The General Register Office (GRO)
The General Register Office (GRO) was established on 1 July 1837 to register births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales and provide statistical information on them. The GRO established a network of local register offices, working through the newly-created poor law unions. There was no legal penalty for non-registration until 1878, and so there are deficiencies in the registers before that date.
The GRO webpages can be accessed by visiting the following website www.direct.gov.uk/gro
England and Wales
The indexes to births, marriages and deaths from 1837 are available on the GRO website, which also provides an online service for ordering certificates of entries in the registers. Copies of certificates can also be purchased directly from the Certificate Services Section, General Register Office, PO Box 2, Southport, PR8 2JD, tel. 0845 603 7788.
The indexes to civil registration can also be consulted at The National Archives, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU, telephone 0208 876 3444,
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Many local libraries, record offices and family history societies hold microfilm copies of the civil registration indexes, and a list of such bodies can be found on the GRO website.
Doncaster Area
The Doncaster Register office is located at Elmfield Park, Doncaster, DN1 2EB, telephone 01302 364922. E-mail address is
registrars@doncaster.gov.uk. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 8.45 to 16.00. Its registers date from 1837 to the present. Researchers may consult the indexes (not the original registers), but should make an appointment to do this. The current fee (November 2009) for a search of up to 6 hours is £18.00. A certificate of birth, marriage or death can be supplied from the registers for a fee of £7.00.
Indexes to the civil register of births, marriages and deaths are available at the Doncaster and District FHS Palgrave Research Room (charge to non-members), Sheffield Archives, Lincolnshire Archives, Hull Central Library and Leeds Central Library.
