BMDs - Finding the Right One and Getting Copies
For England & Wales almost all the BMD records between 1837 and around 1917 can now be searched for free via the web at http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/ . The original index books can be searched for free at the Family Records Centre in Islington, London until 2008. [Some time that year the FRC will close and the records moved to Kew - but the original books will no longer be available to the public.]
For this reason the lists of BMD entries found by earlier manual searches have been removed from this web page.
The records for Scotland are searchable on-line at Scotlands People and by personal visitors in Edinburgh.
Certificates currently cost 7 pounds sterling (or about $10 US) if applied for in person at the FRC (only until 2008) but more if order by post from the national register. However it may be easier to order from a local register office. Also note that there are differences that have been found between the national index and local records - probably through mistakes with hand written entries.
You can now search a small, but useful, number of local registers via the latest multi-region search at http://www.ukbmdsearch.org.uk/
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