Certificates - birth, death, marriage and civil partnership

Apply online for a certificate

Use our online system to buy a certificate quickly and easily 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

We can only supply certificates for records held by our registration office. We do not hold records for the City of York, the Leeds or Bradford areas, Airedale Hospital or James Cook Hospital. You must apply directly to these registration services for these records.

Civil registration did not start until 1 July 1837, therefore no records are held before that date. View the frequently asked questions below to find out more about earlier records.

Boundary changes over the years mean some towns and villages close to our boundary have changed districts. If you are not sure where the record you need is held, you can check here to decide where to apply. For people who have been adopted, to apply for a certificate you must contact the General Register Office.

We cannot issue any certificates for weddings that took place in a church until after the document has been received from the clergy and has been processed on the digital system, this includes any priority requests.

Fees

You can view registration service fees here.

Certificate searches service

If you are unable to give enough information for us to issue a certificate we may be able to undertake a search. There will be a fee for this search. Please contact us.

Frequently asked questions

Are there other ways to apply for a certificate?

The quickest and easiest way to apply is to use our online service that is available 24 hours a day.

Apply for a certificate

General email applications will not be accepted.

Apply in writing by post

You can apply in writing to the address below by printing out and completing one of these application forms.

See the registration service fees page for the cost of ordering certificates

Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to North Yorkshire Council.

Send completed forms plus the correct fee to:

Certificate Services
County Register Office
Bilton House
31 Park Parade
Harrogate
North Yorkshire
HG1 5AG

Apply by telephone

If you are unable to use the online order system, please contact us.

How long will it take for my order to be processed?

Turnaround depends upon you supplying sufficient and correct information. We aim to deal with all requests for certificates within five working days. If we have difficulty finding your entry in the register, we will contact you to check details.

If you are applying for a marriage certificate for a recent ceremony at a church, then you must allow an additional 7 days for us to enter the details in the national system. This 7 day period starts on the day we receive the properly completed and signed schedule.

Standard certificate

Certificates will be despatched within five working days and sent to you by second class post.

Priority certificate

Orders received before 3pm are dealt with on the same day and sent by first class post. Priority certificate requests received after 3pm will be dealt with on the next working day. Please note: once the certificate has been sent from our office, it is the responsibility of Royal Mail to meet their delivery target and standard of next working day delivery for 1st Class post.

You will receive an email when the certificate is despatched from the office.

If we are unable to supply your certificate for any reason you will be contacted, by email where possible, for further information. If we are still unable to locate the entry, your fee will be refunded.

Can I collect the certificate from a local office?

Personal collection is only available from the Harrogate office and not any of our other offices.

See the location, opening hours and other details for Harrogate register office

Where do I find records for births, deaths and marriages before 1 July 1837?

For events before 1 July 1837 please contact our county record office who may be able to provide baptismal, marriage or burial records. Contact us.

Staff at the county record office also carry out genealogical research in the records on your behalf. Research can be ordered through the Record Office online shop, where you can also browse and buy from a selection of historic maps and photographs of the county.

Why can't you find an entry for a birth, marriage or death in the register?

These are the most common reasons for not locating an entry in the register:

Incorrect dates and surnames. If this is the case we will contact you.
The area has changed. Although we hold all the records for North Yorkshire, there have been several boundary changes since 1837. In particular some records for Tadcaster are known to be held at York or Leeds. If we think this applies to your application we will suggest offices to which you should apply.
The General Register Office index (St. Catherine's), which confirms the name, registration district and the year and quarter, is not sufficiently precise to enable us to find the entry in our registers.
It is not possible for us to search through every single index to find a marriage entry. We will always look in the index for the register office and one or two most likely churches. To narrow a search down it would be helpful (if you are unsure of the name of the church) if you could tell us the name of the village where the church is and the possible religion of the couple.
The event may be pre-registration or not registered at all.

What are the terms and conditions for online certificate applications?

The North Yorkshire registration service can only supply certificates for birth, death, marriage and civil partnerships from records held by the registration service. Certificates for events outside the North Yorkshire registration district should be ordered from the register office in the appropriate district.

Item	Details
Certificate description	Certified copies of birth, death, marriage and civil partnership entries. A certificate will be supplied that is a copy from an original register or record held by the registration service of North Yorkshire Council from July 1837 onwards. The certificate may be printed, photocopied or handwritten depending on the format of the original entry. It will show all the details recorded in the entry unless the quality of the writing is indecipherable, when in addition to the certificate we will also provide a photocopy of the entry.
Orders	Orders may be placed using our online service or in writing, by personal caller or by telephone to the County Register Office in Harrogate.
Payment	In all cases full payment is required at the time of placing your order.
Contact details	You will need to provide a daytime phone number and also preferably an email address with your request. We will contact you if we are unable to find the entry. We are unable to make telephone calls to destinations outside of the UK.
Standard certificate	The application will be processed within five working days and, unless collected from the Harrogate Register Office, will be sent out by second class Royal Mail post.
Priority certificate	Orders for priority certificates received before 3pm Monday to Friday, excluding public / bank holidays, will be processed that day and will be sent by first class Royal Mail post. Priority certificate orders received after 3pm will be processed on the next working day.
Refunds	North Yorkshire Council will refund the full cost of the certificate in the following circumstances, where: the record is not held by our register office the record is in the adopted children's register (held by the General Register Office) the register entry does not match the information which you supplied on the application form and we are unable to supply the correct record (in these cases we require any issued certificate to be returned to us before we refund the fee) When a certificate is issued which matches the information given by the applicant we will not provide a refund.
Cancellations	Once an order has been made it cannot be cancelled or a refund given unless one of the above three circumstances applies.
Lost items	North Yorkshire Council registration service cannot accept liability for items lost by Royal Mail. If you have not received your certificate within 15 working days of your request, you will need to apply and pay for a replacement certificate.