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Birth, Marriage, Death RecordsMegan

Genealogy Search Engines, Internet and Genealogy


There are many websites worldwide you can explore Birth, Marriage, and Death Records.  Click on a link to start searching for your ancestors today.





Australia

  • Ancestry is a fee-based genealogy website that holds Australian BDM indexes.
  • Australasia Births, Deaths, Marriages Exchange – this site based in Australia lists people able to look-up repositories they have access to for others who are unable to attend that location.
  • Australian Capital Territory – birth records prior to 1918 listed in NSW; Marriage Records and Death Records in PDF form.
  • Child Migrants Trust – this site assists children sent by the British Government, from the 1940’s-1970’s, to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Rhodesia to connect with their birth families.
  • Find My Past is a fee-based genealogy website that holds Australian BDM indexes.
  • New South Wales – Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages – index search is free but it will cost to purchase a certificate.
  • Northern Territory – there is not currently an online index for NT however, from 1856-1863 is listed in NSW and 1863-1870 is listed in SA.  For a fee, they can be found on Find My Past.
  • Queensland – Births, Deaths and Marriages –  index search is free but it will cost to purchase a certificate.
  • South Australia – there is not an online index for SA BDM, however, the SA Archives has searchable records and for a fee, Find My Past.
  • Tasmania – Births, Deaths and Marriages currently do not have an online index but once you have searched Linc Tas you can purchase a certificate through the Births, Deaths and Marriages website.
  • Victoria – Births, Deaths and Marriages –  index search is free but it will cost to purchase a certificate.
  • Western Australia – Births, Deaths and Marriages –  index search is free but it will cost to purchase a certificate.

Canada

  • Canadian Roots UK – this site is for British children born to Canadian fathers during WWII to trace them.
  • Child Migrants Trust – this site assists children sent by the British Government, from the 1940’s-1970’s, to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Rhodesia to connect with their birth families.

England

  • The Foundling Museum – if you had an ancestor who spent any time in The Foundling Hospital, London you can search here for information.

Ancestry - 14 Days Free



 Ireland and Northern Ireland



New Zealand

  • Child Migrants Trust – this site assists children sent by the British Government, from the 1940’s-1970’s, to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Rhodesia to connect with their birth families.

Rhodesia

  • Child Migrants Trust – this site assists children sent by the British Government, from the 1940’s-1970’s, to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Rhodesia to connect with their birth families.

Scotland

  • Adoption Contact Register – this is the first point of contact for searching for adoption records or making contact with relatives in Scotland.
  • National Records of Scotland – the official site in Scotland to order BDM Certificates.
  • Quarriers Homes – the current Quarriers Homes, Scotland website has a genealogy service for assistance tracing ancestors who may have stayed here as children from the 1870’s onwards.
  • Scotland BDM Exchange – offers links to people in Scotland who are able to share information contained within a certificate you require.
  • Scotlands People – you will need to register to use this service.  Searching is free but you can purchase credits to use to get the images.  I have found this to be a very cost-effective service compared to accessing similar records in Australia.


United Kingdom

  • Adoption Search Reunion – this is the first point of contact for searching for adoption records or making contact with relatives.
  • Ancestry – is a fee-based genealogy website that holds many UK BDM indexes.
  • Certificate Exchange – sometimes you have certificates that are of no use to you but may well be for others.  This website provides a free service for people who wish to offer unwanted BMD certificates or exchange of information of content of same.  Listings are free but registration is required to access this service.
  • Child Migrants Trust – this site assists children sent by the British Government, from the 1940’s-1970’s, to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Rhodesia to connect with their birth families.
  • Find My Past – fee-based service that gives you access to billions of records
  • Free BMD – this is a major project currently being undertaken by genealogists worldwide who are transcribing BMD records.  The aim is to make all Civil Registration indexes for England and Wales for the period 1837-1983 available for free searching.  This is obviously a mammoth task and it is advisable to check back regularly to see if your record has become available.
  • Free REG – in a similar vein to Free BMD this project is currently indexing parish and nonconformist registers of baptisms, marriages and burials.  They are working on the period from 1538 to 1837 when civil registration took over from the church.
  • General Register Office (GRO) – the GRO holds records for England and Wales so after you have established the correct record you can order the certificate from them for a fee.  Always order your English and Welsh original certificates through the GRO.
  • Look Up Exchange – offers links to people in particular regions who are prepared to do a local lookup of a record for others unable to attend a local repository.
  • The Historic Stillbirth Register – this ongoing project is transcribing thousands of parish records from England and Wales to cover stillbirths from 1551-2005.  This is a downloadable PDF or .xls file for a small fee.
  • The Official Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial BMDs Service – a collection of Nonconformist records for England and Wales including Presbyterians, Quakers, Methodists, amongst others.
  • UK Birth-Adoption Register – this site allows you to register an interest in an adoption after paying a registration fee.
  • UK Births Marriages, Deaths, and Censuses on the Internet – consult this site to find which registration offices have placed their indexes online.

Worldwide

  • Family Search – The International Genealogical Index (IGI) created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has the most comprehensive parish record listing online, although it is far from complete.
  • Guild of One-Name Studies – this site allows people to search and register an interest of specific surnames.
  • Medieval Names Archive – this site gives the origins of first and surnames from many ethnicities around the world.