Birth Records

UK Birth Records Search Procedure

In the UK, birth records are compiled by the General Register office (GRO). The General Register office houses all birth, marriage, and death records in England and Wales dated in or after 1837. It also houses birth certificates that were recorded overseas. If you are searching for births before 1837 then they are located in parish registers in local archives.

When beginning the search for birth records, there is important information that you must first obtain. You don’t necessarily need all of the information, but the more you have, the better your chance of finding what you are looking for.

You want to make sure that you have the person’s name and name of their parents, their spouse, or their next of kin.

You then would need to know the approximate date of birth and the district where the birth most likely took place.

The records that you are looking for may be located online in a private database. For sake of convenience, we have found that most people will first check for the records in online private databases before dealing with the hassle of ordering the records from the GRO.

If you place an order with the General Register Office, there are several ways to do so; the first option being to do so online. You will need all necessary information in order to register on the department’s website and then place your order and make your payment.

Ordering birth records over the phone is also a possible solution. The department at the GRO has staff on duty Monday through Friday from 8am to 6pm to assist you with your order. They can process a payment with a debit or credit card over the phone.

Birth Records Free Resources

Resource	Type	Description
GRO Certificate Order Page	Government	For Wales and England Birth certificates, the easiest option to order a birth certificate is online at the official General Register Office website.
GRO Mail Forms	Government	For Wales and England Birth certificates, you can also request via traditional mail.
NI Direct Government Services	Government	For Northern Ireland birth certificates, you can order online from NI direct. You will need the full name of person whose birth certificate you are ordering as well as the date and place of birth, names of parents and mother’s address at time of birth.
Scotland’s People Certificate Ordering	Government	Birth certificates for Scottish people going back as far as 1855 can be ordered online from Scotland’s People official Scotland government website. You need to register on the site and will also need full name, location and possibly parents names for the record ordering.
Free BMD Project	Organisation	This free service aims to transcribe birth, death and marriage records from civil registration indexes. It contains around 300 million records.
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PROMNI) – Name Search	Government	This name search function in PROMNI looks for records from religious census returns, 1775 dissenters petitions and pre-1858 diocesan wills. You can search with partial name and location.

In addition to ordering records from the General Register office you may also obtain birth records from the Local Register Office where the birth took place by post or in person.

Example of British Birth Certificates

Frequently Asked Questions About Birth Records

English Birth Records

There is a lot of useful information that can be gathered from an English birth record. This can help you with a genealogical search and to find out more about your family tree. In particular, you can find out the date and place of birth of a person. The gender and full name will also be mentioned on the birth certificate. You can find out the name of the mother and father, as well as the place of birth for the parents. It is also possible to discover the maiden name of the mother of the individual from English birth records. The registration district on the birth certificate can even allow you to locate other members of your family.

Interesting Facts

• Civil registration began on 1 July 1837, when the General Register Office started recording births, replacing reliance on church baptismal records (mandated since Thomas Cromwell’s 1538 order under Henry VIII).
• Before 1875, registration was not strictly compulsory and parents faced no automatic fines. Therefore some births went unrecorded. The 1874 Act changed this, requiring registration within 42 days.
• Early certificates often omitted the father’s name for illegitimate children due to legal rules. Details like parents’ occupations, mother’s maiden name, and place of birth make them goldmines for family historians. Certificate formats evolved (e.g., landscape to portrait in 1969), and they remain vital for proving identity, age, and citizenship today.

Scottish Birth Records

When you want to find out more about your family’s history in Scotland, birth records are a good place to start. There is a wealth of information available, including the name and surname of the person and where they were born. Indeed, the record will also list the date and time of the birth and the general of the person. Information is also provided on the parents. This includes the name and maiden surname of the mother and the full name of the father and his occupation. The date and place of the marriage of the parents will be listed if this is applicable.

Interesting Facts

• Scottish birth certificates and records stand out for their detail and early start. Civil registration began on 1 January 1855, earlier than in England and Wales (1837). The system is managed by National Records of Scotland (NRS), with statutory registers providing rich information.
• Unlike many places, Scottish birth records from 1855 include the child’s name, exact date and place of birth, parents’ names (including mother’s maiden name), parents’ ages, occupations, places of birth, date and place of parents’ marriage, and even the informant’s details. This extra data makes them exceptionally useful for family historians.

Welsh Birth Records

In Wales, civil registration records began in July 1837. In other words, there would be birth records kept by the government in order to hold information about citizens. There is a lot of vital information you can gain about your family from Wales birth records. This includes the full name, gender, date, and place of birth of the person. There is also information about the parents. For example, the full name of the mother and father, plus the maiden name of the mother. Their birthplace is mentioned, along with the occupation of the father. The registration district should be mentioned in Wales birth records.

Interesting Facts

• Like England, civil registration of births began on 1 July 1837 across England and Wales under the same 1836 Act, with the General Register Office overseeing records. Before this, parish registers documented baptisms since Thomas Cromwell’s 1538 mandate.
• Registration became compulsory with fines in 1875. A key Welsh distinction emerged with bilingual options: since the late 20th century, certificates issued in Wales are often double-sided and bilingual in English and Welsh, with column headings in both languages. Informants can elect Welsh entries where the registrar is fluent.
• Welsh records reflect higher rates of nonconformist chapels and patronymic naming traditions (e.g., “ap” or “ab” meaning “son of”), which can complicate tracing.

Northern Irish Birth Records

If you have an interest in genealogy and finding out more about your family history, we recommending accessing birth records in Northern Ireland. This is going to provide you with more details on a person, as well as their parents. For example, you can find out their name and surname, with the date and place of birth. The sex of the person is listed, plus the name and surname of the father, as well as his dwelling place. The name, surname, and maiden surname of the mother is recorded, as well as the father’s rank or profession. You will be able to find out when and where the birth was registered too.

Interesting Facts

• Civil registration of births began across the entire island of Ireland on 1 January 1864 (non-Catholic marriages started earlier in 1845). The system used Poor Law Union districts, with local registrars recording details.
• After the 1922 partition, the General Register Office for Northern Ireland (GRONI) in Belfast took responsibility for the six counties (Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry/Derry, Tyrone). Pre-1922 records exist in both GRONI and Dublin’s GRO, offering researchers flexibility.
• Certificates typically include the child’s name, date and place of birth, parents’ names (mother’s maiden name), father’s occupation, and informant details.

References

• https://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Northern-Ireland-genealogy.html
• https://www.familytreeresources.com/birth-certificate.html

Advertising Disclosure: This post may contain advertisments and links to affiliate sites. publicrecordsearch.co.uk may be compensated if you use these links.