Great Britain, Births and Baptisms - FamilySearch Historical Records

Record Description
This index is an electronic index for the years 1571 to 1977.

It is not necessarily intended to index any specific set of records. This index is not complete for any particular place or region. This collection may include information previously published in the International Genealogical Index or Vital Records Index collections.

Record Content and Use
For details about the contents of these records and help using them see the wiki article Births and Christenings Vital Record Index Collections (FamilySearch Historical Records).

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Related Websites

 * For a very helpful listing of what parishes are indexed in this collection, see http://www.archersoftware.co.uk/igi/.
 * Birth, Marriage and Death Registration Quarterly Index - 1837 to present day. The transcriptions are still in progress and are freely available. The website explains the registration process and its chronological implementation. The website provides access to their images of the index and a double entry checking system for early years of manually compiled quarterly index years before the introduction of typed inddexes as well as the opportunity to correct entries in the database.
 * The General Register Office had both a local and national index. Many local Registration offices historical registrations since 1837 are now computerised by either the registration service or by local community volunteers. Within the FamilySearch wiki in individual parish pages you may find links to local databases such as Cheshire BMD and Lancashire BMD, which enable you to search for and print applications direct to the local registration service. These arrangements result in much faster certificate production than application to the national agency.
 * Efforts are underway to provide online access to every local and national registration of Birth, Marriage and death from the September 1837 quarter in England and Wales.

Two other websites are also available:


 * Free Registers Online a database of church records for some of the English Counties and still "work in progress". Some records are incomplete due to their destruction and others through non-availability.
 * Free Censuses Online a database of the English and Welsh Census records, 1841 and thereafter every 10 years up to 100 years ago (1911 census). This is still a "work in progress" project.

The above websites are all charitable and rely on volunteer transcribers as can be seen from the websites.


 * England and Wales History Links
 * Enlgand and Wales Historic Maps

Related Wiki Articles

 * England Civil Registration
 * Quick Research Links - England
 * United Kingdom
 * Quick Research Links - Wales
 * Quick Research Links - Ireland
 * Quick Research Links - Scotland
 * Quick Research Links - The Channel Islands

Citations for This Collection
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information; that is, cite your sources. This will help people find the record again and evaluate the reliability of the source. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records. Citations are available for the collection as a whole and each record or image individually. Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):