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Guide to marriage certificates

Updated 16 February 2019

Collect the evidence for one of the most important days in your ancestors’ lives and take your research back another generation.

Reveal your family unions

Marriage certificates are key documents and provide a wealth of information on two strands of your family tree. They will help take you back to the next generation by providing the father’s name for the bride and groom as well as their occupations and may lead to surprising discoveries, for instance, the witnesses may be unknown family members.

The General Register Office (GRO) in Southport holds comprehensive records of all marriages recorded in England and Wales from 1837 onwards as well as records for some British Nationals married overseas.

How to find an index reference

The GRO provides a public index that lists basic details of every marriage recorded in England and Wales since 1837. The index is divided into four quarters for each year and can be viewed in microfiche format at certain libraries (see our leaflet ‘Discover your Family History’).

Marriage 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.

Once you have found the right marriage record you will need to note the following:

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

Guide to marriage certificates

When married

This marriage happened on 18 September 1907 so it will be found in the GRO indexes for the September quarter for 1907.

Name and surname

The names given by the bride and groom at the time of the marriage.

Age

The age given by the bride and groom is only as accurate as they believed it to be. If it says ‘Of full age’ it means that the bride or groom was over 21.

Condition

This shows the marital status of the parties. Bachelor or spinster for those who had not married before; or widower/widow or marriage dissolved.

Rank or profession

Don’t assume a woman didn’t have a paid occupation if there is no entry next to her name. It is common to find only the groom’s occupation stated.

Residence

The address given here can be misleading as some couples used a temporary address to qualify for marriage in the parish. Some just name the parish.

Name and profession of father

These details are useful for checking you have the right certificate and will help you delve into the lives of your ancestors

Witnesses

Always check the witnesses on a marriage certificate as they may reveal family connections.

Signatures

The certificate you receive from the GRO is a copy of the register. Although it doesn’t show actual signatures it will show if your ancestors could sign their name.

Those that couldn’t marked an ‘x’ here.

Married in…

Often the parish church, but you may find a non-conformist chapel here and confirmation of whether your ancestors married by licence/banns.

It’s quick and easy…

Online

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

STEP ONE: 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 TWO: Select ‘Marriage 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 marriage (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 THREE: 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.

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 marriage

Try these five tips if you can’t find an ancestor’s nuptials recorded in the indexes.

TIP 1: Prior to 1875, the registration of an event was not compulsory and therefore some were missed.

TIP 2: Marriages sometimes took place after the birth of the first child. Widening the timescale searched may help.

TIP 3: A marriage might have taken place outside of England and Wales e.g Scotland. For Scottish records, visit http://www/scotlandspeople.gov.uk.

TIP 4: The bride may have been married more than once – try looking under the name of the groom instead.

TIP 5: Bear in mind that there may never have been a marriage. Couples often lived together as man and wife because divorce was rare and expensive. Some did not remarry after their spouse died.