In my quest for understanding how the registration of marriages works and thanks Sherry that explanation was spot on, its printed out and put at the front of my file, I found the following free index website. http://www.thbmd.co.uk/search.php Its the Tower Hamlets birth death and marriage site where they have indexed from their own copies and books. Its not complete and no never found granddad BUT one thing it does do is match the spouses which is the thing I find most annoying about other indices. It covers the areas WHITECHAPEL, PARTS OF ALDGATE, MILE END, BETHNAL GREEN, ST GEORGE IN SOUTH, POPLAR and some other areas. It tells you what it covers and I think you can contact, which I am going to over my granddad, well if you don't try you never know! I hope some of you may find this helpful who have relatives from around this area. Kind Regards and thanks again for the helpful advise Debbie Bozkurt dry Outer Hebrides