Torbay Council

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Family Tree Research

Tracing your family tree is becoming an increasingly popular pass time that can lead you to a greater understanding of your ancestors and the lives they lived. It is a challenging and rewarding hobby but it can be difficult to know where to begin.
Civil registration of births, deaths and marriages began in England and Wales in July 1837.
Here at Torbay Register Office, we recieve enquiries from all over the world from many different types of people  There are those who want to trace their family tree as a leisure activity to those who are deperate to track down missing family members and fill in the gaps in their pasts. Whilst we are not able to provide all the answers , we do aim to assist you as much as possible,

Where do I begin?

  1. The first step is to gather all the information you can from relatives, names, dates, addresses, ancestor's religions, any documents such as wills, family bibles, newspaper cuttings, birth, death and marriage certificates.
  2. The next step is to draw up a preliminary family tree, which should show you at a glance what information is missing Then work backwards using information known already about relatives.
  3. If for example you know where and when your grandmother was born, you can apply for her birth certificate which will give you her parents full names and her mothers maiden name.  The next step would then be to find her parents marriage certificate.  A good place to start this search is the Directgov: Registering Life Events opens in a new window website.

How do I obtain a certificate?

To obtain a certificate you need to apply to the register office for the district in which the event took place.
(Please note that the Torbay Register Office only has records for its own district and not for neighbouring authorities. We do, however, hold contact numbers and addresses for all the register offices in England and Wales.)

Cost of Certificates

See our fees and charges for current pricing. Please note that some districts may charge an additional fee for postage or priority service.

How can I display my family tree?

After all your hard work and research, why not display your famiy tree on one of our family tree scrolls.  They are available from this office priced £6.00 each.
Contact us for further information.



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