Searching for a GRO Index reference

In this week’s blog post I will write about my experience using the “General Register Office Online Index search facility” via their website. The GRO Index reference is an important reference that is required to request an official copy of a birth, death or marriage certificate, and the website offers a birth and death index search facility, although currently no marriage index records are available.

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/, accessed 21/04/2020. © 2020 Crown Copyright. Click on the image to go to the GRO website.

Birth indexes are available from 1837 up to ”100 years ago” and 1984 up to 2004. Death records are available from 1837 to 1957 and 1984 up to the current year. Please observe the gaps in the dates and if the date you require falls within these, you will need to consult Ancestry, FreeBMD, Find My Past or contact the GRO or your local registry office.

(Do note, a complete set of microfiche index records are available from the following libraries: The Library of Birmingham, Bridgend Local and Family History Centre, City of Westminster Archives Centre, Manchester Central Library, Newcastle City Library, Newcastle City Library, Plymouth Central Library and The British Library. At the time of writing all public libraries are closed due to the Covid-19 outbreak.)

So, if you wish to research your ancestors using the GRO indexes, or you want to research historical figures anywhere in England and Wales for educational purposes or most importantly you require a copy of a birth or a death certificate for a family member, the GRO website is an ideal starting point. The beauty of this website is that once you find the reference, the data connects you to the certificate ordering facility. Searching indexes is free, however, there is a cost to apply for a copy of a birth, death or a marriage certificate.

How to register

• Firstly, you need to visit https://www.gro.gov.uk. You will be taken to the following address: https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/.

• You are now in the GRO website. You will now need to click on the “order certificates online” link.

• At this point you need to register with the GRO. This is a simple process. Click on “Register as an individual” which is further down the page near “Register or Log in” The registration process requires your name, address, email and optional telephone number.

• You will need to create a strong password. Advice is given in the “Frequently asked questions” PDF guide “setting up an online account”.

• You are not asked for your card payment details to register. This is good if you simply want to use the index search facility. If you proceed to request a certificate after you find the index record, you will only at that point put in your card details.

• You can search all day for index references for numerous persons and the website will not log you out unnecessarily unless you log out.

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/login.asp, accessed 21/04/2020. © 2020 Crown Copyright. Click on the image to go to the website.

Starting a search

• Log in with your email and password.

• Click the link titled “Search the GRO Online Index”. This link will take you to a nice and simple form (see image below) where you input the details you know of the desired person. Like all search facilities online, you will learn as you go. In this section of the form you can try including some data or most of the data you have. You can even leave some boxes blank in order to get the desired result. The form displayed on the search page is, I must say, very straight forward.

• For those new to the subject of GRO index references and the certificate ordering process, there is a PDF document titled “The GRO index reference number” and another document titled “GRO online historical birth and death indexes overview”. Both these documents provide a clear and concise understanding of the subject of GRO indexes. These documents can be found in the “Frequently asked questions” link on the right-hand side of the web page.

Searching for an individual: some worked examples

I have decided to use the website to search for Birmingham’s much-loved mayor, statesman and businessman, Joseph Chamberlain. Joseph Chamberlain was born on 8th July 1836 in London so there would be no GRO birth index record. There may be a baptism record via Ancestry or a local archives centre but the GRO birth and death records, as well as marriage records, all begin from July 1837. Joseph Chamberlain’s death would have been recorded in the GRO.

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/, accessed 21/04/2020. © 2020 Crown Copyright

In my search I put the following data in the search boxes – “I selected death for the first question, the second question asks “When was the death registered” to which I inserted 1914 followed by 0. If I was not sure of the year of death, then I could have inserted 1914 plus one or two years to expand my search. I then proceeded to insert the surname Chamberlain, forename Joseph, sex as male and the age at death which was 76. I then inserted district of death simply as Birmingham. I could have missed the age if I wanted to. I then clicked on the search button and – hey presto! The result for a man who died over a hundred years ago is shown at the bottom of the form. There is only one result shown which saves me the time to work out which result is the one I am seeking. I can now click on the result and decide whether to order a copy of the original certificate, a PDF version or even a MSF (Multi Lingual Standard Form) plus a certificate. If I inputted minimal information like just a surname and may be a year, then I may have had results for up to 250 index entries, for which I would need to work out which one is for me. Equally if I inserted some data in the wrong field or entered a surname slightly differently, then I would have a message saying zero result!

I then proceeded to search for William Francis Aston using the birth index. William Francis Aston, a Nobel Prize winning physicist and chemist was born in Harborne, Birmingham. William was born on the 1st September 1877. I entered the key details on the form. In the ‘district of birth’ section I tried Birmingham first and got no result. I then inputted Harborne and again – no result. Harborne was then a sub-district of the Kings Norton Registration District so I inputted Kings Norton and voila – I got my result. Ahh- the joys of history!

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/, accessed 21/04/2020. © 2020 Crown Copyright

Further reading on Joseph Chamberlain is available here. Further reading on the topic of registration boundaries can be found here and here.

Step by Step Instructions

• Visit https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/

• Click on “Order certificates online”

• Register as an individual

• Log on

• Click on “Search the GRO online Index”

• Choose Birth or Death

• Fill the form with the details

• Click on search and the results are displayed at the bottom of the form!

I found the GRO website a perfect solution for requesting and researching birth and death records. The website is also very user-friendly.

Saley Ahmed, Archives & Collections Senior Assistant