Government Archives and Records

The National Archives is UK Government's archive of historic records including indexes and registers of the Census, births, marriages and deaths, wills, adoption records and other historical personal records. It is located in Kew near Richmond, Surrey, England (just outside of London).

It Provides the physical location of the archives if you want to visit them but if you want to search them online you need to go to one of the other search site (see The BMD section of this site).

Access to Archives is a search site which shows where documents from England and Wales are held where this is outside of the National Archives in Kew. These date from the eighth century to the present day. You type in a search query and it lists all the available documents and shows where they are held. You can search by person, family, subject or place name.

This is a useful site if your ancestors were wealthy enough to have owned property or had a significant business.

General Register Office (GRO) for England and Wales.
This is where you can order births, marriage, or death certificates for England and Wales that happened after 1837. You can do this online. They also supply adoption certificates. The cost for a BMD certificate is £7 if you supply the correct reference (see the BMD section of this site). If you don't know all the details, they will do a search for an extra £3, providing you can supply all the other details : name, date and town of birth.

General Register Office (GRO) for Scotland.
This is where you can order births, marriage, or death certificates for Scotland that happened after 1855. You can do this online. They also supply adoption certificates. The cost for a BMD certificate is £13.

Scotland's People
The Scottish Government website which allows you to search for Birth, Marriage, Death and Census information. This includes statutory registers (those after 1855) and old Scottish parish records). A pay per view system for looking at Census and other information so you may find using the Ancestry.com Free Trial a good alternative! . However, you can search the index of wills and testaments free of charge.

General Register Office (GRO) for Northern Ireland.
Has births and deaths registers of from 1864 and marriage registers from 1922 (but can supply them from 1845). You can order them online through their website.



U.K. National Inventory of War Memorials
A searchable, by name, online resource listing memorials to the casualties of war. It includes not just memorials traditionally associated with war, such as cenotaphs and graves, but any other memorial associated with death in war.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Free online "Debt of Honour Register" search that lists 1.7 people serving in the UK and Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars with their details such as name, age and regiment.

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