Whilst all births, marriages & deaths in England and Wales have to be registered with the local Register Office, all registrations since 1 July 1837 have been centrally indexed and are currently held at the Family Records Centre in London and are available in numerous locations on microfiche.
There are separate indexes for births, marriages and deaths, with each year being divided into quarters. All events registered between 1 January and 31 March, for example, would appear in the MAR quarter index.
The information appearing in the Indexes is, to say the least, minimal and the only way to see the full entry details is to purchase the certificate.
The information provided is:
Births: the index entry specifies the child's Surname, Forenames and the Superintendant Registrar's District. For all births registered after September 1911, the maiden surname of the mother is also listed.
Marriages: pre-March 1912 only the Surname, Forenames & Supt. Registrar's District are given. Post-March 1912, the surname of the spouse is included in the index entry.
Deaths: pre-June 1866, the index entry only shows Surname, Forenames & Supt. Registrar's District. After that date Age at Death is also specified (not infallible!). Since 1969, Date of Birth has been added, but again, this may well be guesswork.
Teague RC Index listings:
We have not included the GRO Reference Numbers in our listings because
- The quality filming of many of the earlier entries make the references extremely difficult to decipher.
- It is considerably cheaper to purchase any certificates required direct from the local Registrar, who works solely from the name and year/quarter, rather than the GRO reference.
The Registrar's District may be the same as a town, or the name of the nearest town in the case of a village or township or named after part of a city. [link to sites Advanced Mapreading for Demented Genealogists' and 'The Ouiji Board - The Only Way to Trace Your Ancestors' to be inserted here]. To make the Index slightly more comprehensible to those without a doctorate in geography, we've added an extra column, showing where possible, the county to which the registration district belongs. If anyone 'in the know' comes across any glaring mistakes or omissions, please let me know - I haven't got a PhD in geography either - just a big map book!
If you would like a copy of the Index in Excel format for research purposes, just ask.