Death records 1796-2006

Search for your ancestors' death records in the following record collections. You can also search these records separately to narrow down your search:

About the death records

When you search the death records, you will be presented with a list of individual names. This means you should be able to tell if your ancestor is in the list just by viewing their name - although we always advise you to double check the original image, especially the volume and page numbers, before you order any certificates.

Here are some of the benefits of our death records:

  • The ability to search for a name and get straight to your ancestor, rather than searching through whole pages
  • Completely new, high quality images
  • Smart search features, including name variants
  • Clever search results to get around the quirks of the records, including the GRO's procedure of initialising second names

The birth, marriage and death records from 1984 onwards were recorded in a computer database only so there is no original image for records post-1984.

Can't find who you're looking for? Try reading our experts' advice section for helpful tips on searching these records.

Do you have Irish ancestors? Search for them in our Irish birth, marriage and death records

How to search the death records

We only need the last name of an ancestor to start searching these records for you. This is the only required piece of information, everything else is optional.

It's always best to start searching with basic information, like your ancestor's first and last name. If there are too many results, you can refine your search and add more detail.

You can click the 'refine search' button on the search results page to return to this search box and add more information.

If you know when your ancestor was born

It's best to start with basic information, but if you know roughly when your ancestor was born you could use this to narrow down your search results.

You can enter a year of birth in the box shown below. Use the '+/- years' box to the right of the year to choose how many years either side of this date of birth you'd like to search.

Year of birth field in findmypast.co.uk's death records search

Findmypast will show you records that list the year of birth you've entered, plus any matching records that have no birth year recorded.

What a death record will tell you

  • Your ancestor's name
  • The place, year and quarter in which the death was registered
  • Most will include your ancestor's age at death or date of birth
  • Volume and page numbers that can be used to order a copy of your ancestor's death certificate

Can't find who you're looking for?

  • Try leaving the 'county' field blank. Your ancestor may not have died in the place you would expect, so you could be excluding relevant results.
  • Don't select a year range, or make the year range wider. The year you think your ancestor died may not be accurate, so you could be excluding relevant results.
  • Keep the 'include variants' boxes underneath the name fields ticked. This means your search results will include spelling variations of the names you've entered.
  • If your ancestor's name could be easily misspelled, try using a wildcard search. Just use a * symbol in place of a letter or multiple letters. For example, instead of searching for Jennings you could search for Je*ngs or *enning*.