GRO England and Wales

GRO registration transfer: "It has been announced that the General Register Office (GRO) will become part of the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) from 1 April 2008.

Under the new arrangements for Independence, ONS will no longer be responsible for the registration role it currently holds. Discussions have been taking place to find a new home for the General Register Office (GRO) for when Independence comes into force on 1 April 2008, and today the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has been confirmed as th is home . IPS is an Executive Agency of the Home Office, and is responsible for handling passport applications from UK Nationals. It employs over 3,500 staff at various locations around the UK. You can find more information about them on their website.

The decision to make the transfer of GRO to IPS has been finalised following the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review."

Research - Introduction: "the General Register Office can provide you with birth, marriage and death certificates for your research from our extensive archive of records dating back to the start of civil registration in July 1837. These certificates provide vital clues and pointers for your family history research. Each certificate holds names of, and information about, family members that can lead to the next stage of your investigations. Certificates can be ordered from the General Register Office of events registered anywhere in England or Wales between 1837 and 18 months prior to the present date."

• Please note that new arrangments will be in place for the searching and ordering of certificates at the FRC from November 2007

If you are looking for records in Scotland or Northern Ireland, see Other General Register Offices for their contact information.

For an overseas record, see Searching for overseas records. Please be aware that our records are not exhaustive for events that happen to British subjects overseas, as we are not automatically notified.

The General Register Office also provides a service called Traceline, a facility for re-establishing contact with a family member or friend.

The ability to order and collect a certificate in person at the Family Records Centre is being withdrawn from the end of October 2007. A request has been made to provide a collect service at Southport and review of this service has taken place.

It has now been announced that a collect service will be made available at our
Southport office for customers wishing to make a collection in person for pre-ordered birth, death, marriage, civil partnership, adoption and overseas certificates.

The ability to order a certificate using the Southport collect service will be introduced on Monday 29th October 2007. Certificates can be collected from Tuesday 30th October at the reception area of the General Register Office, Trafalgar Road, Southport, Merseyside. PR8 2HH.

The collect in person service will be available to Registration Online* (ROLO) account customers and those
customers who order by telephone and post.

* Please note, civil partnership certificates are not available to order online.

A further review of this service is scheduled for March 2008.

Registration Services - ONLINE Certificate Ordering Service