Search The England & Wales birth records

In each you record, you will find a transcript and for those records before 1984, you can also view the original index. The birth, marriage and death records from 1984 onwards were recorded in a computer database only so there is no original image for records post-1984. Each transcript will include

• Name
• Birth year
• Birth quarter
• Registration month
• Mother’s last name
• District
• District number
• County
• Country
• Entry number

Since 1 July 1837, civil registration of births has been a legal requirement of all citizens of England and Wales. In order to find your ancestor’s born before 1837, it is best to search the parish registers. Birth records are a key source to creating your family tree.

All the civil birth records on Findmypast are name-indexed, which makes finding your ancestors so much simpler. The old birth indexes were page-indexed rather than name-indexed, meaning that to find your ancestors you had to check through pages of records and see if your ancestor was somewhere on the image. The original documents are held by the General Register Office (GRO). By using the information found within this index, you can request the original document of your ancestor’s birth. You will need to register with the GRO site and pay a small fee. A link to the order form is provided in the Useful links section.

Note that Findmypast has augmented some records to include mothers' maiden names that may not appear on the original index image.