Obtaining certificates
- How to apply for a birth, death, marriage or civil partnership certificate
- Information required
- Fees and postage
- Beware of exorbitant certificate costs
How to apply for a birth, death or marriage certificate
The Nottinghamshire Registration Service is split up into 5 different Registration Districts, each holding their own local records. For this reason and because boundaries have changed several times over the years, it is often advisable to make a telephone enquiry to establish which Register Office may hold the record you seek.
To obtain a certified copy of a register entry, applications can be made either by personal attendance at, or in writing to, the appropriate Register Office.
A written application may be in the form of a simple letter or, alternatively, the appropriate application form can be downloaded from the following links
- birth certificate application form
- marriage certificate application form
- death certificate application form
- civil partnership application form
Personal callers at the Register Office are normally able to receive their certificate while they wait. Certificates applied for by post are usually sent out on the day of receipt or on the following day. This may vary depending on the level of information supplied.
It is important to remember that, for a number of reasons, applications for certified copies of older records do often take longer to search. Consequently, it is not always possible to meet the same timescale as for more modern records.
For information about obtaining a birth certificate for an adopted person, please contact us.
Information required
Applicants for certified copies of register entries must be able to provide the following details:
- the full names and surname of the person whose certificate is required (no search can be undertaken without this information)
- the date and place of the event (in the case of a religious marriage, this should include the actual building/church)
- any other names, such as a maiden name, where relevant.
Fees and postage
A short birth certificate, showing a person’s name and date of birth only, is £5.50.
All other birth, death and marriage certificates issued by the Superintendent Registrar are £7.00.
Certificates from very recent registrations will be available from the appropriate Registrar at a fee of £3.50. Please contact the relevant Register Office for advice on where to apply.
Postal applications
Cheques or postal orders should be in pounds sterling and made payable to “Superintendent Registrar”. Please write your cheque guarantee card number and full postal address on the reverse.
If applying for more than one certificate (particularly from older records) it is advisable to send a separate cheque/postal order for each certificate, in case it is not possible to locate all the entries required.
Please also enclose a stamped addressed envelope.
Beware of exorbitant certificate costs
Warning! Beware of purchasing expensive certificates via the internet
A number of websites are offering customers the chance to buy certificates which range in price from £19 to £60. However, the register office physically producing that actual certificate only charges the statutory fee of £7.
Obtaining a certificate from the relevant register office is a straightforward process and is usually fairly quick, often while you wait or within a day or two by post.
In order to read the documents linked from this page you will need Word (for doc 
format) or Adobe Acrobat reader (for pdf format). You can download these free of charge by going to plug-ins and viewers
Useful information on pdf files and their accessibility is available at: http://access.adobe.com
