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Guide to death certificates (accessible)

Updated 15 November 2023

The official records of an ancestor’s demise may provide clues as to how, where, and with whom they spent their final days.

Track down a forebear’s death

Death certificates are often overlooked in the family historian’s research, however they can unlock secrets of an ancestor’s life. They will provide details of how, where and when your forebear died, while the name of the informant could shed light on previously unknown relationships. These details will help you to find any wills or probate records that may exist and can take your research further.

The General Register Office (GRO) in Southport holds records of deaths recorded in England and Wales from 1837, as well as records for some British Nationals who died overseas.

The GRO provides a public index that lists basic details of every death recorded in England and Wales since 1837. The index is divided into four quarters for each year.

How to find an index reference

The historical death indexes for England and Wales (those from 1837 to 1957, digitised records) are available to search free of charge via the GRO certificate online ordering service on GOV.UK. The index is searchable, for which you will need to key in certain information. Additional functionality includes phonetic/soundex searching. Also, where possible we have enhanced the indexes to include age at death where it has previously not been provided on the microfiche indexes.

Death indexes are also available to search on FreeBMD. This free-to-use website has an almost complete transcription of the indexes for England and Wales from 1837 to 1983. You can also search the indexes for a fee using commercial websites.

The indexes are also available to view in microfiche format at certain libraries (see our leaflet ‘Discover your Family History’).

Once you have found the right death record in the indexes you will need to make a note of the following:

• full name of the person on the certificate
• year and quarter in which the death was registered
• registration district
• volume and page number of the entry

For information on our current prices please refer to the booklet on GOV.UK ‘How to order and Pay for Civil Registration Records’ or visit www.gov.uk/bmdcertificates click ‘start now’ and select ‘Most Customers Want to Know’

Guide to death certificates

Where and when died

This column should provide date of death and a location or full address. People didn’t always die at home. It may have happened in hospital or in the workhouse, which could fall into a different registration district than the one you’re expecting.

Name and surname

This is the name given to the registrar by the informant. Please note that this will be the name they were using at the time of death, not the name they were given at birth.

Age

The informant gives the deceased’s age at death to the best of their knowledge. This is not always correct.

Occupation

This will be the last known occupation of the deceased. Females were usually recorded by their relationship to husband or father – eg ‘widow of’.

Cause of death

If the word ‘certified’ appears, it means the cause of death was given by the doctor in medical attendance of the deceased. If there was an inquest, that will also be noted.

Signature, description and residence of informant

Often a spouse or other close relative. If the address is the same as the place of death, then it’s likely the deceased died at home. After 1875, the relationship to the deceased was recorded.

When registered

The date the death was registered. This was usually very shortly after the death as a certificate was needed before a burial could take place.

It’s quick and easy

Online

It’s quick, easy and cheaper to order a birth certificate online, just follow these 3 steps:

Step 1: Visit www.gov.uk/bmdcertificates and click on ‘Start now’. Select ‘Order a certificate online now’ and register if you have not registered before (you will need an email address and will be asked to verify your account before you can start).

Step 2: Select ‘Death Certificate’ and if you know the GRO index reference number, click yes. If not click no. You will need to add the year of the event (if you do not have the index reference number an additional administration fee is payable and a search will be carried out for you that covers a three-year period around the year you provide).

Step 3: Once your address has been confirmed you will be asked to provide the information you have got from the index. You can order a certificate without an index reference number but you will need to give some identifying information. You will be charged more for this service to cover the extra work involved, and it will take longer for your certificate to be dispatched if using the standard service. You will need to pay by credit or debit card.

You can now apply for Portable Document Format (PDF) copies of our digitised historical death records from 1837 to 1957. They are cheaper than certificates.

We now have an Online View digital image service that provides a digital alternative for customers wishing to access certified copies of historic register entries in England and Wales. You will be able to apply for an individual digital image (in JPEG format) of a historic death entry from 1837 up to 1957.

If you apply by phone or post you will be charged an additional administration charge to cover the extra work of processing applications not made online.

By phone

If you don’t wish to order online you can apply by telephone with a credit/debit card on 0300 123 1837. Lines are open Monday to Friday 8am – 6pm, Saturday 9am – 1pm.

By post

Application can also be made by post and forms can be obtained from GRO or downloaded via www.gov.uk/bmdcertificates.

Refunds

If we are unable to produce the certificate you require, you will receive a refund of the certificate fee, less a deduction to cover work incurred. Any additional administration fees which you may have paid, if not applying online or including a GRO index reference, are non-refundable. For full details of fees see the guide: How to Order and Pay for Civil Registration Records.

Find that death

Try these tips if you can’t find the demise of an ancestor listed in the indexes

TIP 1: After 1866, the age of the deceased is recorded in the indexes so it will help to have pinpointed their date of birth before searching for a death.

TIP 2: Not sure of the year of death? Try narrowing down your search using other records such as the census.

TIP 3: A death might not have taken place in the town or even country where they lived, so hunt further afield. Don’t forget to search the overseas death indexes.

TIP 4: If an inquest was held, the death might have been registered some time later, so widen your search.

TIP 5: The name you know your ancestor by might not be the one that appears on their death certificate. Try searching using their middle names, for example.