Births, Deaths, Marriage records

Birth, Death and Marriage (BDM) records are a great way to start tracing your family history. They can provide you with information to make it easier for you to search for your family history. For example you can find out the maiden names of your female ancestors. A listing of occupation may also be found on a BDM certificate opening up the possibility of searching union or employment records.

To conduct a search of the BDM indexes first think of all the names you know, the year your family members were born, married or died and where they were from. These facts are great starting points for searching the BDM indexes and will add to the information that you already know about your family.

Where to find Birth, Death & Marriage indexes

Many libraries and family history societies have copies of BDM indexes on microfiche and/or on CD-ROM and some are available via the Internet. Anyone can use these indexes and the library or family history society staff will be able to help you with your search.

For more information see:

Fact Sheet 4: Births, Deaths and Marriages Indexes

Fact Sheet 5: Births, Deaths and Marriages Certificates

Unable to find a BDM record?

If no record can be found in the BDM indexes, you may like to consider the following records which may help in finding out about a place or date of birth, death or marriage