How can I make sure that I order the correct BMD certificates?

QCan you give me any tips for obtaining the correct birth/ death/ marriage certificates from the General Register Office ( GRO). I have several certificates for the wrong people, particularly death certificates where the age, name and even the location seem right. Roc Walker by email

A Getting the right certificate has been made easier by the launch of the GRO’s own birth and death indexes ( www.gro.gov.uk/

gro/content/certificates/indexes_ search.asp). These allow you to search the birth index using the mother’s maiden surname from 1837 onwards, rather than from 1911, as with other indexes. In addition, you can search the death index using the age at death from 1837, rather than from 1866.

Parish baptism records may help you track down a birth, and parish records of marriages from 1837 onwards have the same format as civil registration marriage certificates. You can try to find a death record through an associated document, such as a will/administration, burial record (either a parish or a civil cemetery record), or obituary/death notice in a local newspaper. If you have no success with any of these sources, you can look for the living person in census returns, valuation rolls, electoral registers and directories, as well as land tax, education, military, employment, workhouse, and even criminal/prison records. Apart from searching the indexes at the GRO, Ancestry ( ancestry.co.uk), Findmypast ( findmypast.co.uk), TheGenealogist ( thegenealogist.co.uk) or FreeBMD ( free

bmd.org.uk), and then ordering a certificate from the GRO, you can instead order a certificate from a local register office (RO). At UKBMD ( ukbmd.org.uk), you’ll find links to many local RO projects, but bear in mind these use their own reference numbers, not those of the GRO. Local RO certificates cost £10.

Don’t forget that Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey and the Irish Republic have different civil registration systems from those of England and Wales, and an ancestor may have emigrated and died abroad.

If you put your tree on Findmypast or Ancestry, the websites will flag up possible record matches. On Ancestry, you can search other people’s trees, but be sure to check any information you find.