When searching for marriages in the BMD Index, there's a technique you can use to identify the spouse in the pre-1912 marriage indexes. In the FreeBMD index, all you have to do is click on the hyperlinked reference link to view the other names appearing on the same page. If you already know the spouse's name, finding his or her name on that page will help you confirm that you have found the correct index reference. If you don't know the spouse's name, you can use this to help narrow down the potential candidates. When viewing actual index images, you'll need to search the pages for both surnames (look for the more uncommon one first) to see if they appear on the same reference page. This, of course, means you'll need to know at least the spouse's last name. Of course, by ordering a copy of the actual marriage certificate, you'll be able to confirm the names of both parties in the marriage.

Once you've located the reference to your ancestor's birth, death, or marriage from the GRO Index, you can easily order a copy of the original certificate online through the GRO's certificate-ordering service (www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates). Online fees for this service are comparable to what you would pay in person at the Family Records Centre in London or through the local register office. You'll need a valid credit or debit card to use this service.

Civil registration in Scotland began on January 1, 1855, and returns are kept at the New Register House in Edinburgh. The previously discussed ScotlandsPeople website (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) offers an index and online images of the original registers of births more than 100 years old, marriage records more than 75 years old, and records of deaths more than 50 years old. The best part about this service is that you don't have to wait for the certificate to arrive — you can view digitized versions of the actual handwritten register images online. Certificates of more recent births, marriages, and deaths have to be ordered directly from the General Register Office of Scotland (GROS) (www.gro-scotland.gov.uk). Disappointingly, this site doesn't yet offer online ordering, but it does include directions for ordering a certificate in person, by mail, or by telephone. For free research in Scotland civil registration records, the International Genealogical Index (IGI) at FamilySearch, previously discussed in Chapter 4, includes entries from the first twenty years of births and marriages recorded under Scottish civil registration (1855 to 1875). If you do find your ancestor in this database, you may want to confirm the entry by ordering a copy of the actual certificate.

Official registration of births, marriages, and deaths in Ireland began in 1864, although state registration of marriages for non-Roman Catholics began earlier, in 1845. The civil registration index is arranged alphabetically by year until 1877, after which each year was divided into quarters as in England and Wales. FamilySearch.org (www.familysearch.org) offers free online access to the civil registration indexes for Ireland from the beginning of registration to 1958. Certificate copies can be ordered online through the General Register Office of Ireland (www.groireland.ie).

Emerald Ancestors (www.emeraldancestors.com) offers a variety of vital records databases containing extracts and records from civil registrations for Counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone. Monthly and annual subscription-based access is available.

Births, Marriages, and Deaths in Parish Records

Before the recording of births, marriages, and deaths in the British Isles became a civil issue, such vital events were recorded by individual parishes in the form of baptisms, marriages, banns, and funerals. The earliest date you'll generally find such parish registers in England and Wales is 1538, although many churches did not begin keeping records until 1558 or later. The recording of parish registers in Scotland, Ireland, and the rest of the British Isles began around the same time. After 1598 in England and Wales, a copy of the prior year's register for each parish was also forwarded to the bishop of the diocese. Known as Bishops' transcripts, these copies provide a second record of the valuable parish registers, and may have survived when the parish register has not.

The FreeREG site (http://freereg.rootsweb.com), a companion to the previously discussed FreeCEN and FreeBMD, offers free Internet access to baptism, marriage, and burial records that have been transcribed by volunteers from parish and nonconformist registers of the United Kingdom. Another free alternative for parish records is the International Genealogical Index (IGI) at FamilySearch, which includes information collected and transcribed from parish registers from the British Isles by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both sources offer a good avenue for locating information from parish registers online, but because they are transcriptions you may want to check the information you find against the original parish register (or a microfilm or digital copy of the original) to verify that it has been accurately transcribed. Subscription-based access to many UK parish registers is available through Ancestry.com and FindMyPast.com. FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org) is also continuously adding new free collections of online parish registers and Bishops' transcripts for England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.

In addition to the previously mentioned census and civil registration records, ScotlandsPeople also offers access to births, baptisms, banns, and marriages from old parish registers of Scotland from 1553 to 1854. The Emerald Ancestors site, previously discussed for Irish vital records, offers entries from a selection of parish registers for the period 1796 to 1924.