Why Certificates Still Matter

It is easy to build a family tree from online indexes alone, but an index entry is only a pointer. It tells you that a birth, marriage or death was registered somewhere, at some point, under a name that may be spelled three different ways. A certificate is the record itself — the document your ancestor's details were written onto, usually within days of the event. For confirming a vital event, nothing beats it.

Certificates do three jobs at once. They confirm that an event happened, they give you the detail needed to push the line back another generation, and they often contain information nobody thought to index, such as an occupation, a street address or the name of a witness who turns out to be a sibling.

How Civil Registration Works in the UK

Civil registration began on 1 July 1837 in England and Wales, and on 1 January 1855 in Scotland. Ireland's system started in 1864 for Catholic marriages and births, with all births, marriages and deaths registered from 1864, though non-Catholic marriages were recorded from 1845. This matters enormously: if you cannot find an event before those dates, it was not registered because there was no system to register it. Look to parish registers instead.

In England and Wales, births and deaths were registered with the local superintendent registrar, and marriages in the church or register office where they took place. From 1875, fines and penalties tightened up registration, which is one reason you will find far fewer missing births after that year than before it. Scotland's system, run by the General Register Office for Scotland from the outset, is more detailed and far better indexed.

What Each Certificate Actually Tells You

The amount of information varies by type, date and country, and knowing what to expect saves a lot of disappointment.

• Birth certificates in England and Wales give the date and place of birth, the child's name and sex, the father's name and occupation (if the parents were married), the mother's name, maiden surname and former names, the informant, and the date of registration. From 1969, the mother's occupation and place of birth appear too. Scottish birth entries from 1855 include the parents' marriage date and place, which is a gift.
• Marriage certificates show the date and place, the names, ages and conditions of both parties, their occupations, their addresses, both fathers' names and occupations, and the signatures or marks of the couple and two witnesses. Ages may be recorded as "full age" — meaning 21 or over — which is maddening but revealing in its own way.
• Death certificates give the date and place of death, the name, sex, age and occupation of the deceased, the cause of death and the signature of the informant. The informant is often a spouse, child or neighbour, and their address can tell you where the family was living when the death occurred.

Always check whether you are looking at a full certificate or a short one. The short birth certificate, issued from 1947, omits the parents entirely and is useless for genealogy.

Ordering Certificates Sensibly

Order from the general register office for the relevant country, or from the local register office where the event took place. Local offices are often cheaper and quicker, and the staff can sometimes check a reference for you before you pay. National offices hold the master indexes and are the safer bet if you are unsure of the district.

• Give the full name, the year and quarter of registration, the district and the volume and page number from the index. Without a reference, you may be charged a search fee or refused altogether.
• Birth certificates for England and Wales cost more if you need them within a few days. Standard post is slower but perfectly adequate for most research.
• Check the index first. Free and subscription indexes exist for all these countries, and most give you the reference you need.
• Order one certificate at a time at the start. Certificates are relatively expensive, and a wrong guess wastes money you could spend on three more.

Before you order, ask yourself what specific question this certificate answers. If it is only confirming a name you already have from three other sources, spend the money elsewhere.

Reading Between the Lines

The most useful details are often the ones that seem incidental. An informant who signs with a mark suggests illiteracy, not dishonesty. A residence given as a workhouse or a hospital tells you about poverty or illness in the family. A birth registered many weeks after the event may hint that the child was born outside marriage and the parents delayed while they decided what to do. A father's occupation that changes between a child's birth and their marriage certificate can show a move from labouring to a trade, or a decline in health.

Be alert to spelling. Registrars wrote what they heard, and an ancestor who could not read had no way to correct them. Search variants: Bridget and Biddy, Cholmondeley and Chumley. Also remember that Scottish death certificates give parents' names including mothers' maiden surnames, while English ones do not — a good reason to check whether a family drifted across a border.

Keep a note of every reference you use and the date you ordered it. Certificates accumulate quickly, and a simple research log will stop you paying twice for the same document. Used carefully, these plain, bureaucratic records are the backbone of a family tree that will stand up to scrutiny — and they often hold a story worth telling.