Tracing your family tree

Civil registration of all births, deaths and marriages in England and Wales was introduced on 1 July 1837. Civil registration of civil partnerships was introduced on 5 December 2005.

Each time a birth, death, marriage or civil partnership takes place a certificate is issued to record the event.

However, prior to 1875 records held by Register Offices may be incomplete as many people didn’t bother with registration until strict penalties for non-registration were introduced in that year. You may have to look at local sources such as parish registers in the county record office.

If you wish to obtain a certified copy of a birth, death, marriage or civil partnership entry for an event that took place within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea on or after 1 July 1837 then you may apply directly to the Kensington and Chelsea Register Office.

Although our staff will try their hardest to locate the entry, all of our searches have to be done manually, and we cannot always guarantee to find the record you are looking for. For details, see the Applying for a certificate page.

Alternatively, if you have a GRO index reference, or have been unable to locate a certificate, then we recommend that you apply to the General Register Office (GRO) as they can guarantee to provide you with a certificate.

For further information on applying for a certificate please see the DirectGov website.