What is the marriages index?
- The marriages index is an index to the marriages registers that have been produced since
compulsory civil registration of marriages began in England and
Wales on 1st July 1837 (although penalties for non-registration were not
introduced until 1875)
- The index is maintained by the General
Register Office (GRO)
- The marriages registers themselves are not available to the public but
anyone can inspect the index to the registers
- The details given in the marriages index may be helpful in themselves but
they are usually used to find the details necessary for ordering a copy of a
marriage certificate
- In particular, the marriages index gives you the 'GRO index reference' for
each marriage. The 'GRO index reference' consists of the details given in the
volume and page columns for each marriage entry
- There is an explanation of the indexes at the DirectGov site in the
section 'Using
the General Register Office to research family history' pages on the General Register Office web site
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Page last updated: 15th September 2011
