Ordering BMD Certs from General Register Office of Northern Ireland
The General Register Office of Northern Ireland holds the following vital records:
* Births registered in Northern Ireland from 1 January 1864
* Adoptions recorded in the Adopted Children Register Northern Ireland from 1 January 1931
* Non-Roman Catholic marriages from 1 April 1845 and all marriages from 1 January 1864
* Civil Partnerships registered in Northern Ireland from 5 December 2005
* Deaths registered in Northern Ireland from 1 January 1864
Certificates may be ordered online (at a cost of £12 + postage each since only a fully certified copy is provided), providing sufficient information is given in your request. (Note, searches will be made for a specific even in the year quoted plus the two years either side unless a wider search is requested). Outlined below is the information you need to have to hand if you are going to order online:
Birth Certificates
* Full name
* Date and place of birth (district or street and town)
* Names of parents (including mother’s maiden name)
* Mother’s address at time of birth
Adoption Certificates
* Full name
* Date and place of birth
* Names of adoptive parents
* Name of Court which made the order and date of order
Marriage Certificates
* Full names of the married couple and bride’s maiden name
* Date and place of marriage.
(searches for marriages prior to 1922 are not possible without the district and place of marriage being known).
Civil Partnership Certificates
* Full names of both partners and any other surnames used before this partnership.
* Date and place of civil partnership.
Death Certificates
* Full name of deceased.
* Date and place of death (district or street and town).
* The usual address of the deceased if different from place of death.
(Deaths prior to 1922 cannot be traced if the district where the death was registered is not known).
I was looking for two death certificates from Co. Antrim in the 1930s today, and two births so decided to order them online. I had an obituary to work off for one of the death certificates so I knew the exact date I was looking for, plus the person’s address. I had received some information about the second person from someone who lived locally, so I knew the date was correct but was not entirely sure of the address. As for the births, I knew the year of birth, the parents’ names and the place (from baptism records) but had not been able to find the record in the hard copy indexes in Dublin or on FamilySearch, and had been advised to contact GRONI directly.
The process of ordering wasn’t too bad at all - though at £12 the cost of the certificates seems relatively high (for instance the GRO in Dublin charges €10 per certificate which at the current exchange rate is about £8.60). It was slightly annoying that I had to place a separate order for each certificate I wanted to obtain - I had to enter my name, address and credit card number four times. It would have been great to have been asked if I wanted to purchase any further items and then check out. Perhaps most people only one certificate at a time, though. I wonder whether each certificate will be posted out to me separately?
Regarding payment, the usual options were available, but it would have been nice to have seen PayPal included. The payment section didn’t open in a separate window, so at the end of the process when I was asked to close my browser I had to then open a new window and then retype in the URL to get back to the website.
Anyhow depite these minor issues, it was good to be able to order the certs from my desk at midnight (the only time & place I do my research at the moment given I have a 3 month old baby!)
I look forward to seeing what new information arrives through my letterbox shortly…