Tracing Family History
Getting Started
There are many ways you can get started in searching your family history. You can look at your parent’s birth certificates to locate the family names of your father and mother. A marriage certificate would be better as this shows not only the couples’ names, but the names of the fathers and their professions. Older generations of family are a great source of information, as are old photographs, diaries, newspaper cuttings and any family archives.
General Register Office
General Register Office, PO Box 2, Southport PR8 2JD Tel:0870 2437788
The General Register Office (GRO) is responsible for ensuring registration information is collected, and maintains a central archive facility. It is responsible for all online, telephone and postal enquires.
Family Records Centre
1 Myddleton Street, London EC1R 1UW Tel: 0870 2437788
The Family Records Centre provides access to indexes of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales from 1837. It also holds indexes of some births, marriages and deaths of British Nationals and British Armed Forces, which took place abroad, from the late 18th Century including both World Wars.
The Public Record Office at the Family Records Centre holds
- census returns for England and Wales (1841-1891)
- Wills and administrations from the PCC up to 1858
- Death Duty Registers (1796 – 1858) and indexes (1796 – 1903)
- Records of nonconformist births, baptisms and burials (mainly pre1837) and marriages (mainly pre 1754)
- Miscellaneous foreign returns of births, deaths and marriages from 1627 to 1960
Berkshire Records Office
9 Coley Avenue, Reading RG1 6AF Tel:01189 015132
The Berkshire Records Office (BRO) holds various records including baptism, marriage and burial registers from the 16th century onwards for most Berkshire parishes and copies of some registers for the Slough area. They also hold GRO indexes for 1837 to 1997.
Please contact the BRO using the details on the right for any specific details.
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