Overseas – Applications for deaths registered overseas – please state the country and last occupation. If the occupation was with HM Forces, state branch, regiment and service number. Section 3 – GRO index reference Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information The GRO supplies copies of birth, marriage, civil partnership certificates and death certificates, either online or from one of the local register offices that act on behalf of the GRO.

Total value of application – The final price is affected by the dispatch service chosen and the number of certificates requested. Please note a full fee is payable for each certificate requested. An Act for registering Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England, section XXV http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/View?path=Browse/Legislation%20(by%20date)&active=yes&mno=4044 An Act for registering Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England, section XXVII http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/View?path=Browse/Legislation%20(by%20date)&active=yes&mno=4044 Overseas – Applications for births registered overseas – please state the country of birth and the occupation of the father/parent. If the parent was serving in HM Forces, state branch, regiment and service number. Marriage certificatesDate of death/age at death – Required information for deaths of children (16 years old or younger) and for applications without a GRO Index Reference. Although the GRO was not specifically established to undertake statistical research, the early Registrars General, Thomas Henry Lister (1836–42) and George Graham (1842–79), built up a Statistical Department to compile medical, public health and actuarial statistics. Much of this work was undertaken in the early to mid-Victorian period by William Farr, the GRO's Superintendent of Statistics. Under these men the Annual reports of the Registrar General became a vehicle for administrative and social reform. In 1840 the GRO also took over responsibility for the decennial census of England and Wales. [2] A project, called DoVE (Digitisation of Vital Events), to digitise the GRO's records of birth, marriage and death was initiated in 2005. Implementation of the project was outsourced to Siemens IT Solutions and Services in a three-year contract which expired at the end of July 2008. The process of scanning, digitising and indexing suffered severe delays, with only (roughly) half the records delivered by the end of the contract period. By mutual agreement between the IPS and Siemens, the contract was not extended. Digitisation of birth records up to 1934 and death records up to 1957 had been completed when the contract ended.

In 1970 the GRO became part of the newly created Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS), with the Registrar General in overall charge. Until then it had had several statistical functions, including the conduct of population censuses and the production of annual population estimates; all these were moved elsewhere within the new organisation. The GRO then became a division within OPCS, headed by a Deputy Registrar General. Then in 1996 the OPCS, and therefore the GRO, became part of the newly created Office for National Statistics, and the office of Registrar General was merged with that of Head of the Government Statistical Service. Certificates issued in other parts of the United Kingdom contain different or additional information and have a different format. a b c Higgs, E. The early development of the General Register Office at http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/View?path=Browse/Essays%20%28by%20kind%29&active=yes&mno=2002 Retrieved 18 August 2013Home Office and HM Passport Office (24 August 2015). "Mark Thomson appointed new Registrar General". gov.uk . Retrieved 22 July 2019. Names of mother/father/parent [footnote 1] – Required information for births registered in the last 50 years. Any personal data you provide to GRO will be handled in compliance with current UK data protection legislation. Overseas – Applications for marriages registered overseas – please state the country and the occupation of both parties at the time of marriage. If the occupation was with HM Forces, state branch, regiment and service number. Death certificates

There are no general rules for the indexing of events registered overseas; the following descriptions refer to the indexes for events registered in England and Wales only. For overseas applications please copy the overseas index reference as it appears in the index, in the space provided.Year/quarter – The year and quarter that the event was registered. Quarters should be specified by name. i.e. We may disclose your personal data if we believe such action is necessary to comply with a legal requirement, or if we consider that a certificate application is being made fraudulently. Commercial companies also have the index reference numbers online, but you’ll have to pay to search them and prices will vary. Find index reference numbers in person If you cannot provide an index reference you must supply at least the full name, date and place of event in section 2. We will conduct a search of the year quoted in section 2.2 of your application and one year either side. Section 4 – other information

These are the only complete copies of the full sets of index reference numbers. They’re on microfiche. Certificates issued by the GRO clearly state that they are certified copies of the register entries, that they are not evidence of a person's identity, and that there are criminal offences relating the unlawful amendment or falsification of a certificate, or using or possessing a false certificate. Certificates contain the seal of the General Register Office and show an abridged version of the Royal Coat of Arms.Marriage certificates issued by the GRO are printed on a green form and give the following information: Mark Thomson, 2015–2020 [36] (also Director General of HM Passport Office, and on the executive management board of the Home Office) [37]