Some information can only be found on Birth, Marriage and Death certificates.

Always use the official government website for this (link below) as other sites will charge you extra to do the same job and apply for them for you!

Civil registration was introduced in 1837.

So unfortunately if you are looking for a date before then you cannot order a civil certificate.

 

The Birth Certificate will give you the correct date of birth, full name, place where registered, parents names (including mothers maiden name),fathers occupation, residence of informant(although this seems to be rarely recorded) and sex of child.

 

The Marriage Certificate gives you the full names of the bride and groom, their condition to marry ie Widow, Spinster, their addresses at time of marriage, their occupations, and their fathers names and occupations.

 

A Death Certificate gives you the cause and date of death, where it happened and the name and address of the informant.

 

It is cheaper now to order certificates if you find out first from the FreeBMD (http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/)website the area, page number, year and Quarter*  that you are looking for by checking their search engine. 

 

*A Quarter is the quarter of the year that it is registered

Jan to March - March Quarter

April to June - June Quarter

July to September - September Quarter

October to December - December Quarter