Open access to registers of Birth, Marriage and Death from 1837 to 1908

Helping celebrate Genealogy Gripe Week

A long time gripe of many a genealogist is the cost of obtaining full information on civil registrations of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales. To obtain the information you have no option but to buy a certified copy of the certificate. Most of us just want the information, not a certificate.

Now there's a petition to open the civil registration records under the 100 year rule. It reads:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to allow full and open access to registers of Birth, Marriage and Death from 1837 to 1908.

The further explanation reads "Having full and open access to the registers of births, marriages and deaths from 1837 to 1908 will make it easier for genealogists to research the records and ensure they get the copies they require. If copies were put on the internet this would simplify the process. These records are over a hundred years old and should now be accessible to all with a small fee to cover the cost of copying the originals.|

The petition, which may be signed online by British residents and expats, already has over 650 signatures. If you qualify please consider signing the petition, but don't expect any fast action.

Find the petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/OpenBMDrecords/

Also on England and Wales BMDs, FreeBMD updated their database on 30 January - now with an amazing 162,001,022 distinct records and working on index entries for the 1930s.