Guidance Notes - Standard Certificates

This is a full copy of the entry.

Postal Applications

If you apply by post please complete the form and enclose a stamped addressed envelope and the appropriate fee in sterling drawn on a British Bank Sorting Code. Certificates cost £7.00 each. All remittances should be made payable to Superintendent Registrar and cheques should be crossed "/&Co/".

All certificates for the County of Durham Registration District are issued from a central point at Bishop Auckland Register Office.

Please do not send cash.

The application form, cheque and stamped addressed envelope should be sent to:

The Register Office
Cockton House
35 Cockton Hill Road
Bishop Auckland
Co Durham DL14 6HS
UK
Telephone: 01388 607277 or 01388 603404 (In UK), +44 1388 607277 or +44 1388 603404 (Outside UK)

Please do not use the form for making applications to the Registrar General.

Searches of Indexes

The Registration Service does not have the staff to undertake searches of an indefinite or protracted nature. Usually a search in the index, covering a period not exceeding 5 years, will be made but only where accurate details have been given of the registration. If a wider search is required it is necessary for the applicant or someone on his/her behalf to make a general search in the indexes. For further information see below and then make enquiries to Bishop Auckland Register Office.

General Searches at a Register Office

The indexes held at Bishop Auckland Register Office office relate only to births, marriages and deaths which occurred within the existing boundaries of County Durham.

A general search is a search in the indexes conducted in person by the applicant or someone on his/her behalf during any number of successive hours not exceeding six. By arrangement with the Register Office a person making a general search may have access to the indexes to the registers of births, marriages and deaths but not to the registers themselves. A certificate of any entry identified may be obtained on completion of an application form and on payment of the appropriate fee.

If a person making a general search is uncertain whether a reference found in the indexes relates to the entry for which he/she is searching, the Register Office, on being given definite details by which the entry may be identified, may verify those particulars by reference to the register. Any additional information from the entry can only be made available in the form of a certificate.

Information about Adoption Certificates

Records of adoptions in England and Wales are held by the Registrar General. These relate to persons who have been adopted since 1 January 1927 under the Adoption Acts. A standard certificate is a full copy of the entry in the Adopted Children Register which, instead of particulars of parentage and birth registration, gives the date of birth (if known) and particulars of the adoption and adoptive parents. A short certificate shows only the name and bears no reference to adoption. Applications for Adoptions Certificates should be made in writing to:

Adoptions Section
Office for National Statistics
Smedley Hydro
Birkdale
Southport
PR8 2HH
UK
Tel. 0151 4714830
Please do not use this form for that purpose.