. The death index for 1866 to 1920 provides the name of deceased, age at death, registration district, and reference information (volume and page numbers). From 1984 to 2005 the index includes the deceased’s birth date rather than age.
Information provided in the index can be used to order a copy of the person’s death certificate for a fee from the GRO through their Certificate Ordering Service. Depending on the year, full death certificates may provide: name of deceased, death date, death place, age, sex, occupation, cause of death, name of parent if the deceased is a child, informant’s name, residence, and relationship to the deceased, and date of registration.
Note: Information recorded on a death certificate is only as accurate as the knowledge of the person reporting it. It is important to pay attention to who the informant was and their relationship to the deceased. The closer the relationship, the more reliable the information likely is.
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. |
